When your worksheet is processed, a flood determination request containing certain required information is automatically and simultaneously forwarded via the Internet to the flood provider, U.S. Flood Research, Inc. At this point, one of two things can happen:
(1) Automatic determination: the information will hit U.S. Floodfs flood zone database and automatically determine that the property is either in or not in a flood zone. If an automatic determination is made, the loan document package will automatically include:
? "Standard Flood Hazard Determination" form; and
? If the property is determined to be in a flood zone, a "Notice of Special Flood Hazards and Availability of Federal Disaster Relief Assistance" form; or
(2) Manual determination: a determination cannot be made until a U.S. Flood researcher conducts a manual search of the flood zone database. If additional research is required, the loan document package will automatically include:
? A "Flood Hazard Determination Request" form; and
? A "Flood Zone Notification" form.
We currently anticipate that the majority of flood determination requests (between 60 - 70%) will result in automatic determinations, which are complete as soon as the customer receives the loan document package. In the remaining 30 - 40% of cases, a manual determination must be made and it will be U.S. Floods responsibility to follow up with the Doc Magic customer directly.
U.S. Flood has advised us that if they receive a manual request before 1:00 p.m. pacific, they normally will have their research completed and a determination made before 5:00 p.m. pacific (most of the manual requests are actually completed within 1-2 hours). If they receive a manual request after 1:00 p.m. pacific, they normally will have their research completed and a determination made before noon the following business day. Of course, there may be instances where U.S. Flood will require additional information or time to process the request. In those instances, U.S. Flood will contact the customer directly. Initially, U.S. Flood will fax their determinations directly to the Doc Magic customer. In the near future, we anticipate offering Doc Magic customers the option of receiving the determination by e-mail but this option is not yet available.