Surprise! The lot you bought and house you have planned are in a flood zone !
 

No one disclosed to us when we selected a pond lot in Chitty Chatty that this could be an issue. After our planning meetings, payment of 20 % we spoke with the bank about a mortgage and were told that we would have to carry flood insurance which DOUBLES our home insurance cost. We are very angry about this. We could have chosen a different lot if we had known. We were told that in a couple of years the area may be resurveyed and that FEMA would send a letter if it is no longer classified this way. Then we have to fight with the mortgage company to have this requirement dismissed. As for now it states "for the life of the loan ". Watch out if you are purchasing a pond lot. Has anyone else had this experience?

What was your flood factor? Mine was a 5, which it said there is a chance it might flood at least once in the next 38 years. I'm nowhere near a pond or water. I didn't get a mortgage but my homeowners insurance never asked about it.

Just type in your address.

Find Your Home'''s Flood Risk | Flood Factor

On the Sumter County Flood Zone Map my area is in the white, which is good, so I'm not worried. South of 44 looks like a lot of the area is flood zone.

FEMA Flood Hazard Areas Map of Sumter County, FL | PropertyShark.com

Homeowner's insurance might not care as it doesn't cover flood issues. You get flood damage, not their problem. It doesn't look like being on a man made pond, AKA may or may not have water, is a flood risk factor. Being where the natural water table is at or near the surface, eg swampland, is a factor.

OP It is the law that The Villages was not required to tell you about the flood rating when you bought the property, but IMO they should have. But that's not how Florida works where the laws protect the developers much more than unwashed masses. Buyer beware.
Of course when you sell your home you also will be under no obligation to tell potential buyers they are buying a home that needs flood insurance to get a mortgage. Will you nonetheless tell them?

Your real estate agent should have disclosed this to you.
Property Disclosure Statements: Duty to Reveal Hazards in Florida Must Be Disclosed to Home Buyers | About Florida Law

Flood insurance is separate from regular homeowners insurance. The bank requires the flood insurance because they have a vested interest in the property. If the house is destroyed by a flood, the bank loses their loan collateral.

So you bought a house on a pond and didn’t consider investigating flood zones or flood insurance?
Yes, it should have been disclosed, but you bought a house on a pond.

I don't know about Chitty Chatty, but I understand that some of the ponds in The Villages are interconnected by a piping system. The developer can control the water levels in the ponds by allowing water to flow from one pond to another and prevent flooding of the houses. They can also remove water from the ponds by using the irrigation system. You will often see the sprinklers running for long periods after a heavy rain.

Info about the flood zone in Chitty Chatty was out five months ago. I made a comment about it in a villager's YouTube video "isn't CC in a flood zone?" I thought it would be helpful for others to know that flood insurance rates for that place would be sky high.

So apparently the problem is that Chitty Chatty, all or part of it, is in a Flood Zone, not that there happens to be a pond.

I have a house that backs up to a retention pond and I am in risk factor 1 (lowest risk). There is a weir on our pond that will dump water into Lake Deaton. During Irma it worked as designed.

Being on a pond does not equate to being in a flood zone. Many other factors come into play. And some flood zones are not even near any kind of water body.

in rural florida, what's the difference between swamp land and farm land?

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about 3 feet of dirt

I can’t imagine buying a lot in Florida near a pond and not thinking it could flood. After hurricane Irma a lot of The Villages had flooding.

Thanks John, interesting map. We abut a wildlife preserve (AKA, a glorified swamp). The map shows up blue right up to the fence line in our back yard, then our property is white (low flood risk). Irma proved the map to be correct, as the water in the preserve came just about to our fence line, but our back yard remained dry. Before Irma, the preserve in our back yard was very dry, afterwards it was definitely a swamp. It was actually kind of enjoyable when the preserve filled with water, the wildlife in the area exploded, especially the birds and frogs.

Well, that is simply not true. There were a few homes in the northern part of The Villages that experienced some flooding. The vast majority of The Villages was fine as the water management system, which includes the retention ponds and golf courses, worked as designed. The golf courses are designed to take up the overflow.

Of course, it’s in a flood zone.
 

The entire state of Florida is a flood zone. Clearly, some areas are at higher risk to flood more frequently than others. Get flood insurance and live your life.

We are south of 466 and many of the tunnels were flooded and impassable. The golf courses did take up the overflow and were closed for quite a while because they were so saturated.

There are some home policies that will include flood endorsement on policy. Do you know what flood zone you are in?

Call Clifford Insurance at 352-245-5455 or Frank Slaughter Insurance at 352-748-2221 in Wildwood.

The connotation of the word “flooding” is often damage. There was essentially no damage to homes and businesses. The golf courses, which did their job, needed cleanup to be playable again.

I'll assume you're exaggerating to make a point. It's not even close to being literally true.

Slightly off topic but I just have to....
we once upon a time had a home built on a "Marsh Site" in SC, absolutely beautiful views.....an old timer landscaper said to me....I remember when this was just a swamp!!!!:shocked::shocked:

Didn’t have to have anyone inform us when we looked at a lot in CC, it was clear that until there was a track record it’s a flood zone. The entire area is built between wetlands. The cost of flood was not a big deal, the bugs for the first few years was the bigger problem

Read your link more carefully. The requirement to inform the buyer about flood risk seems only in Broward County not statewide.

Here is an article from the Tampa Bay Times written 14 months ago titled

"In Florida, home sellers don’t have to disclose a history of flooding
Texas now requires sellers to disclose past flooding when marketing their house. Florida has no such law"

I had an interesting thought, the "flood plain maps" are probably a few (several) years old, depending on what the developer di with landscaping the current elevation may actually be a few feet higher and could make all the difference. The OP might be able to get a surveyor to determine the exact CURRENT elevation of the land and then compare that to what is reported in the flood plain maps, he may be able to make a case that the maps are out of date.

Yes surprise
 

Our lot also had no mention of being in a flood plain. Pond a few houses away. Searching history of the land I discovered this. The villages had it resurveyed it and had the flood language removed. Surprise. We paid in full.

Good point, the maps will likely change for the better once the flood control improvements are taken into account.

I was impressed by the fact that most of The Villages did NOT have flooding during Hurricane Irma. All of the things put in place worked. They lowered the ponds by running the sprinklers in the common areas and they then deliberately allowed their own golf courses to flood to save people's homes. I thought it worked like a CHARM. I was even astonished the golf courses recovered after a month or two.

Chatty chatty, Bradford, etc are all built on a swamp..they just used fill dirt...flood area absolutely...that area was great bore hunting

The agent should let you transfer the 20% to a different lot, just ask.

The Villages has amazing engineers who calculate elevations and water flow and sculpt new living areas so the homes will remain dry. What was previously flat is recontoured so it has higher places and lower places. The flood zone maps are at least several years old and reflect the area before contouring. When the maps are updated, chances are that your home will be a hundred feet from a flood zone, but not in it. Is it possible that the engineers or surveyors could provide your insurance company with an accurate elevation for your home that could put you in a different category? It might be worth asking.

My home isn’t in a flood zone, but there is one a hundred feet away. I carry flood insurance. That and hurricane insurance nearly doubles the cost of my insurance, but it makes me feel safer. Buying it makes more sense than buying a home alarm system.

We added flood insurance to our policy for $105. We are not in a flood zone, just peace of mind.

Flood zone
 

If you got an appraisal, it is noted.

NOT TRUE......stop passing along bad information

If you look at Chitty Chatty, it's doesn't have ponds, it's an island in a swamp.
So no big surprise.

What is surprising is that my home here in St. James is rated a "9", extreme risk.
Yet homes a block away have zero ratings, and in reality I'm on a nice hill and have not ever seen any sign of water flooding issues - and no, I'm nowhere near a pond.
My mortgage didn't require flood insurance either, I think this used to be a cattle field.

Again this is why you use a lawyer to protect your interest instead of just the title company closer.

Website is BS. Checked 3 properties, one on top of mountain 5700’ in NC which it stated 99% chance of flooding in 30 yrs. build an ark!

Federal government offers flood insurance. All of Florida is a flood zone

Chitty chatty has and will always be the chitty chatty swamp. Water view down here can mean you’re looking at or are in a swamp

As I understand it, the flood plain maps used to calculate the flood insurance rates are prepared and updated by the Federal Government, FEMA. These maps are always "out of date" because everything changes. But, I don't think you will have any success in getting FEMA to update the maps to change your insurance rate.

Instead of a standard home, build an ark or a houseboat. I think flood insurance is pretty standard in the villages. I live in an area where there is not much chance of a flood, but have flood insurance.