Pat Hune, Broker 1st Southwest Realty and Various Sources, April 2023
On June 25, 2022 one of my clients had a fire at one of her rentals that almost completely destroyed the house. The fire started due to a candle being left unattended. Luckily all the occupants escaped with no injuries. Obviously, the owner turned the claim in to her insurance company.
Last Thursday I went to the house to see if the construction has been completed. There was no one working and the house was definitely not anywhere close to being completed after 10 months! We joked that the building permit will expire on December 2024 so that is probably when it will be done. In comparison, I helped this owner with a major renovation on one of her rentals. I started on November 1, 2022. It will be done by the end of May 2023. A mere seven months and the holidays delayed the construction by about 6 weeks plus long lead times on materials.
To answer the question of how long do major repairs take when it is an insurance claim? I looked at a house a couple of weeks ago that was a burnt out condemned shell. The neighbors said it has been sitting there for 3 years! A friend told me a house in her neighborhood had a major fire 6 months ago and no work had been done. The answer is I have no idea. But it seems to take a long, long time.