Flood Insurance
Qualifications
Properties that are within the 100-year floodplain are required to carry flood insurance.
The shaded area of the map shows the 100-year floodplain as it appears on the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) now in effect.
All areas not in the shaded area are in Flood Zone X, 500-year flood, which does not require flood insurance.
Properties that are within the 100-year floodplain are required to carry flood insurance.
The shaded area of the map shows the 100-year floodplain as it appears on the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) now in effect.
All areas not in the shaded area are in Flood Zone X, 500-year flood, which does not require flood insurance.
Special Flood Hazard Area
To determine if your property is currently in a Special Flood Hazard Area, check one of the following maps:
For property owners whose buildings are removed from the Zone A99 and placed in a Zone X. If your lender will now remove their flood insurance requirement, you are eligible for a full refund of your federally backed flood insurance policy for the current policy year, except when a claim has been paid or is pending.
To find out if you are eligible for a refund, a property owner should:
To determine if your property is currently in a Special Flood Hazard Area, check one of the following maps:
- Letter of Map Revision Updated June 14, 2000 (PDF): For the area north of Slater Avenue to the our northern city limit and east of Ward Street
- Letter of Map Revision Updated January 10, 2001 (PDF): For the area south of Slater Avenue north of Garfield Avenue, east of Newland Street and west of Ward Street
- Letter of Map Revision Updated December 4, 2009 (PDF): Miscellaneous properties removed from Flood Map
For property owners whose buildings are removed from the Zone A99 and placed in a Zone X. If your lender will now remove their flood insurance requirement, you are eligible for a full refund of your federally backed flood insurance policy for the current policy year, except when a claim has been paid or is pending.
To find out if you are eligible for a refund, a property owner should:
- Contact the community to determine if the building has been removed from the special flood hazard area. You may need to inspect the revised map panels attached to the Letter of Map Revision located at Fountain Valley City Hall, 10200 Slater Ave. If you determine that your building has been removed from the Zone A99 and placed in a Zone X, you can proceed with the remaining steps.
- Obtain a copy of the 2 Letter of Map Revisions from City Hall, or from this website. It is not necessary to obtain a copy of the map panel that is attached to the letter.
- Send the lender a copy of that Letter of Map Revision along with a written request asking for a new flood map determination for your building based on this map revision. (sample letter) (Note: Some lenders may charge a small fee.) Ask the lender for a letter confirming in writing that (1) the insurance was required as part of the mortgage, and (2) the requirement for flood insurance no longer applies because your building is now in a Zone X.
- If your lender purchased the flood insurance policy for you and billed you for it, ask that lender to cancel the flood insurance policy and issue you a refund. Many of the policies purchased by lenders are not backed by the National Flood Insurance Program and therefore have a range of different refund standards. If you bought your flood insurance policy from an insurance agent, see step 5 below.
- If the lender provides you with a letter removing their requirement to carry a flood insurance policy, send that letter to your insurance agent and ask to have that policy cancelled. Typically, most insurance companies can process this refund within 60 days. Most flood insurance policies sold by insurance agents are backed by the National Flood Insurance Program. For those policies, a full refund is provided for the policy year that was in effect on June 14, 2000, which is the date of the original Letter of Map Revision.