Flood insurance refers to coverage for loss of property due to flooding. Usually the insurance companies would refer to some topographical maps that denote the flood prone areas. If the property’s lowest floor level would be below the average flood level line, the property owner would need to pay the premiums for collier county elevation certificates  flood insurance. This provision is for coverage in case of natural disaster of flooding. 

Role of FEMA:

Federal Emergency Management Authority performs detailed surveys and creates maps that would show the areas that could be affected due to flooding of rivers and some other water bodies. They prepare Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) and accordingly the property owners would be charged the insurance premiums.

Sometimes there could be many errors in the measurements due to incorrect interpretations; leading to unnecessary inclusion of some properties in the flood prone zones. This would make the property owners to pay the insurance premium even when their properties would be safe.

What is LOMA?

Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) is a procedure to request the government to exempt some property from flood insurance. FEMA has the authority to issue this LOMA. 

There are reputed service providers accessible online that arrange for the entire procedure of getting LOMA and thus their clients will not need to pay premiums for flood insurance. Thus the service providers would ultimately Reduce Flood Insurance for their clients.

Practical Requirement for exemption from flood insurance:

The team of experts would produce some technical data based on the practical inspection of the client’s property. It would be always advisable for the property owners to determine the special Flood Hazard Area and the subsequent level of flood indicated before construction. If the lowest structural floor of the property would be raised above the level of flood, the property can be declared safe and can be taken away from the surge map of FEMA. 

The Elevation Certificate would be the original document that the property owner would get at the time of purchase of the subsequent property. The expert team would investigate whether the actual elevation before construction would be further developed by the property owner to get the lowest structural floor above the potential flood level.

FEMA Elevation Certificate is a proof that the property has the required elevation to be safe from flooding. This certificate would be essential to remove the property from Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM). The team of experts would arrive at the site where the client’s property would be located. They would conduct a detailed study regarding the possibilities of removal of the subsequent property from the FIRM. Accordingly, they will discuss with the property owner.

If the lowest floor of the property would be practically above the demarked flood level by FEMA, the agency would help the client to get the Letter Of Map Amendment. Finally, the expert team would submit this to the subsequent insurance company and the flood insurance for the particular property would be eliminated. Thus the service would save a lot of money of their clients that could be spent on flood insurance.