Sell a Fire Damaged House in Windsor, Bloomfield, Enfield, Suffield or Windsor Locks

The Assessment Record Can Tell You Something

Public Act 16-45 requires municipal assessors to inspect and reassess residential properties with foundations made from defective concrete.

That means the response to this problem is not confined to a private inspection nobody else sees. Where a property has been identified, the town's own valuation of it may reflect the fact, and that is a record an owner or a buyer can look at. The framework is on our page covering the foundation and the disclosure.

What If My Assessment Has Not Changed?

It tells you nobody has identified a problem, which is not the same as there being none. The reassessment follows an identification, and identification generally follows an inspection somebody arranged. So an unchanged assessment is weak evidence in your favour and no substitute for an engineer's opinion, particularly on a pour inside the window.

Your Insurance Is Protected From One Thing

A point owners here worry about unnecessarily. Under the same Act, insurance companies cannot cancel or refuse to renew a homeowner's policy because of a crumbling foundation.

So finding out does not cost you your cover. That removes one of the two reasons people give for not looking, and the other reason, that knowing creates a disclosure obligation, is weaker than it sounds in a state that has created a private right of action for buyers about exactly this.

Does It Help With the Fire Claim?

They are separate matters and it is worth keeping them separate in your own head. A fire claim concerns fire damage; the foundation programme is a distinct scheme funded through the Department of Housing and a surcharge on homeowners' policies, administered by a captive insurer that does not sell traditional insurance. Confusing the two is a common way for owners to conclude wrongly that they have already been dealt with.

We publish no assessment findings, foundation conclusions or values for individual northern town properties. Each town's assessor and a Connecticut licensed engineer answer those.

Mixed Eras Across a Short Distance

Housing across Windsor, Bloomfield, Enfield, Suffield and Windsor Locks spans a wide range, from genuinely old centres to substantial post-war and later development.

The pour year rather than the town decides the foundation question, and the build year rather than the town decides the framing question. Both are on the record and neither is safely inferred from the surroundings.

Values Sit Comfortably in Places

Across much of these towns finished values carry the cost of repair, which makes repairing better than selling on sound stock. Where a foundation problem is confirmed, that arithmetic changes materially, which is another reason to establish it before deciding.

The Northern Towns in Context

Where the concentration is highest, see our page about east of the river. Where the housing predates the window entirely, see our page for Hartford's neighbourhoods.

The Acts Behind the Assessment Position

Public Act 16-45 of 2016 requires municipal assessors to inspect and reassess residential properties with defective concrete foundations, and bars insurers from cancelling or refusing renewal on that ground.

Public Act 17-2 section 336 created CFSIC in 2017; it launched in January 2019, pays up to $175,000, and is funded partly by a $12 surcharge on Connecticut homeowners' policies. The affected window is about 1983 to 2015.

Northern Town Questions

Would My Assessment Show a Problem?

It may, where one has been identified. An unchanged assessment is weak reassurance rather than an answer.

Will My Insurer Drop Me If I Test?

Insurers cannot cancel or refuse to renew a homeowner's policy because of a crumbling foundation.

Will You Buy in Windsor or Enfield?

Yes, across the northern towns and in any condition.

Sell a Fire Damaged House in The Northern Towns