Watching a Channel 10 Newscast, I heard about the Flood Zone Correction Services. After contacting them, I was asked to provide a few documents including the declaration page of the flood policy, site survey, elevation certificate, and recorded deed. They use this property information to help guide their research, allowing them to go back in time to pull all of the documents from the time your home or building was built. They evaluate several flood risk factors to see how your home or building matches up against FEMA's flood insurance study for your community. The flood risk analysis takes about one month to complete once all the documents are received. At the end of the flood risk analysis, they can indicate that the home or building is either clearly in the high-risk flood zone (Special Flood Hazard Area “SFHA”) or it is not.
After their review, the documents are submitted to FEMA for their review and concurrence. FEMA returned a document stating my property was not in a flood zone. I then contacted my lender with the FEMA document who then returned a letter for my insurance company. The key paragraph I was looking for in the letter read "We have verified that the insurable improvements are no longer located in a designated flood zone. We have adjusted our records accordingly. Effective immediately, you are no longer required to maintain flood insurance on the property." After receiving a copy of this letter, , my insurance company promptly sent me a refund check for my current year premium. Now this service is not free, but it didn't cost anything either. The charge for their efforts is the refunded annual premium. Not a bad deal overall.