Elevation Certificate
The Elevation Certificate is an important administrative tool of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). It is to be used to provide elevation information necessary to ensure compliance with community floodplain management ordinances, to determine the proper insurance premium rate, and to support a request for a Letter of Map Amendment or Revision (LOMA or LOMR-F).
The Elevation Certificate is required in order to properly rate post-FIRM buildings, which are buildings constructed after publication of the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), for flood insurance Zones A1-A30, AE, AH, A (with BFE), VE, V1-V30, V (with BFE), AR, AR/A, AR/AE, AR/A1-A30, AR/AH, and AR/AO. The Elevation Certificate is not required for pre-FIRM buildings unless the building is being rated under the optional post-FIRM flood insurance rules.
As part of the agreement for making flood insurance available in a community, the NFIP requires the community to adopt a floodplain management ordinance that specifies minimum requirements for reducing flood losses. One such requirement is for the community to obtain the elevation of the lowest floor (including basement) of all new and substantially improved buildings and maintain a record of such information. The Elevation Certificate provides a way for a community to comply with this requirement.
Use of this certificate does not provide a waiver of the flood
insurance purchase requirement. Only a LOMA or LOMR-F from the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can amend the FIRM and
remove the Federal mandate for a lending institution to require the
purchase of flood insurance. However, the lending institution has
the option of requiring flood insurance even if a LOMA/LOMR-F has
been issued by FEMA.
The Elevation Certificate may be used to support a LOMA or
LOMR-F request. Lowest floor and lowest adjacent
grade elevations certified by a surveyor or engineer will be
required if the certificate is used to support a LOMA or LOMR-F
request.
This certificate is used only to certify building elevations. A separate certificate is required for flood-proofing. Under the NFIP, non-residential buildings can be flood-proofed up to or above the Base Flood Elevation (BFE). A flood-proofed building is a building that has been designed and constructed to be watertight (substantially impermeable to floodwaters) below the BFE. Flood-proofing of residential buildings is not permitted under the NFIP unless FEMA has granted the community an exception for residential flood-proofed basements. The community must adopt standards for design and construction of flood-proofed basements before FEMA will grant a basement exception. For both flood-proofed non-residential buildings and residential flood-proofed basements in communities that have been granted an exception by FEMA, a flood-proofing certificate is required.
