what happens to flooded mobile homes

[rdavy]

We live on the banks of the Rio Grande and one day our mobile home could be flooded. The first monthly payment I make is to my home insurance agent for flood & the usual homeowners coverage. We were wondering what happens to mobile homes that do get flooded - are they repaired or scrapped or ?

[Yanita]

Hi,

Welcome to the site.

That would depend on the amount of flooding or damage that your home suffered. Also read your flood coverage real well, sometimes specific wording makes it so your home is not covered, depending how the flood occurred.

Some homes get repaired, some get scraped.

Yanita

I am going to move this to off topic as it is not a repair question, follow us there!

[Ketta]

We live on an island on the Columbia River and worry about the same thing. The MHC we live in assures residents they're prepared for flooding (last major flood that affected any homes was in 1996). They said they only lost one home to water damage in the last flood, the rest were protected by preparation, quick thinking, and of course insurance. The one that was lost was fairly old (early '70's).

We're also told that the older models face worse outcomes of course, because of materials used in construction and lack of good workmanship on many. The newer homes stand a better chance, as well as older homes that have been well cared for and so on.

What's nice about insurance is that it's cheap (compared to car insurance....whew!), and coverage is often more than enough to replace a home if lost. We've got the lower cost 'overall' coverage that does include flood damage/loss. Should we lose our home, insurance will more than cover the cost of it. But like Yanita said, be sure and understand the wording in your coverage...they can be tricky.

I bet people wonder why we decided to buy a home on an island that's on a river that *cough* has been known to flood. Hehe, it's like asking for abuse! The doomsayer in me is screaming, "We're SO due for a flood! You just wait!"

[Yanita]

Welllll,

I have to totally disagree with an older home not making it thru a flood verses a newer home will.

In reality the construction of MH and the materials used have not really changed in 35 plus years! Yes there are upgrades, and HUD has made a few changes, but not much.....

As far as water goes to me they are ALL in danger of being a total loss in the event of a flood. I live in a hurricane zone, flooding is common, and we had a major flood back in "99". I can say that as many new homes were condemned as there was older homes.

I recently solder a newer Oakwood singlewide, and purchased, a 35 year old Mansfield doublewide, yup, sold the new for the old! I trust this home much more in high winds than the newer one.

Insurance...just from my experience, unless you have a rider on your policy that specifically says "REPLACEMENT VALUE", your chances of receiving a check to purchase a new home is slim to none.

When an insurance company assess a claim, they go by the market value, age of the home, quality of items used in construction of the home and then all those years of depreciation....not much left for you! You have to realize that MH's are not typically sold with top of the line carpeting, subfloor materials, appliances....

Hey Ketta, cheap homeowners insurance..lucky you! Come on over to the East coast in hurricane country, our prices will blow you away! I can insure my Monte Carlo with full coverage 3 times for what I pay in homeowners.

JMO...again,

Yanita

[Ketta]

Dang! (About the insurance)

Imagine my surprise when a year's worth of insurance was just around $300ish. This is the first home I've owned, so had only auto insurance to compare with. I was floored.

As far as new vs. old goes, mainly I was reiterating what we've been told and I'm willing to believe folks here over what our MHC spouts to some degree. That is, their opinion on new vs. old, not facts relating to the last flood. Any of the old mh's that don't pass code in the park are torn down/removed and speedily replaced with new (brand new) models. The MHC is a nice place, tidy, well-kept, secure, and strict about rules and screening to live here, and obviously they want newer homes because they look nicer, yadda yadda.

But thinking back, I do remember my mother commenting on a new Fleetwood we got when I was 12 or so. 'Put metal siding on this, and it's not much better than the old one,' after having to do some work on the roof and underbelly. It's too bad, because you'd think codes and standards would improve dramatically; one major improvement I do know of is aluminum to copper wiring, but is that national or statewide manufacturing requirements?

Like a new car, I know we'll likely never purchase a new mobile home. Plans are to hopefully get a used one to put on some land once we're done with this one (I am sure it's likely too old to move without comromising it a lot).