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Elevation Certificate: What It Is, Who Fills It Out and What It Costs
An Elevation Certificate is a FEMA form that records how high a building sits compared with the flood level on FEMA’s map. It is FEMA Form FF-206-FY-22-152 (formerly 086-0-33), filled out for one specific building, and the key numbers on it are measured by a land surveyor, engineer or architect licensed in your state. Lenders, insurers and your local permit office all read it.
The short version: you may already have one, because communities have to keep these records for buildings put up or substantially improved in the high-risk zone. Ask your local floodplain administrator before you pay for a survey. And under FEMA’s current pricing, an Elevation Certificate is optional for flood insurance, and the elevations on it can only lower the premium, never raise it.
Why the Elevation Matters: What FEMA’s Claims Show
Each foot a floor sits above the base flood elevation (BFE) is a foot the water has to rise before it gets inside. FEMA’s claims file shows the pattern. We took every NFIP claim in Zones AE, A1–A30 and AH on a building with no basement, crawlspace or raised foundation (83% of the claims charted are on single-family homes), where the policy recorded how far the lowest floor sat from the BFE, and compared the damage with what the building was worth. Older and newer buildings are shown separately, because they differ in more than height:
Median building damage as a share of building value, per claim, for 46,070 NFIP claims (1988–2026). Height is the policy’s recorded difference between the lowest floor used for rating and the BFE, rounded to the nearest foot, so “at BFE” means within about half a foot; more than a third of these policies are flagged as rated from an Elevation Certificate. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP Claims v3, read October 26, 2026.
Newer buildings (built after the community’s first flood map): the typical claim at the BFE did damage worth 26% of the building; four or more feet above it, 10%.
Older buildings: 32% at the BFE, 25% four or more feet above.
Averages fall less than these medians, because a few very large losses happen at every height.
What this does and doesn’t show: it measures how bad the damage was when a claim was filed, not how often a building floods, and height is one of several things that matter, along with how close the building is to the water and how it’s built. Buildings with floors below the BFE are mostly older ones and too few among newer buildings to chart reliably, so we left them out. We also left out basements, crawlspaces and elevated homes, which are rated from different reference floors. The point stands: a few feet of height on the certificate is worth a lot, and the certificate is how you prove it.
What’s on the Form
The current form is labeled the 2022 edition; FEMA approved it in July 2023. For insurance, FEMA still accepts a properly completed certificate on an older edition if it was signed before November 1, 2023. The printed expiration date on the blank form doesn’t apply to completed certificates: in FEMA’s words, “a completed Elevation Certificate does not expire, unless there is a physical change to the building” that changes the information on it, and it isn’t invalidated when the building is sold. The sections:
A. Property information: address, building use, and a building diagram number. The form has eleven diagrams (1A through 9) for slab, basement, split-level, crawlspace and elevated buildings, and the one chosen tells the surveyor which floor to measure. Section A also records flood openings in a crawlspace or enclosure, and any attached garage.
B. Flood map information: the community, the FIRM panel and its effective date, the flood zone, and the base flood elevation. (How to read a FEMA flood map explains each of these.)
C. Building elevation information (survey required): the surveyed elevations of the top of the bottom floor (including basement, crawlspace or enclosure floor), the next higher floor, machinery and equipment, an attached garage, and the lowest and highest ground next to the building. In V zones the key measurement is the bottom of the lowest horizontal structural member instead.
D. Certification, “signed and sealed by a land surveyor, engineer, or architect authorized by state law to certify elevation information.”
E. Measurements without a survey, for Zone AO and Zone A without a BFE: heights of the floors above the ground, which an owner, owner’s representative or local official may fill in. Section E is for floodplain-management compliance only; for insurance, owners use Section H.
F and I. Owner certifications for the parts an owner completes.
G. Community information, for the local floodplain official: permit dates, the as-built lowest floor, and the community’s required elevation, “including freeboard” (see below).
H. First floor height, for insurance only: how high the first floor sits above the lowest ground next to the building, and whether machinery and equipment are raised, measured without a survey. The owner, owner’s representative or local floodplain official may complete it in any zone, along with Sections A, B and I, and the certificate needs photos of the building.
Who Can Fill It Out
Wherever the map shows a base flood elevation (Zones AE, A1–A30, AH, VE and the rest), the elevations must come from a land surveyor, engineer or architect authorized by state law to certify them. Most people hire a licensed land surveyor.
Two exceptions let you skip the survey. In Zone AO and Zone A without a BFE, Section E can be completed by the owner, the owner’s representative or the local official, unless the certificate will support a request to FEMA to change the property’s flood zone (a LOMA, LOMR-F or their conditional versions, see below), which needs surveyed elevations. And for insurance alone, Section H lets an owner record the first floor height in any zone. The local floodplain official can complete Sections A, B, E, G and H, and can copy Section C from an existing signed and sealed survey.
Do You Need One?
For NFIP flood insurance: no, but it can save money. Since FEMA’s Risk Rating 2.0 pricing, FEMA estimates a building’s height itself. If you submit a certificate, its rating system prices the policy both ways and charges the lower premium: “Providing EC information will not increase a premium” (NFIP Flood Insurance Manual, October 2025). The photos that go with it can still correct other details on the policy, such as the foundation type, if those were wrong. You can add one in the middle of a policy term; if it lowers the premium, the refund runs back to the start of the current term. It pays most when a building sits well above the ground around it, which FEMA’s estimate may not capture. Private flood insurers set their own rules and may ask for one. A few NFIP cases do need a certificate, such as the floodproofing discount on a non-residential building.
To build or substantially improve in the high-risk zone: yes, in practice. Where FEMA has mapped flood elevations, federal rules require NFIP communities to get the elevation of the lowest floor (including the basement) of new and substantially improved buildings in the high-risk zone and keep it on record (44 CFR 60.3(b)(5) and (c)(1); in coastal V zones, 60.3(e)(2) measures the bottom of the lowest structural member instead). Most do it with this form. Many communities also require freeboard, the lowest floor built a foot or more above the BFE as a margin of safety, and the certificate is how the builder proves it.
To get out of the high-risk zone: usually. If the lowest ground touching your building (including an attached deck, stairs or garage) is at or above the BFE, and that ground is natural rather than fill, FEMA can issue a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) that removes the building from the Special Flood Hazard Area. That ends the federal requirement to carry flood insurance, though your lender can still require it on its own terms. Buildings on fill go through a LOMR-F instead. Either way FEMA needs surveyed elevations, normally on an Elevation Certificate (its application also has its own elevation form). Our LOMA guide walks through it.
To buy a house in a flood zone: ask for it. It tells you what the building’s elevation really is, which a zone label doesn’t. More in Buying a house in a flood zone.
How to Find an Existing Elevation Certificate
Your local floodplain administrator, usually in the city or county building, permitting or engineering office. Communities must “maintain for public inspection and furnish upon request” the lowest-floor elevations they collect (44 CFR 59.22(a)(9)(iii)), and communities in FEMA’s Community Rating System must give copies of the certificates they keep to anyone who asks (they may charge a copying fee). A building built or substantially improved in the high-risk zone since the community’s first flood map took effect is the most likely to have one on file.
The seller or previous owner, or their insurance agent.
The builder or developer, who may have needed one to get the permit or certificate of occupancy.
FEMA doesn’t run a public national database of Elevation Certificates; it sends homeowners to their community, and some counties and states post their certificates online, so check your community’s website too. If you’re not sure who your floodplain administrator is, look up your address for the community and map details, then call the building department there.
What a New One Costs
A new certificate means hiring a surveyor, and the price depends on the lot, the building and how far the surveyor has to go to find a benchmark of known elevation. NerdWallet, citing the home-services site Angi, puts a typical certificate at about $400 to $750 (2026), with large, wooded or remote lots costing more; FEMA’s older homeowner guide gave $500 to $2,000 or more. To find a surveyor, FEMA suggests your state’s land surveyors’ association, the state NFIP coordinator or your local permit office. Before you pay, ask:
Does the community already have one on file? (Often free, or a small copying fee.)
Is Section H enough for what you need? For an insurance quote it may be, and you can measure it yourself.
If you’re hoping for a LOMA, can the surveyor also give you the lowest adjacent grade and the photos FEMA wants, so you only pay once?