CoreLogic Flood Services now offers property owners expert assistance in filing for a Letter of Map Change (LOMC) through our new Flood Map Change Service. This valuable resource could save your insureds or borrowers thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a mortgage.

As you know, under federal regulations owners of mortgaged properties mapped in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs) are required to carry flood insurance. However, flood maps have inherent limitations. For example, an individual property may be mapped inside an SFHA but actually sit above the base flood elevation and therefore be "out" of the high-risk zone.

For property owners who believe this has occurred, FEMA created the LOMC application process. This enables a property owner to request that their property's flood zone status be changed, effectively "removing" their property from the SFHA and potentially eliminating the mandatory coverage requirement.

While flood insurance is advisable for all properties, it is far less expensive for properties outside the SFHA, so changing a property's flood zone status could significantly reduce the owner's flood insurance premiums.

To use the new service, your customer simply sends us the property's elevation certificate. We'll provide a free evaluation to determine if the property is a candidate for the LOMC process. If so, we'll prepare and submit the application to FEMA on the owner's behalf-and the property owner pays us nothing unless the application is successful.

For more information, or to initiate an LOMC evaluation, call CoreLogic at (800) 862-2070.