Success Story: Connecticut’s Crumbling Foundations Fund

By Lawrence Cook

December 3 @ 9:00 am

Democratic senators from across the state praised a new report, which last week showed that Connecticut had spent more than $155 million to renovate 1,018 homes affected by crumbling foundations over the last several years.

To date, 2,368 claimants have been identified in 56 different Connecticut towns (about a third of the state), with an estimated total repair cost of $233.5 million. Most of the affected homes are located in Vernon, Tolland, Manchester, South Windsor, Stafford, Ellington, Willington, Coventry, Enfield and Somers.

The state has also spent $1 million to assess and repair 18 homes in Columbia, Hebron, with four pending claims in Marlborough, Lebanon and Norwich.

Revenue for crumbling foundation repairs comes from a combination of $150 million in state bonding and $55.2 million in fees collected from a $12 annual surcharge on Connecticut homeowner insurance policies and deposited into the “Healthy Homes Fund” to pay for needed repairs. The funds are overseen and distributed by the Connecticut Foundation Solutions Indemnity Company Inc.

In response to the latest report on the assistance program, Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, said that state leaders and the company had helped to alleviate some difficult conditions for thousands of homeowners across the region.

“Seeing these results — and knowing that the hard work of countless people has benefitted and aided community members in dire times — is reassuring,” Anwar said. “There’s still plenty of work left to do, but these results are heartening.”

Sen. MD Rahman, a Manchester Democrat whose district has also been impacted by crumbling foundations, agreed and pledged to continue his support for homeowners in need of assistance.

“Crumbling foundations have been a scourge upon many Connecticut households, but the gradual progress seen in the last several years has been reassuring,” Rahman said.

That process was made possible by state legislators who recognized the untenable position many homeowners found themselves in when their investments began crumbling and private insurance companies refused to pay for repairs, Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said.

“It was an impossible situation,” Osten said. “Thankfully, on a fairly bipartisan basis, the General Assembly took action to save people’s homes and do what the private sector refused to do. The results have been amazing, and we’ve got another 1,000 homes or so still to repair.”

It’s been nearly a decade since Connecticut’s crumbling foundations crisis was uncovered, with more than 35,000 total homes potentially impacted by failing concrete foundations statewide.

Reports of crumbling foundations first began in 2015. By May 2017, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection had received reports of more than 550 homes with faulty foundations, and in December 2017 began processing 522 verified reports to determine compensation eligibility.

The compromised concrete originated from the JJ Mottes Concrete Company in Stafford Springs, from 1983 to 2015; in many cases, the foundations contained an iron sulfide substance called pyrrhotite that causes slow degradation of concrete when exposed to oxygen and water. That slow degradation contributed to the impacts of the crisis, as its weakening effects can go unnoticed for up to 30 years.

The current safe and effective method to fix a home that has tested positive for pyrrhotite is to lift the house off the existing foundation and completely replace all the concrete. According to the Connecticut Department of Housing, this process can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000, often more than the total value of many affected homes.