On March 4, 2014 the United States House of Representatives passed bill H.R. 3370 commonly referred to as the “Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014.” This bill directly relates to the Biggert-Waters act of 2012 and modifies parts of the act. The bill is broken into 26 sections and a couple of them have a major impact on Florida flood insurance and real estate. Please keep in mind that this bill has only passed the House and it still requires a Senate vote and to be signed by the President. A common statement has been that this bill delays the Biggert-Waters Act of 2012, the bill does not delay Biggert-Waters. We have made incredible progress, but we still need to continue encouraging our Senators and President to finalize this bill. According to www.govtrack.us this bill only has a 74% chance of being enacted, so we do need to continue pushing this bill forward


Please email me diana@flabeachfront.com, (or the Holehouse insurance company directly)  if you want is further reading on the Homeowners Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014  prepared by HOLEHOUSE Insurance agency a local St Pete Agency or 
RATE COMPARISON One the following 2 Bella Vista homes  can be seen on HCI rates PDF of these 2 pictured local St.Pete Beach homes  The first photo is Large home. Its Flood Insurance is at $312 per yr 

compared to this little home is $8,734 per yer! 

 The following is was sent to me Via Email from Jake Holehouse regarding an update based on the house bill that passed last week.  

"With all of the changes, some lenders are being very difficult to accept the new private market flood insurance which results in the client paying a much higher premium rate.  With that clients, become frustrated and end up backing out of deals.  In working with all the lenders, I can say that BB&T is by far the best at being flexible and finding what fits the client.  An example of this is that the Homeowners Choice Insurance Company’s flood policy uses a deductible that is a percentage of the overall dwelling to mirror the hurricane deductible compared to most of the time when we write homeowners and flood policy and each one has a deductible.  This creates a major advantage for the homeowner as they only have one claims adjuster to work with and they only have one deductible compared to two deductibles.  For example if a house has a hurricane wind and flood loss with HCI they only pay one deductible, compared to splitting the policies and paying the homeowners hurricane deductible and separate flood deductible.  However, on a $300,000 dwelling value the flood deductible would be 2% of $300,000 which equates to $6,000.  The challenge that some lenders are having is that normally the highest flood deductible that can be used is $5,000 but the highest homeowners deductible is 5%.  Being that this is a homeowners policy that covers flooding, BB&T is accepting this under the homeowners rules of a 5% deductible while Wells Fargo, VanDyk Mortgage, Flagstar Bank, and multiple other companies are sticking to saying it cannot exceed $5,000.  This makes an enormous difference as we have seen the flexibility of BB&T save clients thousands of dollars on flood insurance.  I am attaching a rate sheet for the HCI flood product that BB&T is actively allowing us to use resulting in premium rates at least 50% less expensive than Lloyds of London. 

If you have a client that is purchasing a pre-Firm house in a flood zone, we highly recommend working with Tammy Griffith at BB&T.  Tammy and her staff at BB&T are the best in the industry at customer service, underwriting time and flexibility.  With over 27 years of mortgage experience, Tammy has the knowledge to ask the right questions and be creative.  Customers have a phenomenal experience with her and she closes loans faster than any other lender.  We have worked with Tammy on FHA, VA, Conventional and Construction loans and every client has had a great experience.  As an insurance professional, our agency can honestly say that Tammy is the best in the business.  Tammy’s contact information is listed below-

Tammy Griffith
Vice President

BB&T Mortgage
NMLS#415170
400 N. Tampa Street
Tampa, Fl  33602
Phone: 813-314-3185
Fax:     813-228-0274
Mobile (727) 647-5801

 If you have any questions on the current flood insurance legislation please do not hesitate to give our office a call.

 Sincerely,

Jacob W. Holehouse, CPCU

Vice President

Ronald F. Holehouse Insurance and Risk Management

Main Office - (727) 823-5551

Fax- (727) 894-3339

125 28th Street North

St. Petersburg, FL  33713"  Thank you Jake!!!