A Friend Needs Help…
If you own a home resting on one of the 176 foundations we’ve replaced to date, or if you’ve been the recipient of some of the $6.8 million in claim assistance we’ve provided to reimburse for foundations already replaced…some originally replaced as many as 17 years ago…then we are asking you to help a special friend.
Rep. Jeff Currey is in Stage V kidney failure.
He needs a new kidney, and he needs it now. No one is more responsible for the existence and the success of CFSIC than Jeff Currey…and we mean no one…inside or outside of state government. It’s time to give back, and we do it by action, not by words.
There’s a match out there somewhere. We need to find him or her.
To learn more, and more importantly to help, go to:
The Next $20 Million Received…
We are grateful for the receipt of the next $20 million. We express our thanks to Governor Lamont, the CT Bond Commission, OPM, and DOH for their vote of confidence in the CFSIC program.
Over the next ten weeks the Superintendent will be providing Participation Agreements to more than 98 claimants. Many of those claimants have been in line since November 2019, and their turn will now come.
And yes, contrary to what has been posted on social media suggesting a deliberate attempt to keep condos from getting assistance…the first condo association, which has been up in line for assistance since December 2019, awaiting more funding to CFSIC, will now be placed in line for that help…followed by more associations in this next round of $20 million, covering 91 condominium unit owners in the affected area. Association presidents will be receiving Participation Agreements for their signatures in the next several weeks.
The process is not immediate: no more than ten Participation Agreements can be issued per week. Anyone wishing more information about his or her claim should phone the Superintendent’s office at 860-487-0000. We will address any claimant’s concern about date order of expected funds disbursement.
Focusing on the Crisis…
A verified severity Class 3 impaired foundation has been identified in Darien, Connecticut.
There can be no doubt now in anyone’s mind about the possible extent of this crisis, and there should no longer be any question about the battle that has been waged to get the rest of Connecticut interested in what many thought was only a “Quiet Corner” problem.
The Date that Really Counts…
We continue to receive emails and phone calls from concerned claimants who have paid too much attention to social media.
We thought it would be helpful to reiterate the underwriting process in place for the disbursement of claim funds by CFSIC for everyone…whether you live in a condo or whether you don’t.
There are many dates in the CFSIC program to keep track of, but there is really only one date that counts when we’re speaking of the actual disbursement of CFSIC funds to remediate a foundation.
- Date #1…this is the date on which you applied to CFSIC.
- Date #2…this is the date on which your claim became “active.” (Meaning, that your application and all required points of evidence are complete and accurate.) This is the point at which you are asked to seek a minimum of two contractor proposals.
- Date #3…this is the date on which you send back to your claim adjuster the minimum of the two contractor proposals you’ve gotten, so that allowable costs and the calculations can be reviewed and approved.
- Date #4…this is the date on which you are told (if applicable) that both proposals are satisfactory and that you should determine which one you will sign.
- Date #5…this is the date on which you return your signed construction contract to your claim adjuster.
- Date #6…this is the date on which the claim adjuster uploads your signed and approved construction contract to the line of homeowners waiting to receive Participation Agreements.
The date that really counts is Date #6…the date on which your signed construction contract is uploaded to the PA line…when we are speaking of the actual disbursement of CFSIC funds.
Here are the facts:
We continue to receive emails and phone calls from people confused about why they are not in line to receive funds…these emails and phone calls always begin with the same phrase: “But I became active on _______.” The date on which you became an active claimant does not determine your place in line for the receipt of funds (contrary to what you may have read on social media)…the date on which you became an active claimant makes you eligible to receive eventual funding, subject to ALL of the six steps noted above.
Sometimes many months go by between the date a claimant becomes active…and the date on which they actually go out to try to get their minimum of two construction proposals.
The date on which your signed construction contract is uploaded to the PA line is the date that counts when we are speaking of being in line for the actual disbursement of CFSIC funds. This is true for a single-family home…it is true for a condo association building.
We’re going to have some good news for condo associations shortly, when the next $20M of funding arrives…but we want to make it clear that at no time and in no way have condominiums purposely been moved to the end of the line by CFSIC, contrary to allegations made on social media. The system doesn’t work that way, and it never has. Your place in line for remediation is governed by the date on which your home’s signed construction contract was uploaded to the line for a PA…or, if you are a condo association, it is the date on which a particular condo building’s signed construction contract was uploaded to the same PA line.
Whatever time it took, it took…no investigative news report is needed to determine if CFSIC has rigged the system against condos.
CFSIC’s volunteer board of directors wants to set the record straight. The record has been set straight.
Transferring Your Claim
All CFSIC claimants (not just active claimants) will be able to transfer their existing inactive or Pending claims to a buyer of their home effective July 13, 2020, retroactive to June 1, 2020. Today, we are publishing on this site the following:
– red-marked changes to CFSIC’s Underwriting and Claims Management Guidelines;
– a new subsection, subsection 20, in the “For Homeowners” section of this site, which will detail how the process will work, inclusive of Q&A;
– a templated Claim Transfer Agreement governing the transfer of a claim in the “For Homeowners” section;
– a new subsection, subsection 11, in the “For Contractors” section of this site, providing claim transfer information for contractors.
What follows is an expanded (expanded from last week) Q&A about this important change.
Question: I’m a Type 1, severity Class 2, inactive claimant. If I sell my home and transfer my claim to the buyer, does that change the status of my claim?
Answer: No. The buyer gets the exact status you had at the moment of transfer.
Question: I’m in line for a Participation Agreement and have been in line for a while. I’ve been told that I may be in the next round of funding at some point after July 1, 2020, but I still plan to sell my house and give up my claim. Does my exact place in line for a Participation Agreement get transferred to the buyer?
Answer: Yes, if the buyer agrees to all terms and conditions of the Claim Transfer Agreement.
Question: Where can I find a sample of the Claim Transfer Agreement on this site?
Answer: View a sample of the Claim Transfer Agreement here (PDF)
Question: I’m a Pending claimant, and I’m aware that, given current anticipated projected funding, I may never get my claim paid unless CFSIC gets more money. If I transfer my claim because I sell my home, will the buyer be taking the same risk I am?
Answer: Absolutely. We may never have enough money to address Pending claimants.
Question: Can I transfer my claim without selling my home?
Answer: No.
Question: Does this apply to condos? Does it apply to PUDs?
Answer: No for condos. (Remember that condo unit owners are technically not our claimants… associations are our claimants, because it is the association that owns the foundation.) It applies to PUDs.
Question: I’m a Type 2 claimant. Does it apply to my claim?
Answer: No.
Question: Once I transfer my Type 1 claim to the buyer, can he or she re-sell the home and transfer the claim again?
Answer: No. The transfer of a claim can occur only once…from one Original Claimant to one Transfer Claimant. It can never be transferred again by the Transfer Claimant.
Question: Will I be able to sell my home first and then transfer the claim at some point after that?
Answer: No. The Claim Transfer Agreement date can only be the same date as the date of the sale of the home or a date prior to the sale. It it’s prior to the date of sale, and for some reason the sale does not go through…then the transfer is voided as if it had never occurred.
Question: OK, but I sold my house in the middle of June…how will the retroactive June 1 date affect me?
Answer: As stated above, on and after July 13, 2020, the date of the Claim Transfer Agreement must be the date of the sale of the home or a date prior to the sale. It cannot, however, be a date prior to June 1, 2020. In your example, you would still qualify.
Question: So are you saying that if I sold my home on May 15, 2020, I’m disqualified?
Answer: Yes, that’s what we’re saying…besides, at the date of sale you ceased to be a CFSIC claimant anyway, and the correct thing to do would have been to notify ESIS of your status so that someone else could have access to your funds. We are grandfathering this process back to June 1 as an accommodation only.
Question: Are you still going to stop the Pending application process on June 30 as previously announced?
Answer: Yes. We have already done so.
Question: I’m a Type 1, severity Class 3 active claimant. So if I transfer my claim to the buyer of my home, what am I really doing?
Answer: Looks like you don’t have a Participation Agreement yet, based on the question. So, what you’re doing is transferring almost every right, obligation, and duty you had for your active claim to the buyer of your home, who then agrees to take over those rights, duties, and obligations.
Question: But I’ve got a signed contract and am in line for a Participation Agreement. What happens if the buyer and the contractor can’t agree on the terms of the original contract or, alternatively, the contractor simply backs out of the arrangement?
Answer: The buyer can seek the required two proposals for construction services from CRCOG-approved contractors to substitute for the original contractor, one of which will eventually substitute for the original contract. CFSIC will keep an active claim “active” for a period of 180 days from the date of the Claim Transfer Agreement in order to allow time for this to happen. If it isn’t accomplished by then, the claim is removed from our system, it is no longer active, and the buyer is no longer in line…and must therefore start the process all over again as if the claim had never transferred. If we are not accepting applications at the time that happens, then the buyer may have to wait for years to reapply, or may never get an opportunity.
Question: Who is responsible for contacting ESIS ProClaim to tell them about the sale of a home?
Answer: Only the original homeowner (Original Claimant). ESIS will not accept communications of any kind from real estate agents or from Transfer Claimants (home buyers) regarding a claim transfer.
Question: Okay…what happens then?
Answer: When you provide ESIS ProClaim with your claim number by phone or email and indicate that you want to transfer your claim to the buyer of your home, they will provide you with a Claim Transfer Data Form to complete. You will send it back to them completed. The Superintendent’s office will then contact you and send you a Claim Transfer Agreement, which will require your signature and that of the buyer, as well as separate witnesses. You will return the fully-executed Claim Transfer Agreement back to the Superintendent’s office. Once this agreement is fully executed and received in the Superintendent’s office, the transfer of the claim can occur, and the permanent records of the claim are changed with regard to who the claimant is.
Question: I’ve already signed a proposal with a contractor. Who is responsible for telling the contractor that I’m selling my home?
Answer: You are. It is not ESIS ProClaim’s responsibility or CFSIC’s responsibility to do this. It also cannot be the real estate agent or the homebuyer. If you want to transfer your claim, you have to do this yourself.
Question: What will CFSIC accept as evidence that the Original Claimant has transferred the home to the Transfer Claimant?
Answer: A copy of the recorded deed.
Question: But I have a CHFA loan agreement that I’ve just entered into. What happens to that?
Answer: You have to address that with CHFA.
Question: My contractor started work on my foundation last week. Can I still transfer my claim?
Answer: No. Once work starts on your foundation, you have to see it through, or you terminate your construction contract. We cannot permit a claim to transfer if even the most preliminary part of the remediation process has begun.
The CHFA Credit Enhancements Program
You should go here to learn more about the CHFA credit enhancements program as it is now constituted. Please note that it currently does not apply to condominiums. CFSIC did not create and is not administering the loan program, and the ESIS claim team cannot advise you in any way about the terms and conditions of any aspect of the program. The link noted in this section will take you to an outline of the program, as well as to a section marked “Frequently Asked Questions.” We also recommend contacting the Homeowner Advocate using the contact information on the Department of Housing website for more assistance.
CFSIC’s Annual Report
CFSIC’s Annual Report can be viewed here.
CFSIC’s 2019 Audited Financial
View CFSIC’s audited financial report for the period ended June 30, 2019.
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If you have any questions about the operation of the program, ESIS is your best source of information on your claim, and their phone number and email are shown below.
Phone: 844-763-1207
Email: cfsic@esis.com
As you work through the information and application process (understanding that we are in suspension for the taking of new applications), here’s how you can get help:
– Call ESIS (the claim adjuster) at: 844-763-1207
– Email ESIS at: cfsic@esis.com
– Email CFSIC at: info@crumblingfoundations.org
To view a video of how to complete an electronic application, go here.
To apply for a Type 1 claim, go here.
To apply for a Type 2 claim, go here.
To learn more about the program, if you are a homeowner, including application help, go here.
To learn more about the program, if you are a contractor, go here.