Fire!
Recently, I showed a house that had a very odd pattern of damage. There were water marks that were not coming from the roof, or the bathrooms, or the kitchens. We found the source of the water in the attic. There were signs of a fire there; the water was from the fire hoses. A Google search yielded the date of the fire (a couple of years back) and the number of the fire report at the town fire department. The fire department had more information.
My client lost interest at that point. The house has some fire repair, but there was still tons of work to do. The project was over his head.
Had he been interested, the next step would have been to purchase a CLUE report. This Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange report covers the last five years of insurance claims on a property. This is a handy tool, but it doesn’t go back long enough to help with most of the fire and flood damage that I have seen in my career.
Older fire records are not so easy to find. Many towns file their fire reports by date. So if you do not know the date of the fire, you are out of luck.
During one home inspection, the inspector found an area of basement ceiling that was charred right above the boiler. We could date the replacement of the boiler, which was about 25 years old based on the serial number. But we couldn’t find the fire when we went through a year of fire records around that date.
At another inspection, the fire was in the attic and repaired the way a homeowner would repair it (need I say more?) The town in question kept records by property, but there was no record of the fire or permits for the repair.
In case of fire, I defer to the home inspector for advice. An inspector is the best person to tell you whether the damage is structural. Most of time fire damage, without fully permitted repairs, is a good reason to walk away.
Have you ever gotten a CLUE? Did it shed light on problems you found in the house? Are town permit records as good a source of information?
Homeowners, do you keep good records of damage and repairs on your home? You should!
