FEMA Seeks Comment on Simplified Homeowner Flood Insurance Form to Improve Customer Experience

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency issued the following news release on Feb. 6, 2024:

Today, FEMA published a Federal Register notice requesting public comment for the "National Flood Insurance Program: Standard Flood Insurance Policy, Homeowner Flood Form," intended to reduce barriers to flood insurance adoption by simplifying the form for homeowners.

Consistent with ongoing efforts across the federal government to improve the customer experience, build policyholder trust and reduce disaster suffering, FEMA is seeking to improve the homeowner policyholder experience through a new proposed Homeowner Flood Form. The proposed form would provide homeowners with a more personalized, customizable product.

The proposed form will use simplified language in a user-friendly format to allow homeowners of one-to-four family residences -- the majority of the NFIP's approximate 4.7 million policyholders -- to consider their specific flood risk at the point-of-sale and customize their coverage. Understanding flood risk at the point of sale shifts policyholder risk awareness to an earlier step in the flood insurance process.

Part of creating a better customer experience for homeowner policyholders is allowing them to customize coverage to meet their needs. Along with the simplified form, FEMA is proposing to use five new endorsements.

Endorsements are changes to the insurance contract allowing policyholders to modify coverage, which would be a new approach to flood coverage offered under the NFIP. The five proposed endorsements are Increased Cost of Compliance Coverage, Actual Cash Value Loss Settlement, Temporary Housing Expense Coverage, Basement Coverage and Builder's Risk.

"Flood insurance is an effective tool to transfer risk and enable rapid recovery from any size flood event," said David Maurstad, Assistant Administrator of Federal Insurance and the Senior Executive of the National Flood Insurance Program. "Flooding can be an emotionally and financially devastating event, and experience shows that individuals who manage risk through insurance accelerate their financial recovery after a disaster."

Prior to this form, the NFIP had only offered the Dwelling Form to serve the needs of homeowners of one-to-four family residences, landlords, renters, manufactured (mobile) homeowners, travel trailers and condominium units. This one-size-fits-all approach diverges from other property insurance lines, which generally offer coverage specific to the type of property insured.

FEMA will use public feedback to evaluate any needed changes to the current Dwelling Form. The agency will continue to use this form to provide an insurance option for other types of policyholders like landlords, renters and owners of mobile homes, travel trailers and condominium units.

Comments can be submitted from Feb. 6 - April 8, 2024, on www.regulations.gov Docket ID: FEMA-2024-0004 (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/02/06/2024-02204/national-flood-insurance-program-standard-flood-insurance-policy-homeowner-flood-form#addresses). Please follow the instructions on the page for submitting comments and contact the Regulations (https://www.regulations.gov/support).gov Help Desk if you have any technical issues.

* * *

Original text here: https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20240206/fema-seeks-comment-simplified-homeowner-flood-insurance-form-improve