The flooding risk that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac is allowed to take in backing the notes on most homes is a 1% or better chance in 100 years. Some of those "safe" homes may still flood, but flood insurance is not required. When you buy a home, the lender gets a SFHDF (Standard Flood Hazard Determination Form), clearly stating YES or NO to the federal flood insurance requirement. If the Flood Zone starts with the letter "V" if tidal or wave action is relevant, or the letter "A" for most inland zones, then it is a Special Flood Hazard Zone and flood insurance is required. Lenders can't decide who needs flood insurance.
Please realize first that 100 years is a long time and flooding is a real possibility.
San Jose got very wet in the 1950's.
Alviso was well under water in two seasons in the late 80's or was it 90's.
Palo Alto folks reported they received checks for $35,000 to 50,000 to repair water damage at the end of 1998, due to flooding caused by a huge tree falling into San Francisquito Creek above Pope/Chaucer bridge, blocking water which had to find another way to the bay.
A portion of Milpitas has a tall Penitencia Creek levee on one side and Freeway 880 on the other side probably keeping the area from draining until it is 4 feet under water.....which just might happen in the coming years as less and less water is taken into the ground as it travels in concrete channels rather than over land and down dirt lined creeks, and more and more water is delivered from the hills above San Jose to Milpitas for delivery to the Bay..
You are in a flood zone, but hopefully not in a Zone considered to be a Special Flood Hazard Area where flood insurance is required due to the risk being greater than 1 chance in 100 years.
If you call, we can often tell you if you do not appear to be in a Special Flood Hazard Area where flood insurance is required. The response will be verbal and there will be no charge.
We will in some cases recommend you ask your Lender to get another Standard Flood Hazard Determination Form. The trigger would be that we convince ourselves that you are "safe enough" and the map clearly shows it meets the requirements.
If you can't convince your lender, We can generate a Standard Flood Hazard Determination Form for $450 which will cause your lender to ask their vendor to defend their, likely wrong determination. They may get $15 for their forms. We can study and report each case a lot more depth, giving them the data they need to report a better result. Ours is reviewed by a Professional Land Surveyor and we will back it up with a few phone calls if needed. If you can do it with our documented input, you save. If you can't, then you still save over paying the flood insurance. We only keep the money if it works, and it generally does unless we, openly to you, test the limits, all the while expecting possibility of rejection.
If the above path fails, we then shift to getting a determination by FEMA analysts in response to a case we present to FEMA. If this path fails, most clients should expect to be refunded any amount they paid toward the LOMA application. There may come a job where the chances of success are too low for us to take it on without a guaranteed full or partial payment, but we have not done this to date.