The Office of the Flood Insurance Advocate (OFIA)'s mission is to advocate for policyholders and property owners with compassion and fairness. OFIA’s goal is to reduce complexity of FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to ensure policyholders are treated fairly.
The OFIA accomplishes this by fielding inquiries from customers, identifying trends in the issues these customers face and making recommendations for program improvement based on these findings. The trends and recommendations are published yearly in OFIA’s annual reports.
While the OFIA receives inquiries spanning a range of topics, there is an underlying theme that affects many inquirers – affordability.
The OFIA 2021 Annual Report: The Voice of the Customer uses real quotes and stories from inquirers to highlight the issue of affordability across the NFIP. This year’s topic areas include:
- Insurance – OFIA inquirers are worried about the rising cost of flood insurance.
- Mandatory Purchase Requirements – OFIA inquirers find mandatory purchase requirements confusing and unjust.
- Mapping and Risk Communication – Property owners are often faced with expensive choices based on Flood insurance Rate Maps’ depiction of risk.
- Hazard Mitigation Assistance – The grants process can be difficult to traverse and not geared toward the individual property owner or underserved communities.
- Floodplain Management and Mitigation – Mitigating structures can be costly and floodplain management requirements are confusing for the average homeowner and their community.
Read the full OFIA 2021 Annual Report: The Voice of the Customer.