Fire Damaged Property Rehab

[Jim Francis]

Good Day BP,

I'm thinking about making an offer on a Fire Damaged Property.
Deal makes sense to me but others are scared of the codes with the City.
Is it me, or is it as simple as paying for your permits and having the right general contractor to make sure everything is up to code?

Also interested in being inboxed by anyone with contractor references that have experience in Chicago with rehabbing fire damaged property if I'm correct.

Thanks

[Lynnette E.]

You may also have to check what requirements there are for the existing part of the structure to be reused.

My mom's cabin burnt down from a gas explosion and following fire.  The foundation cement structure and bolts and septic tank and leach field and block walls were left remaining.

I had to have an engineer certify that the cement was intact and could be built on.  The septic tank had to be verified as ok from an inspection from both top openings after a full pump out.  We had to dig out the one opening as only the other one was used to pump it.  We had to sign an affidavit that the leach field was totally under a cement driveway and thus not ran over by firefighting, demolition,  or later insurance related heavy vehicles.  And the fire department had to inspect the foundation, confirm that all burnt wood was removed and that something did not happed to make the cement more likely to crumble and that the metal bracing did not melt or soften.

This was in CA is an area that had over 300 houses burn during a wildfire a few years earlier, so maybe they had way more experience nd thus requirements than most places.  Thought I'd list the permitting issues though so you could know what issues may be of concern.

But you should see what requirements your area has related to rebuilding and using any part of the structure that was involved in the fire.