BFLR
You need a “clean up permit” in a major disaster?
Disposal of debris was a problem after Andrew. I do not remember how it was resolved but I do know a huge rat problem developed because burning was prohibited. The same excuse of toxicity was used. Which no doubt was applicable to some waste but surely not all.
You need a permit to clean up? In California, you say?
I think I see your problem...
Pack up and go while you can, before they require you to get an exit visa/permit.
You need to find out if FEMA rules prevent any firm or person who does not have a contract with FEMA from providing clean up services. If not firms may have to meet certain criteria and meet approvals from various agencies but should be able to contract with insurance companies or home owners’ directly. Much like when somebody is doing asbestos abatement. I can’t direct you to the exact CFR but trust me there is one out there that addresses this issue.
My brother has a vineyard property in Redwood Valley upon which the house, guesthouse, and barn burned down. It’s his project, not mine, though I help out.
I was hesitant at first wrt the concept of turning over the cleanup to the county/FEMA and signing over the cleanup portion of your insurance proceeds to them. If you think about it, that is exactly what you want to do and it’s the best thing that could happen.
Because it means that you, property owner, are now essentially indemnified in case the cleanup costs exceed your coverage. And you can be absolutely certain that they will, because they have to be cleaned up to 2017 standards. These standards will be driven by Northern CA Eco-zealots afraid of your runoff running into the Russian River. If you do NOT do this (turnover the ins-—by the approaching deadline) you could or I should say WILL be on the hook for a multi-year total nightmare of environmental testing and sampling and issuing lab reports and if you don’t think that will cost well into six figures, my estimation is you’d be wrong. Your ins coverage is probably in the $25K-$50K range which I have no way of knowing but the critical point is, that (amount of) coverage is designed to pay for a burned down house in Des Moines where a loader comes in and hauls the debris to the dump and you’re done. There is no way that amount of coverage will produce compliance with what 2017 CA eco dudes and dudettes will make you do. Nuff said.
Although I can’t predict the future, I would imagine that as the co & FEMA gather more steam, they will impose more and more limitations and yet those limitations will change over time. As you noticed with the car disposal. The important thing, in my non-legal opinion but which matches my bro’s opinion, who IS an attorney though not an insurance atty, is that the more they do whatever they do, the more they take over the entirety of what they intend to take over, the more they assume legal and financial liability and you should want that, big time. That is my take on his take.
Just a PS. The county or municipality should be the ones issuing permits. They might need to make sure certain criteria set by other authorities having jurisdiction are met but the overall permits for rebuilding and clearing away debris should come from them.
PSs. Be sure to contact SBA about aid available from them.
Get an attorney ASAP
If you join the FB group Santa Rosa Firestorm update you will find other locals discussing similar issues if you search around. Of course you get a lot of lost pet info and donation questions but use the search box for FEMA or insurance or clean up and see what others are experiencing.
When our house in the Bay Area burned down in 2008, I learned a lot.
1. Hire a Public Adjustor. Much less expensive than a lawyer and will produce the same or better result. Our initial insurance company offer was $100k. Public Adjustor and I worked closely together and the final settlement was over the policy limits, more than $550k. He charged 6%. A lawyer will want 33 to 40%,.
2. Go ahead and sign up for the public clean-up. If they do it, they can’t gripe about how it got done. Exclude that cost from the Public Adjustor contract. Other than what others have said, there is another reason. The rainy season will start soon, and wet charred debris grows mold. A lot of this can not be taken to the normal dump, due to “mold hysteria”. Very expensive to dispose. If you do this disposal yourself and mold grows due to their delay in issuing a permit, that is tough luck for you. If you sign the money over to them and they don’t do it before it molds, that is on them. They will probably give themselves a waiver, which they will never do for you.
If you don’t they will torment you at every turn. Huge fines for overweight trucks, and only work certain hours, etc. Essentially, you will become responsible for the cost overrun for clean up of the entire county. And, they will charge you and fine you until you pay up.
3. Keep track of everything. Every scrap of paper, everything. I got some file folder labels that would fit in my printer and printed them with page numbers. I stuck a page number on every single piece of paper, so that when I copied them each page had a unique number. I think it ended up with over 500 pages, but I could periodically copy the file and send it to insurance, building dept, Public Adjustor, etc,. and we could refer to a specific page with no ambiguity. (The bid on pages 145 and 146, instead of the “fourth repaving bid”.)
4. I kept a “master copy — a first generation copy of all the originals as well as the originals. The master copy could feed through the document feeder at a copy center, which made supplying everyone who asked with all of the information a fast & easy job. This greatly disappointed the government checkers and the insurance company chiselers who count on you not having the records to prove what really happened.
4. Invest in a scanner. You will want to keep electronic files of everything also.
5. You may need a fax machine. Back then my insurance company would not use email, I don’t know if that has changed. I suspect the reason was to prevent me, or anyone else from keeping an easily searchable record of what they said, so everything had to be done by fax or snail mail.
I sent them a fax nearly every day and state regulations were that they had to respond in 48 hours. I kept them on the run. And since I had scanned copies of their responses, I could easily quote their past responses when they tried to reneg on paying for items they had agreed to.
Probably be washed clean after tonight’s rain...
Coach, can you advise?