[StBernard] house demolition

[Westley Annis]

Deborah,
 
If you could have this contractor give me a call, I would like to check his
source of information.  I can tell you what FEMA reps have told us: FEMA
paid contractors can not be hired to work the contract of a house privately-
I have asked for an official written ruling on this but we rarely are able
to get a written statement from them.
 
As far as the ICC money- we do not have any information about ICC money
being gobbled up for demolition- debris and demolition costs are a separate
funding mechanism, unless the owner does the demolition on their own-  ICC
is INCREASED COST OF COMPLIANCE funds and are payable through the flood
insurance program.  If a house is demolished by the parish contractor the
owner is not ineligible for ICC funds if they meet the criteria.
Additionally, ICC funds are UP TO 30,000 not an automatic 30,000.
 
As far as the form stating the assignment of benefits- this is a required
statement by FEMA and is meant to notify individuals that they are not
allowed by FEMA to receive work done by the parish paid for by FEMA and then
receive money for the service that they did not pay for-  FEMA classifies
this as a duplication of benefits.
 
I am all for allowing people to access FEMA funding to have their demolition
done privately, but it is not part of the FEMA approved process.  That is
why residents can not even bring their own debris to the temporary storage
sites.
 
Hope this clears some things up.
 
Craig 
 
-----Original Message-----

  I called a contractor who is advertising on WWL radio to do house
demolition. He said something that waived a red flag that perhaps some of
you or Craig can comment on. He said that his price to demolish and haul
away a wood frame house on piers is $3 per sq. ft.; $4.00 per sq. 
ft if a slab on grade house. But, if the parish demolishes the house, his
price for removing the slab is $2.50 per sq. ft.  So a typical 1,800 sq. ft.
ranch style slab house could be demolished by him totally for $7,200 or just
the slab for $4,500.

It's been said that if you sign up for the parish demo, removing of the slab
is for the homeowner to hire a contractor to do, so if the parish
demolishes, then this property has a cost of  $4,500 to the homeowner one
day  when its time to rebuild. (Haven't got an answer yet on the comment
last week about FEMA contractors not being able to be hired by
homeowners.)

However, this contractor said that when the homeowner signs the demolition
consent form, the homeowner is forfeiting the ICC money. Now I re-read the
parish's form and no where does it say that.  This contractor used an
example:  If this 1,800 sq. ft. house is demolished by the parish, the
homeowner pays $4,500 for slab removal if they plan to rebuild. He said that
in his opinion, if FEMA says a new house at a higher level qualifies for up
to $30,000 in ICC money, the homeowner doesn't get a dime of it because it
was all signed over to the parish for the house demolition. He went on to
say that if the homeowner hires him to demolish the house and slab, at
$7,200 in this example, then if it qualifies for ICC money, the homeowner
gets $30,000 to pay for the $7,200 spent on the full demo and put the
remaining $22,800 aside to build the house. In other words, why give the
parish YOUR $22,800?

Now this may be a simple error on his part, or a way to scare people to use
him to demolish the house and slab which is more money to him.

Can anyone who knows about this subject, enlighten us to the truth. All the
parish form says is that if the homeowner receives DEBRIS REMOVAL money from
any source, then they sign that over to the parish. It is silent about ICC
money.

Garland Robinette should be told the truth because the contractor is an
advertiser on his show.

Ddk