FEMA Releases New Flood Insurance Manual

By Corey Weeks, Manager, Government Relations, PIA National

FEMA has released an updated  flood insurance manual which went into effect on October 1st. FEMA made several updates and clarifications in the new manual, highlighted below. Agents can find the full manual with all of its changes  here.

Changes in October 2025 Flood Insurance Manual

• A notice has been added to policies to contact the agent if information is not current
• Homes larger than 15,000 sqft must have documentation supporting its square footage
• Documentation must also be provided for the following
  • 1-4 family building with 5 or more floors
  • Residential Manufactured/Mobile Home and Non-Residential Manufactured/Mobile Building with more than 3 floors.
  • Other Residential Building, Residential Condo Association, Residential Unit,
    Non-Residential Building and Non-Residential Unit with more than 100 floors.
• If, midway through a policy term, a community’s CRS class changes or a policy’s eligibility for a CRS discount changes, any resulting adjustment to the CRS discount applies at the next policy renewal and is not subject to the statutory annual increase cap
• A manufactured home or mobile home is not a “modular” building. Modular building construction is regulated by the same local and state rules that apply to site-built buildings
• 99999 is not a valid value for building occupancies or number of floors

To review the comprehensive set of changes please consult the Flood Insurance Manual.