In January, heavy rainfall caused flooding at the Venue on Guadalupe, an apartment complex a half mile from the University of Texas in Austin.
Namratha Thrikutam, a UT architecture student and co-founder of the new UT Tenants’ Union, said the apartment gave students two days to move out so the complex could begin making repairs. Students later found out they wouldn’t be able to move back until June.
The Venue didn’t respond to an email asking why the repairs would take so long. In the meantime, students affected by the flooding are staying in hotels, Airbnbs and other temporary housing, Thrikutam said.
“It’s so disruptive to their lives,” she said. “People have finals and much bigger things to worry about in school, so you can barely even focus on your housing situation. It just leaves you sort of incomplete for a long period of time and very unstable, honestly.”
Floods can displace renters from their homes, and in the chaos, some are surprised to learn their renters insurance policy doesn’t cover flood damage. Like homeowners, renters must buy a separate policy that covers floods.
As flooding grows more common, many renters don’t have flood insurance
Most natural disasters involve flooding, a hazard that has become more common due to climate change.
According to a survey from the Insurance Information Institute, 27% of homeowners had flood insurance in 2020.
Not much research is out there on renters and flood insurance, but renters are less likely than homeowners to have flood insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has said.
Most mortgages require homeowners who live in floodplains to buy flood insurance. Renters usually don’t face a similar requirement, although many apartments require tenants to get renters insurance and may charge fees to those without a policy.
More private insurers are starting to offer flood insurance, which has traditionally been offered through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program.
Policies through the program cost renters at least $100 per year, while homeowners pay about $700 on average, according to NerdWallet.
Homeowner policies through the National Flood Insurance Program cover up to $250,000 for the building and $100,000 in personal property. Renter policies cover up to $100,000 in personal property.
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According to a data analysis from the Insurance Information Institute, in many states, few property owners carry insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program. Participation in the program is highest along the Gulf and East coasts and other areas with high flood risk, like along the Mississippi River.
During Iowa floods, many residents didn’t have flood insurance
Homes built outside of floodplains sometimes flood during extreme weather events that are becoming more common due to climate change. But when floods aren’t common to an area, residents are less likely to have flood insurance, leaving them off-guard during major flooding.
In Iowa, less than 1% of housing units have coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program, Insurance Information Institute data shows.
In 2008, flooding in Cedar Rapids exceeded the 500-year floodplain and caused an estimated $5 billion in damage. Ten years later, Des Moines suffered extreme flooding after receiving almost nine inches of rain in four hours.
Lisa Gavin, disaster relief coordinator for Iowa Legal Aid, said that at the time of both floods, few residents had flood insurance. During the Cedar Rapids storm, her house flooded, too. Because she didn’t live in a floodplain, she didn’t have flood insurance.
“You’re kind of left on your own,” she said.
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Now she often tells renters flood insurance isn’t as expensive as they might think since it’s covering their property and not the building.
At the same time, low-income renters who have been dealing with years of rapidly-growing rents might not be able to afford a policy on top of their other expenses.
“Right now, it just seems like people are like, ‘I can’t worry about that when I’m worried about day-to-day life,’” Gavin said.
How renters can research a home’s flood history before moving in
Insurance Information Institute spokesperson Scott Holeman said some renters mistakenly think their landlord’s insurance protects their property, but property owner policies only cover the structure.
“Most people have a TV, some electronic equipment, like a laptop or maybe a camera, or even clothes that you wouldn’t want to have to replace,” Holeman said. “If you don’t have flood insurance, that all comes out of your pocket for replacement.”
Miyuki Hino is an assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She said flood insurance provides the most and fastest compensation after a flood.
After a major flood, FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program provides financial assistance and services to people affected by disasters.
From 2016 to 2018, the program gave an average of $4,200 to homeowners and $1,700 to renters, the US Government Accountability Office found.
Hino said: “It’s really, really limited in terms of what other resources the government will provide to help in the recovery process, which is one reason why insurance is so valuable.”
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New laws in Texas, New York and at least six other states require landlords to inform tenants if their property is on a floodplain or has previously flooded.
Renters usually receive information about flooding as they’re signing their leases, Hino said.
“Then you have this choice,” she said. “Is that such a big deal that you might need to rethink everything, or are you committed at that point and just going to go through with it?”
FEMA maintains flood maps that prospective renters or homebuyers can search by address or city. However, some of the maps haven’t been updated in 10 years or more. For instance, FEMA hasn’t updated portions of Oklahoma City’s map since 2008.
Scata said companies like First Street Foundation, Redfin and Realtors.com provide information on the flood risk to single-family homes, but they usually don’t offer flood risk scores for apartments or other multifamily housing.
“There needs to be more public information about flooding in general,” said Joel Scata, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “They should really have flood scores for rental properties, as well, because renters are often at a disadvantage in comparison to homebuyers in getting flood-risk information.”
Contact Streetlight editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@streetlightnews.org. Follow her reporting by joining our newsletter.
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