My mortgage company (First Franklin) added flood insurance to my monthly mortgage without our authorization.
We called First Franklin regarding the almost $400.00 a month increase in our mortgage because it came as a shock to us.
They argued that we are in a "flood zone A" that requires flood insurance.
The insurance specialist at First Franklin told us that there was nothing we can do and that we had to pay and told us that we needed to contact FEMA regarding our flood zone if we were going to dispute it.
My husband spoke to a representative at FEMA and they told him that mortgage companies will scam you by hiring a 3rd party to audit the flood zones and typically the person doing so does not know how to read the maps correctly. He told us that we needed to obtain a map and find out what zone we are in.
We contacted our local government (City of Woodland Building Department) who told us that we are not in a flood zone A but in fact in a flood zone B or X which does not require us to obtain the insurance we also obtained the current flood zone map for our address.
Our insurance agent told us that even if we did obtain the insurance for our zone (which is not required) that the maximum we would pay is $350.00 per year.
Today my husband was finally able to get through to the insurance specialist at First Franklin and forwarded the proper documents showing that we are not required to have the flood insurance for the flood zone that we live in.
He sent them a copy of the zoning map and the e-mail correspondence and the information that we got from the FEMA website stating that the insurance is not required.
He also talked to the escrow department at First Franklin and informed them that we would pay the original mortgage amount due only because it was not our error that they added this insurance when it is not required.
The escrow department told my husband that we have to:
*pay the total amount including the amount that was added for the flood insurance
*they will review our documents
*they will contact their insurance company to find out if they find that they added the insurance in error
*they might send us a check to reimburse us if they find that they added the insurance in error.
They have been unwilling to help us and they said that if we do not pay the full amount then it will be a bad mark against our credit for there mistake.
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