-Property and Structures
 

-Life of Loan Redetermination
 

-100% Guarenteed & Insured

While never intending to be a determination company, we have and will continue to provide this service for lenders who wish to provide their borrowers the highest level of accuracy regarding flood hazard determinations. Accordingly, we will always require sufficient information to allow a determination to be made on the insurable structure and not just any portion of the property. For positive determinations, we usually recommend the completion of a Flood Hazard Appraisal to obtain additional information to evaluate the potential for a successful appeal under FEMA's Letter of Map Change (LOMC) process. We firmly believe that if your structure is located within the federally designated SFHA and cannot qualify for a successful appeal, flood insurance coverage should be maintained. However, we also believe that if your structure can qualify for relief from the flood insurance purchase requirement using one of FEMA's appeal processes, you are entitled to obtain it. With flood insurance premiums running $500 to $700 per year on a typical home, the responsibility for providing an accurate flood hazard determination is acute.

Once a determination has been made, it only seems reasonable that should a subsequent determination be necessitated by a FIRM revision or modification of a loan, there should be no additional costs. Accordingly, we provide Life of Loan re-determinations.

Given the need for accuracy and the ramifications of being inaccurate, all determinations made by Knapp Associates are 100% guaranteed and insured.

What does a 100 % guarantee mean relative to determinations?

Determinations are guaranteed to be 100% accurate based upon the property and structure information provided and/or requested in then course of review and issuance of a determination. Determination accuracy is limited by the accuracy of the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It is important to remember that areas outside the mapped floodplain may be flood prone and areas within the designated floodplain may not be flood prone. This is why flood insurance is available community wide and not just in the designated floodplain areas as shown on the FIRM. However, it is the policy of Knapp Associates to recommend a full Flood Hazard Appraisal(FHA) prior to or when a positive determination is issued. It is also our policy to issue a disclosure notice with all positive determinations to inform property owners about potential map inaccuracies and federal appeals procedures available to reverse positive determinations thereby removing the mandatory flood insurance purchase requirement.