Insurers Praise Panel Action On Flood Insurance

By Steven Brostoff, Washington Editor

NU Online News Service, July 28, 4:13 p.m. EDT?Insurance agents and companies are praising legislation approved by the House Financial Services Committee reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program for five years.

Carl Parks, senior vice president of government relations with the Des Plaines, Ill.-based National Association of Independent Insurers, said that reauthorization of NFIP will maintain stability for millions of homeowners, prospective home buyers and business owners across the country who must buy flood insurance.

Justin Roth, director of federal government affairs for the Alexandria, Va.-based Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, in particular praised an amendment approved by the committee aimed at mitigating losses on properties that experience repetitive flooding.

The mitigation language would require flood-prone homeowners to take a buyout or take steps to remediate the home's susceptibility to flooding by elevating the structure or other steps.

Mr. Roth said that initially, the legislation, H.R. 253, would have authorized the NFIP to offer mitigation to all properties that have had four or more flood losses of at least $1,000 each over the life of the property.

If the homeowner refused mitigation, Mr. Roth said, NFIP could have charged actuarially derived higher rates and the homeowner would be ineligible for federal disaster assistance.

However, he said, IIABA believed this formula would have caused too many homeowners to lose their flood insurance.

He praised the committee for adopting a less severe measure that will permit NFIP to target properties that have four or more claims exceeding $5,000 each.

This new threshold, Mr. Roth said, will target the worst repetitive flood properties while assuring that most homeowners will continue to have access to flood insurance.

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Insurers Praise Panel Action On Flood Insurance

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