It’s the bank that is requiring the flood insurance. You may want to check with your insurance agent and ask them what flood plain your house is in. If it is not in a required flood plain the bank may have made a mistake. If your home is located in a flood plain the government requires that the bank make sure that flood insurance is on the property before giving you the loan. If you don’t have it and the bank gets audited, they get fined.

FEMA NEVER requires flood insurance – it offers it. The BANK is requiring flood insurance, in order for you to borrow the money.

Every few years, the National Flood Insurance Plan “re-maps” areas. Your area might not have been in a 100 year flood plain for the first mortgage, but a re-mapping could mean it supposedly is now. You can always contest it, by providing an “elevation certificate” which you need to get from a surveyor.

Flood plain areas change, due to construction, erosion, and water movement patterns.

Additionally, it might not be in one, but the person reading the flood map might have made an error with the reading.

The short of it is – this isn’t FEMA, this is the bank. Flood plains change. And people make mistakes.