40 Days and 40 Nights of Rain, What It Means for Home Buyers

Shawsheen River, Andover MA

40 Days and 40 Nights of Rain may be a parable from the Bible. But, for New England and much of the Northeast ithas been some sort of reality this past March. After getting water in my house a few years ago due to a bursting pipe ,I never quite understood the damage water caused. This March we saw the most rain EVER in Massachusetts. There was more than 14 inches of rain this past month. Flooding rivers, and basements have been a common theme but, what does this all mean when buying a home?

For anyone that has bought a home or obtained a mortgage in the past years they would know that one requirement is obtaining a Flood Certificate. This is a critical piece of paperwork! Banks won’t lend money without one and if you’re in a Flood Zone you can’t get financing unless you have Flood Insurance.

FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is an agency that helps coordinates disasters in the United States. Once the Governor of a state declares a State of Emergency FEMA and the Federal Government are formally requested to assist in the disaster. Part of their role is to determine the Flood Maps for the country. When a person applies for a mortgage a Flood Certificate is ordered through a third party company for the lending institution to determine if the property is locatedin a Flood Zone. Federal Banking regulations mandate this whenever someone is taking out any kind of mortgage. (1st Mortgage or Home Equity) If your property is determined to be in a Flood Zone (even if you have no mortgage and obtaining a Home Equity Line) you would be required to obtain Flood Insurance prior to closing.

Recently Lenders are now doing final inspections prior to closing to ensure the house hasn’t been flooded. It’s become an added expense and in most cases could be a life changing experience. Water destroys everything so my suggestion would be to 1. choose properties accordingly and 2. If there is any kind of water history in a property to seriously consider supplemental coverage. In most cases regular homeowners insurance will not cover this kind of damage. If you don’t have coverage and the Federal Government allocates money’s to a state for damages, you could expect the amount of money you’d receive for repairs to be a fraction of the costs since it would have to be split amongst all the uninsured.