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SANDEEP a few things. First after not looking at this for a week I am guessing some comments were deleted as there must have been quite a dialog going on.

As far as buying insurance now, that is not as affordable as you think. You can get it, but unless you already owned and had insurance without lapse since Biggert-Waters passed in July 2012, you will transition to paying the full rate starting in a few months with your rate going up 25% per year until the full rate is reached. It was supposed to begin in October but I believe it was pushed back till January. As to what the full rate is going to be that depends on many factors mainly elevation. It is a sliding scale based on how high the 1st floor is above or below the BFE for your address and how much insurance you get. It comes in multiples of $50K. A friend is in contract on a house now and got a quote of almost $7000 a year, ouch!, for a house a few feet below BFE

As far as the ICC goes that is part of your flood insurance policy and not a determination, the term is “substantially damaged” meaning the damage to the home is more than 50% of the value of the building(not including land). If you hit that benchmark you have to rebuild to the current code including elevating your home. The city of LB is very good about people challenging their determinations as they know it was just a drive by inspection. They will take an estimate from a licensed contractor showing the cost to repair is less or more than their inspection and will issue a new determination if you ask and provide them proper documentation. Now I understand that many people may not want this “substantial damage” determination but that determination is what opens up many of these programs or puts you to the head of the line if your house was “substantially damaged” as does the fact that you had flood insurance.

As far as NY Rising goes there are several parts to it as well there is the portion that is supposed to help with the “repair” and the program that is supposed to make the home more resilient to future storms, namely elevating your house. There is also the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program that can also help with the cost to elevate. The funds are granted to do this now as they basically eliminate the possibility of any future flood insurance claims by the homeowner. I am not sure as it wasn’t mentioned by NY Rising but I know with FEMA-HMGP they require if you receive a grant that the property be insured with flood insurance forever and put that on the deed so they likely will never have to pay out again but insurance premiums will be getting collected forever. Pretty clever on their part. It is all done with a cost to benefit analysis.

Regarding the 50% to Low Income that is for the entire program not just helping people repair their homes. There are specific programs that deal with rental properties , not for profits and others that assist with Low Income housing.

Just some other things to consider regarding elevating your home if you don’t and you are below the BFE whoever buys it will now have to pay that full rate for insurance that is predicted to be around $9700 for people that are at 4 feet below BFE in an A zone and up to $30,000 if you are in a V zone (Velocity zone where braking waves would be expected). With numbers like that you will either have to sell your home at a low enough price to offset the future costs of flood insurance or so that the new owner can elevate the house. Another thing to consider is that Bigger-Waters also changed the “substantial Improvement” standard for houses that in communities that take part in the flood insurance program (in order to get flood insurance, your town or city needs to adopt certain regulations as a condition of flood insurance being available to residents) IT used to be a 50%plus renovation would require compliance but that number was lowered by Bigger-Waters to 30%plus. So on a house that has a value of say $100K (just the house not property) a renovation of only $31K would make the new code including having to lift the house to above the BFE kick in. Think about it. Any renovations for you or future homeowners over that 30% number would trigger the need to rebuild to the higher elevation. IT wouldn’t take more than a basic renovation or addition to trigger that.

If you wish you can read through the actual plan agreed to by HUD and NY state here: http://www.nyshcr.org/Press/ActionPlan/