The Part With a Deadline
Catastrophic loss relief. The application is due within six months of the date the loss occurred, or within the remainder of that calendar year, whichever is longer, and the window runs from the fire rather than from anything your insurer does.
So the first practical step is finding the date of loss, which is on the fire report, and working out where you stand against it. If the answer is that the window is closing, that becomes the urgent item and everything else on this page waits.
What If the Window Has Already Closed?
The Other Part With a Deadline
If you file and the determination comes back and you disagree with it, you have thirty days from the date of the Chief Assessment Officer's determination to appeal. Where an application is denied, the determination letter arrives with a special appeal form, instructions and the deadline on it.
There is no filing fee. The statutory background is on our page covering the six-month clock.
Everything Below Here Can Wait
Which is the useful half of this page, because the pressure owners feel after a fire is mostly attached to things that carry no deadline at all.
Deciding whether to sell. No clock. Offers made with urgency attached are worth examining for why the urgency is there.
Clearing the site. No clock, and no benefit. Demolition is a cost any buyer prices in, and clearing early removes information and options without gaining anything.
Settling the insurance claim. No clock relative to a sale, because proceeds and property are separable and who keeps the claim is a contract term.
Getting a structural assessment. No clock, and worth doing properly rather than quickly. On the older stock here it frequently moves a property from the rebuild market into the repair market, which is worth considerably more than doing it fast.
What We Check, and In What Order
The date of loss and where it puts you. First, every time, because it is the only thing that can expire.
The ground. Whether the parcel sits over historic workings, using the mapping the Department of Environmental Protection publishes. Free, and it stops the question arriving in week four.
The site. Slope, access and whether equipment can reach the property. On this terrain that is not answerable from photographs.
The structure. Whether the framing came through, whether brick is structural or veneer, and whether there is a party wall carrying a neighbour.
The records. The assessment record for municipality and value, the Recorder of Deeds for the deed and any lien, and the permit history.
Why Check the Ground Before the Building?
What Comes Back
A written figure with each line visible: what a finished project on that site is worth, the cost of getting there including access and any party wall obligations, carrying cost and margin. Pennsylvania realty transfer tax is levied by the Commonwealth and matched locally, so the rate for your specific municipality comes off as well.
What If the Numbers Favour Keeping It?
What Never Happens
No fee at any stage. No request that you clear the site, board it, commission a report or repair anything first. No requirement that your claim be settled. No assignment of the contract to a third party. And we do not file your catastrophic loss application for you, because it is yours, it is free, and it should not be entangled with a purchase.
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 the ground or the access raised anything. The insurance claim does not have to be resolved first.
Do I Need to Be in Pennsylvania?
No. Out-of-state owners are common on inherited property and remote closing is routine.
Can I Compare You Against Others?
Please do. The three checks on our page about how to tell local cash buyers apart apply to us the same as to anyone.