Help is Available if Flooding Requires You to Elevate Your Home

AURORA, Ill. – If your home or business is in an area that floods frequently and the building received substantial damage from flooding during the spring storms, local officials may require you to elevate, relocate, or demolish your structure to prevent future losses. 

This can be quite costly, but NFIP standard flood insurance policies will pay up to $30,000 of the eligible costs under the increased cost of compliance (ICC) coverage.

To qualify for ICC, the NFIP-insured structure must be located in a Special Flood Hazard Area and the cost to repair the structure must equal or exceed 50 percent of its market value prior to the flood damage. 

You may also qualify if your community has a more restrictive floodplain management ordinance provision that requires damaged buildings to be brought into compliance when the cost exceeds a threshold lower than 50 percent, or by calculating the cost to repair cumulatively over a period of time, for buildings that are damaged repetitively.

Options other than elevating do exist. The home or business can be moved to a higher elevation on the property or it can be demolished. In some instances, primarily with businesses, the structure can be flood proofed.

Claims for ICC benefits are filed separately from your claim for contents or building loss.

You will learn if you are eligible after you file for a building permit to repair the structure. A local building official will determine if your home or business is substantially or repetitively damaged. If either determination is made, contact the insurance company or agent who wrote your flood policy.

You will be assigned to a claims representative who will help you prepare your ICC claim. You will need estimates from contractors for elevating, relocating, demolishing or flood proofing the structure to accompany the claim.

You may receive a partial payment once the claims representative has a copy of the signed contract for the work, a building permit and a signed ICC Proof of Loss form.

When the work is completed, local officials will inspect the structure and issue a certificate of occupancy or a confirmation letter. Submit this document to your claims representative and the insurer will pay either the final installment or the full payment.

Buildings deemed historic structures are handled separately. Contact your local floodplain manager or building official for more information.

If you received flood damage, between April 16 and May 5, be sure to register for FEMA disaster assistance. The deadline to register is Wednesday, July 24. Several ways to register are available: online at www.disasterassistance.gov or via web-enabled phone at m.fema.gov. Applicants may also call 800-621-3362 or (TTY) 800-462-7585. People who use 711-Relay or Video Relay Services (VRS) can call 800-621-3362. For more information, visit the Illinois Disaster website www.fema.gov/disaster/4116.

Multilingual phone operators are available on the FEMA helpline. Choose Option 2 for Spanish and Option 3 for other languages.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Follow FEMA online at twitter.com/femaregion5, www.facebook.com/fema, and www.youtube.com/fema.  Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate’s activities at twitter.com/craigatfema. The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.

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