Cost to Cure (Demolish New Deck) No Permit

[Grace]

Appraised home with a new deck (no permit for deck). Two months later the underwriter is requesting the following, and of course they need it tomorrow:

1. Does the deck have any value? If so, what value did you give the deck?
2. What is the "cost to cure", cost to domolish and remove?
3. Was there a deck in place before this deck was constructed?

I did not give the deck a specific value in my report. I just listed the deck, and that the comps had similar decks.

Why would the underwriter want a cost to cure to domolish? I would think a cost to cure would be for getting a permit after the fact.

I will have to contact the owner to find out whether there was a deck prior to the new one.

I've never done a cost to cure.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Grace

 

[Michigan CG]

Cost for a new deck is $4/SF for materials (Cedar decking, decking screws).

Cost to remove deck: I tore a deck off with my neighbor and his son. Took us three hours to tear off a 12 x 16 deck. Cost was a few beers to the neighbor and $5 to the son.

Other cost would be removal of debris.

Paying to have it removed would be about $200 plus hauling away. Call it $400.

I have found that a deck adds in value the cost of the materials -- in my case about $800.

Cost to build a new deck is about 3-4 times the cost of materials, cement footings, attaching to house, laying deck, cleanup, etc.

This UW needs a life.

 

[PropertyEconomics]

Cost for a new deck is $4/SF for materials (Cedar decking, decking screws).

Cost to remove deck: I tore a deck off with my neighbor and his son. Took us three hours to tear off a 12 x 16 deck. Cost was a few beers to the neighbor and $5 to the son.

Other cost would be removal of debris.

Paying to have it removed would be about $200 plus hauling away. Call it $400.

I have found that a deck adds in value the cost of the materials -- in my case about $800.

Cost to build a new deck is about 3-4 times the cost of materials, cement footings, attaching to house, laying deck, cleanup, etc.

This UW needs a life.

Tim .. if this is a new deck, and screwed in place, dont you think much of the original deck would be salvaged and used in rebuilding after the permit has been secured? Im not sure there would be such a high cost of materials in the rebuild process, however, the labor would certainly be realized in both disassemble and reassemble.

 

[Lucien Hamernik]

You can easily keep the ball rolling. Someone is just jerking your chain.
Most likely someone would gladly have the deck materials in return for removing them so there is no cost to cure. You must have a pretty good idea of the contributory value of the deck-maybe $1,000- who is going to argue with you?

 

[Mike Boyd]

Marshall/Swift has decking costs estimated.

 

[Michigan CG]

Tim .. if this is a new deck, and screwed in place, dont you think much of the original deck would be salvaged and used in rebuilding after the permit has been secured? Im not sure there would be such a high cost of materials in the rebuild process, however, the labor would certainly be realized in both disassemble and reassemble.

PE, that correct. The materials for my new deck were about $2.90/SF but I used the old runners and framing and obviously the concrete footings were already in place. The $4/SF assumed from scratch.

Marshall/Swift has decking costs estimated.

Mike I briefly looked in the M & S Home Repair and Remodel Cost Guide (2008) and did not find it in there.

Most likely someone would gladly have the deck materials in return for removing them so there is no cost to cure.

Not necessarily. If the old decking material is not useful as a deck what would someone use it for? Many of these products cannot be burned because of the chemicals they use to pressure treat them.

 

[Ariba]

Appraised home with a new deck (no permit for deck). Two months later the underwriter is requesting the following, and of course they need it tomorrow:

How did the underwriter know it was not permitted? Did you condition the appraisal for permit or removal? If you conditioned the appraisal what did you expect from the underwriter?

 

[Couch Potato]

Permit Required?

Appraised home with a new deck (no permit for deck). Two months later the underwriter is requesting the following, and of course they need it tomorrow:

1. Does the deck have any value? If so, what value did you give the deck?
2. What is the "cost to cure", cost to domolish and remove?
3. Was there a deck in place before this deck was constructed?

I did not give the deck a specific value in my report. I just listed the deck, and that the comps had similar decks.

Why would the underwriter want a cost to cure to domolish? I would think a cost to cure would be for getting a permit after the fact.

I will have to contact the owner to find out whether there was a deck prior to the new one.

I've never done a cost to cure.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Grace

If you have never done a cost to cure, you should find a more experience appraiser to help you. It's not that it is particularly difficult, but it is often not as simple knowing the construction costs.

Getting into the legality of the deck, and the issues associated with its legal status is a tricky prospect. Much will depend on the specific jurisdiction where the house is located. You will likely need to pay a visit to the local building inspector's office after you determine if this was a replacement for an old deck. A permit may or may not have been required for the construction of the new deck.

 

[Mztk1]

I think if the answer to the first question is "yes", and that adjustment for a non-permitted deck was extracted, you don't have to bother with the other two.

If all your comps have decks and you did not make adjustments, comping them to the subject deck, then you gave the deck value. The UW would like to know how much and how you determined it. Did you disclose the deck was just finished and it didn't have permits? Do you have a comp with a deck that is not permitted? Are there after the fact permits allowed? What is the process and how easy are they to obtain for a deck? Or like Couch said, you might not need a permit for a deck, or at least to replace an old/repair an old one.

It sounds like you created more questions than answered for the underwriter concerning the deck. My first step would be to find out if there was a deck there, then call the town and find out about permitting and/or after the fact permitting. Do not tell the town the address of the property you are appraising.

My guess is you won't even have to get into the cost problem, but if you do Tim's estimates seem good to me.

 

[c w d]

The UW is busting your balls over $500 - $1000 worth of value. You'd think they'd have something better to do, like visit their therapist. Do what Couch says. But, explain to your client that in order to complete the requests there will be an additional fee of $X/hour to research and verify it and you think it's going to take 3 hours of additional time. Then tell them it's COD.