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County Engineer

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1. If I have sinkholes above a pipe or around a stormwater inlet, will the county fix them?

Yes, as long as there is a recorded drainage easement, the county will fix any drainage structure and repair the yard above it. Contact the Roads and Bridges Department at (901) 379-4410.

2. What can the county engineer do about the neighbor who has altered the grading of his lot and has increased/decreased the flow to my property?

We may be able to provide general advice. Private property is not under the authority of the government. This is a private matter that must be worked out between the homeowners. Commonly, the law provides that the actions of adjacent property owners must not cause damage. Consult an attorney for full explanation of rights and responsibilities in accordance with the particulars of the situation.

3. Will the county clean the creek or ditch on my property?

Generally not, since the county cannot work on private property without a recorded drainage easement. An easement is typically only on or around concrete inlets, pipes, and channels. It is the homeowner's responsibility to keep natural drainage features functional. Some drainage easements are on "common open space," which are typically the responsibility of the homeowner's association. If you would like to know if a drainage easement exists on your property, you can check your subdivision plat at Shelby County Register of Deeds by doing an address search (right-hand side) and selecting the link to the subdivision's plat in blue.

4. Does a recorded drainage easement mean the county owns the property?

No, the easement gives the county the right to enter the space to make repairs and fix problems related to public facilities such as culverts and inlets. The underlying land is still owned by the homeowner.

5. If there is a recorded easement on my property is the county responsible for mowing the grass and trimming bushes?

No, in much the same way a homeowner is responsible for maintaining the grass on the median strip of the county right of way between a sidewalk and a curb, the homeowner must maintain their property.

6. Is the county responsible for my home builder or my neighbor's home builder altering the drainage paths in my subdivision.

No, the subdivision was built and checked according to a grading and drainage (G&D) plan designed and certified by the developer's engineer. This plan takes into account all flow onto and off the property as well as flow to street drains and inlets inside the development. Unfortunately, after a subdivision has been checked and accepted, the individual builders and/or subsequent property owners may take it upon themselves to make changes. If this happens, the builder must be contacted or the homeowner must make corrections themselves. The county cannot work within private property unless the work is within a recorded drainage easement.

7. If I buy a brand new house in an unfinished subdivision, who is responsible for maintenance of my yard and the structures?

Each homeowner is responsible for the maintenance of the yard from the move-in date, unless it can be shown that there was some defect in the way the grading or lawn was installed. In that case, the developer or builder should be contacted. Generally, problems with the yard may be referred to the builder while questions involving the public infrastructure may be the responsibility of the county or the developer. Please contact our office at (901) 545-4320 for advice on this question. There is usually a one-year warranty from the developer on all the structures. The year starts when the work has been accepted by the county. This may be several years before some of the houses have been built.

8. How do I obtain or review the flood map for my area?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as part of its administration of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), publishes flood hazard maps, called Flood Insurance Rate Maps, or FIRMs. The purpose of a FIRM is to show the areas in a community that are subject to flooding and the risk associated with these flood hazards. You can research and view FIRMs for free at the FEMA Map Service Center. You can also create a customized FIRMette: a paper copy of a user-defined portion of an effective FIRM, produced and saved on your computer. The FIRMette is true to scale and includes title block, scale, and north arrow. It can be used to help determine the location of a property or structure relative to the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA).

9. What is a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA)?

The SFHA is also known as the 100-year floodplain. It is more precisely defined as the floodplain associated with a flood that has a 1% annual chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. Therefore, the SFHA is not a flood event that happens once in a hundred years, rather a flood event that has a one percent chance of occurring every year.

10. I have looked at the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) for the area of my property and think the map is wrong. How can the map be changed?

A Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) changes flood insurance risk zones, floodplain and/or floodway boundary delineations, planimetric features, and/or Base Flood Elevations (BFE) shown on a FIRM. Homeowners, community officials, and others who have adequate scientific and/or technical data may submit those data to FEMA to support a request for a Letter of Map Revision to revise the flood hazard information shown on the effective FIRM. Individuals, who would like changes to non-technical information, such as road names, road configurations, and corporate limits, should submit the required information to support a map change request to FEMA. Please contact our office at (901) 545-4320 for advice and assistance.

11. My lender says I need to buy flood insurance, but my lot is not shown in the SFHA.

For virtually every mortgage transaction involving a structure in the United States, a lender reviews the currently effective FIRM for the community in which the property is located to determine its location relative to the SFHA. In some cases, a lender incorrectly determines that a property is in a SFHA. If you would like FEMA to make an official determination regarding the location of your property relative to the SFHA, you may apply for a Letter of Determination Review (LODR). The LODR process does not consider the elevation of the structure or property. Rather, it considers only the horizontal location of the structure relative to the SFHA shown on the FIRM. FEMA reviews this information and issues its finding of whether the structure is located in the SFHA according to the currently effective FIRM. While this determination cannot consider the elevation of your structure or property, it can be useful if you feel the lender's interpretation of the FIRM is incorrect. Please contact our office at (901) 545-4320 for advice and assistance.

12. If my house is within the SFHA, but it was built at an elevation above the required Base Flood Elevation (BFE), what can I do?

Depending on the specific circumstances, you may apply for a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA), or a Letter of Map Revision Based on Fill (LOMR-F). The application forms for LOMAs and LOMR-Fs can be found on the FEMA Forms webpage and provide comprehensive, step-by-step instructions for requesters to follow ensuring that your submittal is complete and logically structured. Upon receiving a completed application, FEMA reviews property-specific information including surveyed elevation data (typically the elevation of the lowest adjacent grade of the structure in question) and makes a final flood zone determination for the property. The homeowner may be required to hire a licensed land surveyor to perform this elevation survey if this data is not readily available. If the LOMA or LOMR-F removes the SFHA designation from the property, it can then be presented to the lender as proof that there is no federal flood insurance requirement for the property. Please contact our office at (901) 545-4320 for advice and assistance.

13. Does my homeowner's insurance policy cover flooding?

Homeowners insurance usually does not cover flood damage. Many property owners discover too late that their homeowners insurance policy will not pay when their homes are damaged by common geological processes such as earthquakes, expansive soils, floods, hurricanes, or landslides. Most homeowners have the impression that their "all perils" insurance policy would pay for almost any type of damage that their home would experience, so it is important to read the exclusions statement on the policy or ask their insurance agent.

14. Can I get flood insurance even if I am not in a floodplain?

The purchase of a flood insurance policy is wise even if a structure is located outside the SFHA. More than 25% of flood claims are made by property owners located outside the floodplain. The issuance of a LOMA or LOMR-F does not mean the structure or lot is safe from all flooding; it means that the risk of flooding is not as high as it is in the SFHA. Events greater than the 1% annual chance event can and do occur. It is also important to note that the flood insurance premium rate for structures located outside the floodplain are lower than the premiums for structures located in the floodplain.

15. How do I obtain a copy of the Elevation Certificate for my property?

The Elevation Certificate is one way for a community to comply with the National Flood Insurance Program requirement that the community obtain the elevation of the lowest floor (including basement) of all new and substantially improved structures and maintain a record of such information. The Elevation Certificate also is required to properly rate structures constructed after publication of the Flood Insurance Rate Map for flood insurance premiums. If an Elevation Certificate has been prepared for your property, you may be able to obtain it from the property developer or from community officials. Communities often require preparation of Elevation Certificates for properties as part of the permitting process. You may contact the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development at (901) 576-6619 to see if an Elevation Certificate already exists for your property.

Elevation Certificates must be prepared and certified by a registered professional engineer, licensed land surveyor, or registered landscape architect who is authorized by state or local law to certify elevation information. Community officials who are authorized by local law or ordinance to provide floodplain management information may also sign the certificate.