The flood determination we get from our flood vendor has spaces for the borrower and a bank officer to sign and date.

It is my understanding that there is no regulatory requirement to have the flood determnination signed. A loan recently closed and the closer had the borrowers initial the flood.

Is this permissible? Or, do we need to get a signature since there's a line on the form for it?

Is this the determination or is this a notice the property is located in a SFHA?

If it's the determination then there is no requirement for it to be signed by anyone and I would suggest contacting your vendor to remove the signature lines.

If it's the notice the property is located in a SFHA then the receipt of that notice must be acknowledged by the borrower.

It was only the determination.

Thanks!

We previously used a flood vendor who added signature lines on their determinations. When questioned, the vendor said they had been receiving requests from other institutions to have signature lines added to the form. They also added additional verbiage on the form, so we contacted FEMA and questioned the legality of making revisions to the form, they said:

additional comments that serve to explain the flood risk are okay in the Comments section. The following comments should come off: “ This document is furnished in strict accordance with the only legal methods approved by FEMA” and also the “lender and borrower confirmation.”

When we provided this information to our flood vendor they removed the verbiage but did not remove the signature lines. We ended up switching vendors (not solely based on this issue). I am happy to send documentation from FEMA if you send me a message