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50% rule

Bichobrass

Bichobrass

Registered User
Joined
Apr 13, 2023
Messages
5
Location
Miami
When Substantial Damage as defined comes into play, I understand that the building or structure shall be made to conform with the requirements of the current code. I can't seem to find where in the code I can source that though. Can anyone assist?
 
Substantial damage under the IBC is referenced for applications in flood hazard areas. Under the IEBC (existing) is has to do with repairs

IBC
[A] 104.2.1 Determination of substantially improved or substantially damaged existing buildings and structures in flood hazard areas.
For applications for reconstruction, rehabilitation, repair, alteration, addition or other improvement of existing buildings or structures located in flood hazard areas, the building official shall determine if the proposed work constitutes substantial improvement or repair of substantial damage. Where the building official determines that the proposed work constitutes substantial improvement or repair of substantial damage, and where required by this code, the building official shall require the building to meet the requirements of Section 1612.

[BS] SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. Damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before-damaged condition would equal or exceed 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.

[BS] SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT. Any repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, alteration, addition or other improvement of a building or structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the improvement or repair is started. If the structure has sustained substantial damage, any repairs are considered substantial improvement regardless of the actual repair work performed. The term does not, however, include either:

1. Any project for improvement of a building required to correct existing health, sanitary or safety code violations identified by the building official and that are the minimum necessary to assure safe living conditions.

2. Any alteration of a historic structure provided that the alteration will not preclude the structure’s continued designation as a historic structure.

IEBC
OPTION 3: Work for alteration, change of occupancy or addition of all existing buildings shall be done in accordance with the Performance Compliance Method given in Chapter 13. It should be noted that this option was also provided in the former Chapter 34 of the International Building Code (2012 and earlier editions).

Under limited circumstances, a building alteration can be made to comply with the laws under which the building was originally built, as long as there has been no substantial structural damage and there will be limited structural alteration.

Note that all repairs must comply with Chapter 4 and relocated buildings are addressed by Chapter 14.

[BS] SUBSTANTIAL STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. A condition where any of the following apply:

1. The vertical elements of the lateral force-resisting system have suffered damage such that the lateral load carrying capacity of any story in any horizontal direction has been reduced by more than 33 percent from its predamage condition.

2. The capacity of any vertical component carrying gravity load, or any group of such components, that has a tributary area more than 30 percent of the total area of the structure’s floor(s) and roof(s) has been reduced more than 20 percent from its predamage condition, and the remaining capacity of such affected elements, with respect to all dead and live loads, is less than 75 percent of that required by the International Building Code for new buildings of similar structure, purpose and location.

3. The capacity of any structural component carrying snow load, or any group of such components, that supports more than 30 percent of the roof area of similar construction has been reduced more than 20 percent from its predamage condition, and the remaining capacity with respect to dead, live and snow loads is less than 75 percent of that required by the International Building Code for new buildings of similar structure, purpose and location.
 
I know exactly what you are talking about. Rhode Island used to have a very similar code that they added as an amendment in the State adopted codes. From what I was told after several years they received an incredible amount of pushback from contractors and such so they decided to remove the amendment from the State adopted codes. The ICC does not have a code that states that and the only thing the ICC requires for substantial damages and substantial improvements as mentioned above and has to do with a 50% value of the structure and then having to bring the structure up to current flood zone regulations. If you believe you have seen it before then I would probably say it is most likely an amendment made by your jurisdiction when they adopted their codes so you may have to look into it that way.
 
The question always comes up as to how do you determine the value of a structure? Property taxes, current market rate, purchase price or appraisal.
 
The way we do it in our municipality is we allow them to use the assessed value of just the structure from our municipalities tax assessor's office or if they want to go pay for an appraisal they can do that but the appraiser has to show how they came up with the value of just the structure on the actual appraisal report. That was at the direction of RIEMA who is Rhode Island's FEMA representative.
 
Around here the appraised value is about twice the assed value from the tax assessor's office. The market exploded during COVID and is holding steady now. Florida has a law similar to CA proposition 13 that does not allow the assed valuation to increase above a certain percentage until the home sells or is refinanced. That way older long-term homeowner's do not get taxed out of their homes.

If you do not want to bring the building up to code, then a $600.00 appraisal would be well worth it.
 
Exactly and the assessed vs appraised value usually ends up being about the same difference here but this appraisal is strictly for determining the value of the structure so that someone can possibly do more work to their house without having to possibly lift the house up 1' above their BFE. Right now we also have a 1 year lookback so that's any work being done within a 1 year period (I always love the people who try and get around the substantial improvement requirements by coming in at about 45% and even though we tell them they shouldn't cut it that close only to have a water heater or furnace let go a few months later and now that puts them at or above 50%). But I have heard of several other states and even some other municipalities in Rhode Island that have passed individual ordinances to extend it to a 5-year look back to try and curb people from trying to come up with ways to get around the requirements.

It was the same here during covid houses that were purchased only five years ago or so for $130,000 were selling for upwards of $450,000 same house no improvements. At the same time I don't really mind the fact that they allow the appraisal approach because if you think about it to do a small remodel project 5 years ago before covid would have cost half as much if not less as it does today because the building materials and labor costs skyrocketed as well so a small kitchen remodel 5 years ago that wouldn't have been over 50% of the assessed value most likely would be today for the same exact remodel so an appraisal allows them to offset the higher cost of building materials and labor that are in effect today.
 
Using assessed value seems precarious, though in NY, assessed value is suppose to equal market price, so jurisdictions are doing reassessments every 3 years. Our jurisdiction was way behind and, since not many understand property taxes, many are crying their taxes are tripping. They don't understand how our assessment went up 40% but our taxes will drop around 10%. (Lots of new multi-million dollar waterfront "summer" houses built in last few years.)
 
I think he's wanting to buy the place and is looking for bargaining chips in order to reduce the price.
 
Our municipality also does a reassessment every 3 years as well. We were also a few years behind and it went very similar with us recently since they just completed a reassessment last year everyone was complaining that their values went up so their property taxes did as well. That will happen if it's been 6 years since a reassessment has been done especially since covid and the value/cost of everything increased drastically.
 
Paul Sweet said:
It might be a FEMA requirement.
Click to expand...
Substantial Improvements or Substantial Damages is something FEMA had added into the Building Code a long time ago.

Bichobrass if you are looking in the code for the substantial damages section as it applies to flood zones it is section R322 (if using the residential code).
 
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