How to find elevation certificate for auction property

Question

We are looking at a property in Santa Rosa County, that is in a high risk flood zone and being sold by auction.  I can't find any info about a elevation certificate so I can estimate that cost.  Any suggestions?

Dain Hungelmann · Answer

No prob not enough time. Well i see this post is from awhile ago. Just for reference sake, In Juneau when i got my flood insurance( I'm not to close to the water but live by a huge piece of ice on top of the mountain,) they just looked up what flood zone i was in and was able to write the policy@ @2100 a year.  My EC Cost me  $800 and my policy went down to $1100

Hope that helps you in the future.

Jennifer Ross · Answer

@Charles Kao That info was easy to find.  Hurricane Ivan hit there in 2004, and that changed things apparently.

@Parker Cox  Thank you.  I spoke with a second insurance agent in that area this afternoon who also said it wasn't possible for him to get me an accurate quote without the elevation certificate/survey.  He said that home was in a 9ft flood zone and that nothing below 9 feet would be covered in the event of flooding.  He thought flood insurance may be in the neighborhood of $5,000 - $7,000 per year (ouch!).  He didn't mention a $10 fee to quote though ;)

@John Thedford Thanks, I did check.  It was also recommended that I contact the mortgage holder to ask what they are paying for insurance.

@Bryan Wallace  Wonderful! Thank you!  I'll give them a call in the morning.  The auction starts on Friday, so probably not enough time to get an EC (we just found the house today).

The neighbor (down the street) is paying $3,200 per year.

John Thedford · Answer

You might check to see if the county has them on file. Depending upon the age of the structure some flood insurance is prohibitively expensive.

Parker Cox · Answer

@Jennifer Ross you actually shouldn't need an elevation certificate.  How did you determine that this was a high risk flood zone? To give you an idea of how to go about acquiring flood insurance--

if you reached out to me saying you were going to purchase a house and you wanted flood insurance--i would enter the address in the system on floodinsights.com which is where all existing FEMA elevation certificates are housed/databased.

It would then give me a "flood determination guide" that would be used on the NFIP website to determine your rating and cost.  The higher the risk the higher the cost.

Note as well, NFIP flood insurance only provides up to $250k in dwelling coverage which may or may not be enough to adequately cover your home--you can also pursue a private carrier which can get you excess coverage over the underlying NFIP 250k max.

In terms of an estimate, to my knowledge, there is no way to get pricing without going through the actually quoting process (which annoyingly costs $10 to quote).

But to give you an idea--minimum premium is $450/yr.  I have written policies because of severe flood risk that are north of $3000 annually.

Chances are if you have been informed of a flood risk you are $1500/year or above.

Also note that once you purchase flood insurance there is a 30day waiting period before the policy becomes active and in force to keep people from buying insurance the day before the storm of the century.

I hope that helps.  If you have any further questions, feel free to pm me, email or we could set up a call.

best of luck

Jennifer Ross · Answer

@Jeff B.  Being from CA, I hadn't either until talking with a Florida insurance agent today

Jeff B. · Answer

never heard of an elevation certificate myself

Jennifer Ross · Answer

@Andrew Krause Thank you.  I checked the link you sent.

I called a local insurance agent and was told they couldn't give me an accurate quote without the elevation cert.  Apparently those are done similar to home inspections and are an added cost for the homeowner (?)

Jennifer Ross · Answer

are those maps online?

How to find elevation certificate for auction property

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