How It Works: Selling a Fire Damaged House in Hartford

Why One Appointment Carries So Much

After a fire the building is open in ways it never is otherwise. Finishes are off, the sill area is visible, the basement is accessible, and somebody with professional judgement is coming to look at it anyway.

That combination does not recur. Once the building is secured, cleared or repaired, getting the same view back costs money and time. So the question worth asking is not what the engineer is coming for but what else they could answer while they are there. The framework is on our page covering the foundation and the disclosure.

Before: Spend Five Minutes on the Pour Year

Call the town building department and ask what year the foundation was poured. Free, and for most properties it decides whether the appointment needs to cover one subject or two.

Ask about the foundation rather than the house. A rebuild after an earlier fire, a lift or an addition puts newer concrete under an older structure, and on this site that case turns up regularly.

What If the Year Comes Back Inside the Window?

Then the appointment needs to cover the foundation as well, and you say so when you book rather than on the day. A Connecticut licensed engineer can give a severity classification, and Class 3 rests on a visual examination with no core sample required, so the marginal work while somebody is already on site is modest. CFSIC reimburses the inspection and half the cost of core boring up to $2,000 where testing is needed.

Before: Say What You Want in the Booking

The single most common way this goes wrong is an owner who books a structural inspection, thinks about the foundation two months later, and pays for a second visit to a building that has since been boarded up.

Engineers cannot answer questions nobody asked them. Put both in the booking.

During: The Two Answers That Set Everything Else

What the framing will still do. This decides whether the property is in the repair market or the rebuild market, and those price very differently on the same address. Buyers working from photographs assume the unfavourable answer.

What the foundation is. Where the pour year is inside the window, a severity classification is what CFSIC requires for a claim and what a buyer needs in order to keep their own eligibility.

Do I Have to Decide Anything on the Day?

No, and it is better if you do not. The appointment produces facts rather than choices. What it should not produce is a contractor's opinion presented as an engineer's, which is a different thing with a different interest behind it. An engineer says what is there; a contractor quotes work. Keep those two visits and those two roles separate.

After: Everything Else Becomes Cheaper

Quotes get accurate, because contractors are pricing a known structure. Offers get firmer, because the largest uncertainty is resolved. And your position with a buyer improves in a specific way that is worth spelling out.

A purchaser completing after 1 February 2019 needs an engineer's report issued prior to closing to be eligible for a claim worth up to $175,000. A seller who already holds one is selling something better than a seller who does not, and is not introducing a step into the sale at the point terms have been agreed.

After: The Decision, Which Has No Deadline

Repair, rebuild or sell. Nothing about it improves for being rushed, and it is a different decision with two reports in hand than without them.

Owners who feel they must decide immediately usually feel that because everything is uncertain. The appointment removes most of the uncertainty rather than the decision.

What We Do With Your Address

The pour year from the town record, and the permit history including any rebuild or addition, which is where the year surprises people.

The assessor's record, since assessors must inspect and reassess properties with defective concrete foundations and the record can carry a trace.

Local sale evidence for what the house would be worth repaired on your actual street.

What Comes Back

A written figure with each line visible: finished value, cost of the work, carrying cost and margin. Where the foundation is inside the window and unassessed, the allowance we have made for it is a stated line rather than folded invisibly into a lower number, so a clean report can be held against it.

What If a Listing Beats Us?

Then the email says so, and across the western towns and much of the sound city stock it says so often. A repairable house on a foundation outside the window has a normal market that does not need a cash buyer's margin taken out of it. We would rather establish that on day two than argue toward a number nobody was going to accept.

What Never Happens

No fee at any stage. No request that you clear the site, commission a report or repair anything first. No requirement that your claim be settled. No assignment of the contract to a third party. We do not ask a seller to delay a foundation inspection until terms are agreed, and we give no opinion on whether a foundation is affected, because we are not engineers.

Common Questions About the Process

How Long Does It Take?

Address to written figure is usually a few days. Closing depends on title and on whether a foundation report is being obtained. The insurance claim does not have to be settled first.

Do I Need to Be in Connecticut?

No. Out-of-state owners are common on inherited property and remote closing is routine, though somebody local needs to let the engineer in.

The Building Has Already Been Secured.

Then the appointment is harder rather than impossible, and worth arranging sooner rather than later. Say what you need covered when you book.

How This Works, Step by Step