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JOHN L. LIBBY CONSULTING

Consulting Land Surveyors

Photo from the collection of "Survey Dog", Drew Celovsky

ELEVATION CERTIFICATES

John L. Libby Consulting performs surveys to gather information for the completion of Elevation Certificates. This work is conducted in accordance with Commonwealth of Massachusetts Regulation 250 and the "Procedural and Technical Standards for the Practice of Land Surveying in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation" for Data Accumulation Surveys (Topographic).

The Elevation Certificate is an important administrative tool of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). It is to be used to provide elevation information necessary to ensure compliance with community floodplain management ordinances, to determine proper insurance premium rates, and to support a request for a Letter of Map Amendment or Revision (LOMA or LOMA-F).

The Elevation Certificate is required in order to properly rate post-FIRM buildings, which are buildings constructed after the publication of the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), for flood insurance Zones A1-A30, AE, AH, A (with BFE), VE, V1-V30, V (with BFE), AR, AR/A, AR/AE, AR/A1-A30, AR/AH and AR/AO. The Elevation Certificate is not required for pre-FIRM buildings unless the building is being rated under the optional post-FIRM flood insurance rules.

As part of the agreement for making flood insurance available in a community, the NFIP requires the community to adopt a floodplain management ordinance that specifies minimum requirements for reducing losses. One such requirement is that the community obtain the elevation of the lowest floor (including basement) of all new and substantially improved buildings, and maintain a record of such information. The Elevation Certificate provides a way for a community to comply with this requirement.

Use of this certificate does not provide a waiver of the flood insurance purchase requirement. Only a LOMA or LOMA-F from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can amend the FIRM and remove the Federal mandate for a lending institution to require the purchase of flood insurance. However, the lending institution has the option of requiring flood insurance even if a LOMA/LOMA-F has been issued by FEMA. The Elevation Certificate may be used to support a LOMA or LOMA-F request. Lowest floor and lowest adjacent grade elevations certified by a surveyor will be required if the certificate is used to support a LOMA or LOMA-F request.

This certificate is used only to certify building elevations. A separate certificate is required for floodproofing. Under the NFIP, non-residential buildings can be floodproofed up to or above the Base Flood Elevation (BFE). A floodproofed building is a building that has been designed and constructed to be watertight (substantially impermeable to floodwaters) below the BFE. Floodproofing of residential buildings is not permitted under the NFIP unless FEMA has granted the community an exception for residential floodproofed basements. The community must adopt standards for design and construction of floodproofed basements before FEMA will grant a basement exception. For both floodproofed non-residential buildings and residential floodproofed basements in communities that have been granted an exception by FEMA, a floodproofing certificate is required.

In many cases the scaling of a FIRM map shows a particular building to be within or close to a flood plain and possibly requiring flood insurance. An Elevation Certificate can be used to show that the building definitely is or is not within the flood plain. The Elevation Certificate can also be used to lessen the cost of the flood insurance by showing the depth or extent of the buildings penetration into the flood plain. Assuming a Base Flood Elevation of 65, a building with its lowest floor elevation of 62 will cost more in insurance premiums than a building with its lowest floor elevation of 64.8.

John L. Libby Consulting provides professional quality services at reasonable prices.
Please give us a call.

John L. Libby Consulting
97 Cove Street, New Bedford, MA 02744
Tel: (508) 999-0106 Fax: (508) 999-2860

Cell: (508) 951-8839

Mail Address: 97 Cove Street, New Bedford, MA 02744

Email: jlibbyconsulting.com

Last Updated: February 13, 2006
Web Master: John L. Libby
Copyright 2003-2006 John L. Libby Consulting