When you select Blue Rock Flood Services as your flood hazard determination service, you can enjoy peace-of-mind by knowing that you are dealing with one of the original vendors registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
We have been providing this service since February of 1993, well before the passage of the National Flood Insurance Reform Act of November 1994 (as amended), when flood hazard determinations became a mandatory requirement in the lending process.
We operate a specialty shop and insist on only offering services that will be performed with excellence. We will only use time tested, proven methods, and all research and data are gathered by skilled individuals to ensure accuracy and reliability.
We believe in building relationships.
We remember when a person’s word or a handshake was the start of a good, honorable, long-lasting relationship, and we believe it still has a place in today’s world.
Blue Rock Flood Services is committed to doing whatever we can to make life easier for our clients, without subjecting them to the risk of mistakes.
Our Approach
Unlike most companies who provide or subcontract to automated flood determination systems, BRFS, being one of the more experienced companies, continues to exercise necessary caution and process flood determinations manually.
Why? Because after a great deal of research and testing, we have learned that these automated flood determination systems have been, and continue to be, unreliable in areas where it matters most.
So choose professionals who will review your property, not an algorithm. While BRFS and the FZD automated software systems use the same flood maps, the technology used to create FEMA’s flood maps has often not been updated in many years or is misinterpreted—which can result in a determination requiring flood insurance for a building not actually in the floodplain.
This can cost the landowner thousands of dollars or for the loan not to close. We refer many homeowners to our list of lenders for this reason alone.
Many of these systems also use street number locating software based largely on assumed block numbers. While this might be reasonably accurate in urban areas, they are seldom accurate in rural or even suburban areas. Since the software is focusing on street numbers, it is actually looking for the mailbox, not the structures. Therefore, it is especially questionable if the property exceeds a couple of acres—such as a farmstead that is back off the road by a ¼ or ½ mile. Oftentimes this type of software will also have street numbers progressing in the wrong direction or, in many cases, place the subject property literally miles from its actual location.
While we too use locating software to find addresses, we never rely on it. We only use it for approximate locations. We rely on deed descriptions, tax maps, aerial photos, and proper interpretation to precisely locate the structure on the current Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). In all cases where a property is found in or near a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), we use all available resources to ensure the determination is completely accurate.
We maintain a very good working relationship with the various zoning and code enforcement officials of the local municipalities. These ongoing relationships have been instrumental in our ability to develop and maintain an in-house file of new housing development site plans and tax maps, which enables us to perform accurate determinations on new properties that have not yet been recorded.
Once a determination is made, all of the information is saved into our system and transferred onto the current FEMA Standard Flood Hazard Determination form. We also make available a detailed supporting map showing the SFHA as it relates to any structure(s) for your customer’s review. If the borrower should dispute our determination, we are willing to visit the property (under the terms of the agreement) for a closer look. We will also gladly deal directly with the borrower if they have any questions or if they simply need help with a designated flood zone.
Benefits of Our Services
TURNAROUND TIME
We offer the fastest turnaround time available for hand-mapped FZDs. You can expect orders to take only several hours—often faster, depending on our backlog. We also give immediate attention to your occasional “RUSH” orders.
VALUE
We offer attentive customer service, integrity, and attention to detail for each and every order, at reasonable costs to the customer. This why people/institutions who deal with us prefer staying with us.
Blue Rock Flood Services is committed to using only the most reliable methods on work performed for our clients. We only change to newer methods if and when they are proven to be reliable and accurate. After all, this protects all interested parties from any future liability.
COMPLIANCE
The Flood Reform Bill of 1994 requires that any providers of flood hazard information fully insure and guarantee the accuracy of such information. All of our insured flood hazard determinations are guaranteed by our Errors & Omissions insurance policy.
Since 1993, there have been ZERO claims filed against our E&O policy.
LIFE OF LOAN COVERAGE
Our Life of Loan Coverage guarantees the lending institution that we will monitor the flood status of the given property for as long as the loan is in force.
When a revised federal flood map is issued showing a change in the flood status of the given property, we will automatically inform you of a new certification.
EXPLORING OPTIONS
If a structure is in a floodplain, especially when it is just on the border of a floodplain, there may be options available to disqualify the structure and/or reduce or remove premiums. This can include more accurately defining the building or landscaping options to reduce flood risk.
We closely review building type, condition, and use to determine if it can be disqualified from requiring insurance.
