In his latest blog post, Mayor Friedberg discusses flood repair regulations.
The Mayor explains, “following a review with positive feedback from the Building and Standards Commission, the Code now provides in the definition of “substantial improvement” that permitted work will be cumulated only after two flooding events, limited to a lookback period of 10 years. In other words, if more than 10 years pass between floods, the cumulative repair clock starts over. ”
He also discusses the flood repair permit process. “If the contractor’s repair estimate is less than 50% of the Harris County Appraisal District’s assessed value, then the inquiry ends there and a permit is issued. If the HCAD value is too low, then the City will apply its own, FEMA-approved alternative valuation formula to determine market value based on square footage, age and depreciation. Failing that, the Building Official will conduct an inspection of the structure and make his own repair assessment based on average repair costs in the area, and see if that comes in lower than the original estimate. If, after all that, the repairs still constitute a “substantial improvement,” then the only other option would be for the applicant to provide an appraisal performed by a state-licensed appraiser, showing the repair cost to be below 50% of market value.”
See the Mayors full blog post HERE.
