Key West The Newspaper

NEW FEDERAL FLOOD INSURANCE PREMIUM DISCOUNTS TO TAKE EFFECT
FOR POLICYHOLDERS IN UNINCORPORATED MONROE COUNTY

MARATHON – Beginning Oct. 1, 2016, residents and business owners in Unincorporated Monroe County became eligible for federal flood insurance discounts. These discounts are expected to result in more than $3.6 million in annual savings to the County’s 15,000 National Flood Insurance Program policyholders – an average of $233 per policy.

The discounts are due to the County’s active participation in the Community Rating System (CRS). This voluntary incentive program rewards communities that take actions – which exceeds the minimum standards required by the National Flood Insurance Program – to protect people and property from flooding.

Only 5 percent of the more than 22,000 communities in the National Flood Insurance Program participate in the CRS. Monroe County Assistant County Administrator Christine Hurley said the multi-year effort was worth it.

“The program has three big benefits,” Hurley said. “It makes Monroe County a safer place to live. It reduces the economic impact of flood hazards. And it saves our citizens millions on their flood insurance policy premiums.”

Discounts are expected to be 20 percent for most policyholders who reside in the highest risk areas of flooding in Unincorporated Monroe County and 5 percent is expected for most of the other policyholders who reside in less flooding prone areas. These discounts are based on Monroe County’s rating as a Class 6 Community. Ratings are on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the highest. They are based on a complex formula that assigns points for 19 possible actions that reduce flood risk.

The new premium discounts automatically will be included on NFIP renewal and new policies, beginning Oct. 1. They will be listed as a “CRS” discount. Contact your insurance agent to learn specifics about your policy.

The discounts will help to offset federal flood insurance premium increases. In April, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) implemented provisions of the Homeowners Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014. While this new law prevents skyrocketing rate increases that were part of the 2012 Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act, it still includes rate increases to deal with the National Flood Insurance Program’s debt of about $24 billion.

Unincorporated Monroe County became eligible to rejoin the CRS in November 2015, when it became in complete compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program. The County had been working diligently for years to address decades-old, impermissible downstairs enclosures in flood zones. This problem had led to the County’s ineligibility to continue participating in the federal discounts program.

This non-compliance issue, if not rectified, also would have led to exclusion from the NFIP. That would have made it difficult, if not impossible for property owners to get flood insurance on structures with federally backed mortgages. And federally backed mortgages require flood insurance for property in flood zones.

The private group Fair Insurance Rates for Monroe (FIRM) and the State Office of Floodplain Management in Tallahassee helped the County to navigate the NIFP issues and become eligible for the CRS program.

The County now is working on a multijurisdictional education and outreach plan with several Keys municipalities that will help improve all community participants’ ratings for future years, leading to larger discounts.

For more information about the NFIP’s CRS program, go to https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-community-rating-system.