Patent Application
20160063635
In the United States, a large number of American homes are at risk for floods, and may be covered by flood insurance. Many private insurers do not insure against the peril of flood due to the prevalence of moral hazard and adverse selection phenomena, for example, in the purchase of insurance by persons most affected by the specific peril of flood. In such cases, traditional insurance is not available. Whereas for other insurable risks, insurers use the economic law of large numbers to charge a relatively small fee to large numbers of people in order to pay the claims of the small numbers of claimants who have suffered a loss. In flood insurance, typically the numbers of claimants is larger than the available number of persons interested in protecting their property from the peril, which means that most private insurers view the probability of generating a profit from providing flood insurance as being remote. Additionally, while there are insurers that do provide privately written primary flood insurance for high value homes, the underwriting and provision of such insurance does not account for many flood risks.
In certain flood-prone areas, the federal government requires flood insurance to secure mortgage loans backed by federal agencies.
The lack of flood insurance can be detrimental to many homeowners who may discover only after the damage has been done that their standard insurance policies do not cover flooding. Flooding can occur due to various natural disasters, for example earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, or other natural disasters. Few insurers in the U.S. provide flood insurance coverage due to the hazard of flood typically being confined to a few areas. As a result, it is an unacceptable risk due to the inability to spread the risk to a wide enough population in order to absorb the potential catastrophic nature of the hazard.
It is an object of the invention to provide to consumers, real property owners, construction entities, insurance companies, government agencies, and other entities concerned with flood risks, a system, apparatus, and method for analyzing information related to a specific real property structure, including customer information; information regarding uses of real property (residential, industrial, commercial, living spaces, crawl spaces, etc.); elevation, slope, and grade information; base flood elevation; flood depth; use of flood mitigation devices (e.g., existence of breakaway walls or flood vents); survey information; the use of design professionals in mitigation of risk; and other matters; and using this information to identify means of assessing and reducing risk, including use of, or repositioning of, flood mitigation devices; reinforcement of structures, use of design professionals, and other matters, in order to mitigate risk. It is an additional object of this invention to analyze means of reducing risk whether or not all identified input variables are known.
It is an additional object of the invention to quantify and reduce excess risk coverage premiums for homes not covered by National Flood Insurance Program flood plain insurance, including but not limited to high value homes.
It is an additional object of the invention to error-check elevation certificates, insurance companies' calculations of premiums, surveyors, and regional and community flood plain managers.
It is an additional object of the invention to error-check structures for the need to have flood insurance, and whether options exist to remove regulatory burdens.
In one embodiment of the invention, the following Sections A, B, C, and D, identify information to be included in the “input” section. Data can be entered and as it is entered flags and reference guidance will identify requirements for prompting the surveyor or professional for accurate information. The embodiment of a software product, service, or application will allow the input of this information for flood risk assessments. In one embodiment of the invention, an application will also automatically fill out an elevation certificate.
In one embodiment of the innovation, unlike other software or applications that collect data to offer a risk analysis, this one will generate a graphical output that an untrained professional understands. Optionally, an embodiment of the software product, service, or application will also search for possible discrepancies on the elevation certificate, and offer a means, a “red flag,” or a grade or rank of the accuracy of that document.
For example, during the data entry steps, data may be related to the height of the mechanicals. A user could enter data showing that the boilers, water heaters, HVAC, condensers, outside unit compressors, or additional units or modules used for home support, are below the base flood elevation, and a prompt may recommend taking digital pictures of that area, and attach the photographs to the comment section.
As an additional option for an embodiment of the invention, a perpetual rating for a surveyor's accuracy will be generated offering another tool for insurance companies to use to gauge risk. This will dramatically reduce the number of incorrectly filed elevation certificates by untrained surveyors that are not identified through a insurance risk evaluation system.
An embodiment of the invention may optionally also automatically fill out an elevation certificate and prompt with help to insure the lowest risk.
An embodiment of the invention may optionally include the some or all of the following information as input variables.
For buildings with attached garage:
Additional information:
Comments:
(Comments will include any information that may help assess the risk)
Signature and Date.
An embodiment of the invention may optionally include the some or all of the following information as output variables.
For example, for a garage with machinery, the output will identify whether garage is below Base Flood Elevation, and whether flood vents are too high above the bottom floor. Risk assessment output will include whether the flood vents may be moved or breakaway walls may be included, whether the machinery should be moved to reduce financial risks.
For a second example, for a crawl space, the output will identify whether additional vents are required, whether major appliances or key rooms in structure (e.g., a kitchen) are below the Base Flood Elevation. The output will include “red flags” which illustrate why the red flag exists, and how to reduce risks. The output may also identify whether NFIP minimum threshold requirements have been met, along with means of further reducing risks to the entire structure. The output may also identify whether an inspection of specific enclosed areas is warranted, and identify how to reduce risk to contents of crawl spaces and key rooms in a structure.
As additional optional output, “red flags” or other symbols may be shown on a graphical representation of the structure so insurance technicians, homeowners, and community officials with marginal expertise can understand their risk and make decisions on retrofitting to reduce that risk.
As additional optional output, adjustments to the application or program can be made for customers seeking different tolerances of risk. These “red flag” symbols may also be different for regions of the country more susceptible for flooding or for communities, or insurance companies that want to reduce risk above the NFIP minimum baseline.
In an embodiment of the invention, professional land surveyors that are measuring the data to fill out an elevation certificate can use this tool prior to submission to highlight discrepancies. A scan into a master database system can output the possible discrepancies and offer a compliance rating of that elevation certificate that will be used to gauge risk. Discrepancies can be easily altered, and mitigation tools or retrofit can be suggested that could dramatically reduce risk along with the cost of flood insurance. This service from the surveyor offers no additional risk, yet increases the value of the service substantially. This rating over time will also be used as a tool to gauge the competency of that firm.
An embodiment of the invention includes at least one pictorial representation of output for a software program analysis of at least one structure with a crawl space, garage, basement, or below-flood elevation structures, where the structure is found in a flood zone.
An additional embodiment of the invention may incorporate a sensor technology wherein the incorporated sensor technology is capable of outputting data electronically, for example to an insurer. Sensor technology may monitor conditions for detecting water or leakages; for indicating whether structures or personal property is located in an enclosed space below a base flood elevation, or similar characteristics of a real property. Among other sensor uses, sensors may be used to confirm compliance with an insurance policy, where a public or private insurer may provide conditional insurance, or for alterations to a premium for the insurance policy, based on the condition of the building indicated in the monitoring data.
In an embodiment of the invention, a public or private insurer may determine a premium alteration on the condition of the building indicated in the sensor's monitoring data in relation to information identified above, and pertaining to the grade, property, or construction of a structure.
Although the present invention has been described in detail herein with reference to the identified embodiments, it should be understood that the description is by way of example only and is not to be construed in a limiting sense. It is to be further understood, therefore, that numerous changes in the details of the embodiments of this invention and additional embodiments of this invention will be apparent to, and may be made by, persons of ordinary skill in the art having reference to this description. It is contemplated that all such changes and additional embodiments are within the spirit and true scope of this invention as claimed below. Thus, while the present invention has been described in particular reference to the general area of ophthalmic surgery, the teachings contained herein apply equally wherever it is desirous to provide insurance risk evaluation, reduced insurance premiums, identification of flood risks, identification of errors in flood plain, surveyor, or insurance risk characteristics, and related information.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/791 352 , filed Mar. 15, 2013, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
