Mary Fullerton lives in an elevated Crystal Beach home with an enclosure behind her garage. There, she spent many nights entertaining friends for dinner. However, Hurricane Helene wiped everything away in September. Now, she said her flood insurance is leaving her high and dry. "This is my denial letter from Wright saying that you get nothing," Fullerton said. "You pay and pay and pay for the last five years, and then when you need it you get no coverage."In Fullerton's denial letter, Wright Flood Insurance cited that since her bonus room on the bottom floor is below the flood elevation designated by FEMA, it's not covered. The flood designation requirements apply to homes built after 1975 in Pinellas County, and Fullerton's home was built in 1988. "That's all news to me," she said. It's even more confusing because she's actually paying taxes on that bonus room downstairs. It's also listed on the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's office as "Lower Area Finished" also known as an LAF designation. "You're paying taxes on this. I mean this is taxable living space," she said. So why isn't it insurable? "I probably have 100 examples of this," said Jake Holehouse of HH Insurance Group. "Unfortunately, what happens is the county property appraiser often shows what's called an LAF or lower area finished. People make an assumption that means that it was permitted living space. Unfortunately, that is not a permitting living in space in most cases." Holehouse said unless Fullerton can prove the area was permitted as a legal living space on that bottom floor when it was built or remodeled, she won't have coverage, and he said getting a lower-level permit from the county in Flood Zone A is nearly impossible. "In most cases they do not do that for flood because basically it takes away the community's rating status with FEMA," Holehouse added. "It's definitely frustrating for a lot of viewers. What we typically see is that for an original homeowner that built the space and knows it's not permitted, that they're typically understanding, but when it's changed hands two or three times, there's an assumption that coverage should apply." ABC Action News reached out to the Pinellas County Property Appraisers for some clarification too. "I dont believe that it is our subarea designation of Lower Area Finished (LAF) that is presenting the flood providers payout. What flood insurance agrees to payout on is determined by whether the living area impacted is above or below Base Flood Elevation (BFE) in conjunction with whether it was constructed Pre-FIRM (Flood Insurance Rate Map) or Post-FIRM. Post-FIRM structures were constructed after a local jurisdictions adoption of their Flood Insurance Rate Map (typically after the mid 1970s). It sounds like this particular property was a Post-FIRM residential property that had an illegal buildout below the BFE, which is non-insurable by flood insurance carriers. We typically identify these subareas as LAF. The fact of it being taxable or not has no bearing on its insurability. A few other examples of usable improvements to residential property that are taxable but not insurable under flood policies include pools, driveways, fences, and docks to name a few," wrote Property Appraiser Mike Twitty, who didn't have the specific address for reference. For Fullerton, though, seeing her flood insurance rates double since 2019, she feels this was a loophole she missed. Now, she is left with nothing to help rebuild her downstairs. "I hope that people understand what they actually have as far as coverage. I mean, you need to ask a lot of questions as to what's covered and what's not when you purchase a flood insurance policy," Fullerton said. "They need to just be careful and be diligent at looking at what is covered."