NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane season is about two months away but the cost to protect your home from it should be getting to your mailbox now. If you've checked the mail this week you might have received your new flood insurance rates. It's the first of many 18% rate increases being sent out to residents. The new rates are gradually increased until residents reach their new overall rate, that's coming from the National Flood Insurance Program's risk rating of 2.0.
Insurance Agent Dan Burghardt received his and says thankfully it didn't increase too much, but he says that's not the case for everybody. He says the NFIP isn't using the same subsidies as people had before.
"In some cases, it’s out of range. It’s in the 10 - 15 thousand range that’s completely crazy they took away the zoning they used to use... flood elevations used to be a game changer," Burghardt said. "A lot of that stuff went out the door."
Burghardt says there are still a lot of questions on how the NFIP is coming up with these rates. He's not the only one asking questions. Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple's office sent a statement to WWL Louisiana.
"The flood insurance increases driven by Risk Rating 2.0 are coming at time when Louisiana policyholders are already experiencing a crisis in the availability and affordability of homeowners insurance. Commissioner Temple agrees with our congressional delegation that we need more transparency around how the NFIP is calculating risk so we can determine if it’s being done accurately and fairly.”
Burghardt says in the meantime, unfortunately, there's not much residents can do to help their rate go down, but did give one tip. Plus, he says it's not only affecting current homeowners but anyone looking to purchase a home too.
"Do not let your flood insurance policy lapse because if something happens you lose all the opportunity to gradually go into the higher rate. You’d have to start over. People buying new homes are forced to pay the new 2.0 flood rate without any gradual scale so that’s another deterrent for new home buyers," Burghardt said.
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