Sandbridge Real Estate Net

Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act

Sandbridge property owners and property values will benefit from the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act passed by congress this week. This act will supercede the Biggert-Waters act of 2012.

THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT IS FROM AN ABC NEWS REPORT DATED 3/14/14.

President Barack Obama is set to sign into law a bipartisan bill relieving homeowners living in flood-prone neighborhoods from big increases in their insurance bills.

The legislation, which cleared Congress on Thursday, reverses much of a 2012 overhaul of the government’s much-criticized flood insurance program after angry homeowners facing sharp premium hikes protested.

The Senate’s 72-22 vote sent the House-drafted measure to Obama. White House officials said he’ll sign it.

The bill would scale back big flood insurance premium increases faced by hundreds of thousands of homeowners. The measure also would allow below-market insurance rates to be passed on to people buying homes in flood zones with taxpayer-subsidized policies…………….

……………. The legislation offers its greatest relief to owners of properties that were originally built to code but subsequently were found to be at greater flood risk. Such “grandfathered” homeowners currently benefit from below-market rates that are subsidized by other policyholders, and the new legislation would preserve that status and cap premium increases at 18 percent a year. The 2012 overhaul required premiums to increase to actuarially sound rates over five years and required extensive remapping.

Many homeowners faulted the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s implementation of the 2012 law. In some instances, homeowners from areas that had never been flooded were shocked and frightened by warnings of huge, unaffordable premium increases. The resulting uproar quickly got the attention of lawmakers and peppered them with complaints.

“In many cases, these are people with $100,000 homes that are getting (flood insurance) bills that are more than their mortgage payments,” said Rep. John Fleming, R-La. “You had certainly a significant number of people who were really going to be hurt seriously through no fault of their own.”

The top leaders of both parties came on board, overcoming resistance from defenders of the 2012 overhaul like House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, whose turf was trampled along the way.

“Members on both sides of the aisle and a broad geographic distribution got involved. And when you get enough members involved, it’s going to get the attention of the leadership, and that was a major factor,” said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 15th, 2014 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Buyers, Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.