Who Buys Fire Damaged Houses in Hartford

The Rule, and Why It Sorts Buyers

A home buyer who purchases after 1 February 2019 must have a report from a professional engineer, issued prior to closing, in order to be eligible for a claim for reimbursement or replacement of a crumbling foundation. CFSIC may pay up to $175,000 of remediation cost.

So a buyer who closes without one has destroyed their own access to it, permanently, on that purchase. The full position is on our page covering the foundation and the disclosure.

Why Is That Useful to a Seller?

The Buyer Who Wants the Inspection

Reasonable rather than difficult. They are protecting a position worth up to $175,000 on a property where the foundation may be in the affected window.

Their offer is usually firmer for it, because the largest unknown gets resolved before terms are agreed rather than afterwards. Expect a step in the timetable and treat it as a sign of competence.

The Buyer Who Says It Does Not Matter

Two possibilities and they are distinguishable. On a pre-1983 foundation they may simply be right, and a competent buyer will say why.

The test: ask what pour year they have assumed and where they got it. A buyer who has checked the building department record has an answer. One who is reasoning from the age of the house is exposed to the rebuild-and-addition problem that catches owners too.

The Buyer Who Wants to Skip It to Close Faster

Worth pausing on, because speed is the thing cash buyers sell and it sounds like a favour.

Closing without the report is not neutral. It removes their eligibility, and a buyer who realises later what they gave up is a buyer who may look for the value somewhere else, including in a claim about what you disclosed.

The Buyer Who Asks What You Know

A good sign rather than a hostile one. Connecticut requires sellers to disclose and explain any knowledge of pyrrhotite in the foundation, and later legislation created a private right of action allowing buyers to recover actual damages where required disclosures are not made.

The right posture: answer honestly, including that you do not know where you do not. A buyer who wants you to be vague on the record is proposing an arrangement that is worse for you than for them.

Contract Assigners

Some parties sign to buy and sell the contract on before closing. On a property where an inspection should happen before completion, an unknown eventual purchaser who was not part of arranging it is the arrangement most likely to fail late or to close without the report.

The question that catches it: which entity will appear on the deed. A principal buyer gives you a name.

The Checks Worth Making Yourself

The building department, for the pour year. One lookup, and it resolves the question for most properties either way.

A Connecticut licensed engineer. For a severity classification, where the year puts you in the window. Class 3 requires only a visual examination.

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

An agent with no interest in the outcome. For what the repaired house is worth on your actual street.

Where We Fit, and Where We Do Not

We buy as principal, in our own entity, with our own funds, and we take title. We do not assign contracts. Ask us what we assume about the foundation and how we handle the report, and the answer should be specific.

We are frequently not the right answer. Across the western towns and much of the city's sound stock, where the frame survived and values carry the work, a listing or a rehabber will beat us outright. Our written figure says so when the numbers point there. What happens from there is on our page about how the process actually runs.

Questions About Buyers