Flood Insurance

spacejamz

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
10,993
1,742
126
Does anyone here who doesn't live in a flood plain carry flood insurance on their house? A guy I work with just had his living room flooded two days ago during the major storms we just had in the Dallas area. His insurance won't cover it as normal homeowner policies do not cover flood damage. And unless you are in a flood zone, you are not required to carry it...

The only reason I am considering it is because there is a curbside gutter between me and my neighbor's house. When it rains really hard over a short period of time, the water draining into the gutter flows over the curb in our front yard. It is still a good 15 feet from the front of the house though...

I just got a quote from my agent...for 75k structure and 25k content, it would run $207 a year...need to decide if we will get it...

on one hand, we will probably never get flooded. On the other hand, just one incident will probably cost over $10k (just pulling a number out of my head - replace carpet, furniture, check for structure damage, redo walls/baseboards, etc)...if that gutter wasn't in front, I wouldn't even be thinking about it...



cliff notes: should I get flood insurance or not?
 

pyonir

Lifer
Dec 18, 2001
40,856
321
126
are you going to live there more than 48 years? If the damage was over 10k and you paid $207 a year, it would take 48 years of paying 207 a year to get to that 10k. weigh the options.
 

jadinolf

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
20,952
3
81
I had it for a few years after a major fire here.

It seemed to be cheap.

It had a very high deductible.

You get what you pay for.'
 

If $207 a year gives you peace of mind, and especially since you've got that storm drain in your yard, I'd say you should definitely get it.