Maine FEMA Flood Maps | Insurance Paid Due To Inaccurate Maps

The Maine waterfront property you dream of owning, that suddenly the inaccurate FEMA flood insurance maps show you have a big problem.

Being in the Maine watefront flood zone, needing insurance based on a map that is obvious wrong is no fun. How does it happen? What do you do about it when your property is so so NOT in the flood plain zone?

The maps FEMA uses as gospel for flood insurance.

What determines the yea or nay flood plain designation your Maine waterfront property gets saddled with is based on old old maps. 

And maybe the scale in remote areas was too large to pin point your 100' of frontage on that Maine waterfront.

Plus when FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has restricted funding, other fish to fry in more populated areas than rural Maine, well, can you say low priority?

Sure you can. I knew you could.

More about FEMA, flood hazard maps, insurance. 

So, annual Federal waterfront flood insurance premiums. That you would like to use that money for anything else but flood insurance. How do you stop the expense? When the bank that's financing your Maine waterfront property relays the bad news. If your Maine real estate broker has not already warned you going in. That you are going to need a local surveyor. The appraiser for the waterfront property in Maine is also going to alert the bank about the flood plain map finding. Usually no getting around it without that local Maine land surveyor to file for an exception.

It's bad enough to have to pay a flood insurance premium when a simple observation of the Maine waterfront land shows the descrepancy.  But think about a big, substantial increase in federal flood insurance premiums on top of it all. But that is another debate entirely.

Back to what do you do to get an exception from the FEMA flood map onus, the expensive spell, burdock tainting your waterfront property. The Maine land surveyor looks at the the 100 year flood plain, files for an exception from the flood plain designation. Letters of map revision (LOMRs), an individual who owns, rents, or leases property may submit certain mapping and survey information to FEMA.

To request that FEMA issue a document that officially removes a Maine waterfront property or structure from the flood insurance need. The flood zone that maps originally showed you were located in.   

Usually, the applicant needs to hire a licensed Maine land surveyor, or registered professional engineer to prepare an Elevation Certificate for the Maine property.

Upon receiving a complete application forms package, FEMA will normally complete its review and issue its determination in 4 to 6 weeks.

In my job as a Maine real estate broker, I usually see the expense for the local land survey and LOMR paperwork to cost around $700 for a typical area Maine waterfront cottage, camp, home or just lot of unimproved land.

But the removal from the flood plain hazard area designation, and the associate annual insurance premium is well worth it. 

If you live on a Maine lake, pond or own seasonal property on one, it is a good idea to check the FEMA maps.

To see if petitioning FEMA to revisit and correct the flood plain maps is needed. Getting on the list for review helps all the campers, property owners on the Maine waterfront. And as President of the Drews Lake Owners Association, I petitioned FEMA to do just that. Here is more on FAQ FEMA flood insurance information. While you are cracking the books, one more topic.  Shoreland zoning in Maine regulations good to bone up on too.

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207.532.6573   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   MOOERS REALTY  69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730

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