Your home is now located in an AE flood zone and is moving to the X flood zone per the January 29, 2021 map change. So how will this affect your flood insurance policy?
A home in the X flood zone is eligible for the Preferred Risk Policy (PRP) rather than the standard flood policy. Thus your insurance company will cancel your existing standard policy and rewrite that policy as a Preferred Risk Policy. The FEMA Flood Insurance Manual states “The effective date of the request to … rewrite is the beginning of the policy term in which the map revision… occurred.” For example, your policy runs from June 4, 2020 to June 4, 2021. The company will cancel your current policy as of June 4, 2020 and issue the PRP as of June 4, 2020.
The premium on a PRP is almost always lower than the premium on the regular flood policy and, if this is the case with your policy, a check for the difference in the premium will be sent to you.
The insurance companies attempt to switch your policy to the PRP as soon after January 29, 2021 as possible. Be patient, however, as many homes have been moved to the X flood zone and this will be a massive undertaking for the companies.
This change will be done automatically. There is nothing you need to do.
More information about the flood map change can be found at www.ctlowndes.com under the Personal Insurance tab and the flood tab. We, at C. T. Lowndes & Company, do highly recommend you maintain your flood insurance even though your home has moved to the X Zone. Please review the information in the article entitled “Should I keep my FEMA Flood Policy since my home is in Zone X?”