Housing and Insurance Subcommittee Chairman Blaine Leutkemeyer has released long-awaited draft principles outlining a path forward to reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) before it expires in September 2017. The document provides a framework that will ensure market certainty for the real estate community, while lessening taxpayer exposure and liability via mandatory use of reinsurance and risk transfer. Several of the key principles have the potential to drive down costs for apartment firms that mitigate risk.
As recently as mid-October, NMHC/NAA met with Congressional leaders to call for many of the reforms contained in Leutkemeyer’s principles, most notably increasing apartment owner access to alternative and more affordable options of coverage outside of NFIP. READ MORE
Rep. Leutkemeyer’s plan calls for:
- Passing the NMHC/NAA-supported Flood Insurance Market Parity Act (FIMPA) would expand flood insurance coverage options for at-risk property owners beyond NFIP. Specifically, the legislation clarifies that flood coverage offered by private carriers meets existing federal purchase requirements for properties financed or insured by the federal government such as FHA or GSE-backed multifamily projects.
- Allowing apartment owners to purchase private market flood insurance that may be less restrictive and meet the unique needs of their properties instead of requiring them to use NFIP for coverage.
- Improving risk assessment methods by increasing the accuracy of the flood maps that determine premium rate structures under NFIP.
NMHC/NAA will continue to work with Congress as the reauthorization effort moves forward to ensure that affordable flood insurance is available at all times, in all market conditions for every at-risk rental property.
More information on the National Flood Insurance Program can be found here.
Staff Resource
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