The Federal Housing Administration announced enhancements to FHA Connection that require mortgagees to indicate if property improvements are in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) and if so, provide the applicable flood insurance data electronically. The enhancements implement new fields for the electronic submission of flood-related data currently contained in FHA case binders.
This electronic data collection will enable FHA to perform more data analytics on FHA-insured properties in flood zones.
Mortgagees can now submit the following additional flood-related data electronically for single family forward mortgages and Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM) on the corresponding Insurance Application Screens in FHAC:
- Specify if the property improvement is in a SFHA (Zones with “A” or “V” designations)
- Indicate the existence of a final Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA), final Letter of Map Revision (LOMR), or a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program Elevation Certificate (FEMA Form 086-0-33) to verify that the property is not in a SFHA
- Provide additional details, as required, which may include:
- Flood insurance building coverage
- Flood insurance company
- Flood insurance policy number
- Outstanding loan balance at closing
- 100 percent replacement cost
- Land cost
- Land cost source
Mortgagees must continue to include the flood insurance documentation noted above in the FHA Case Binder. These updates are effective for case numbers assigned on or after April 11, 2022. For submissions through FHAC Business-to-Government (B2G), the data must be submitted for case numbers assigned on or after July 11, 2022. The FHAC B2G submission requirements accommodate the new data fields. Refer to the B2G Interface webpage for technical requirements.
Note, these enhancements do not change FHA’s existing flood insurance policy detailed in the Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1.
