Foundation question

I have seen one foundation in 30 years that I would consider uninhabitable. It was undermined by a creek. Otherwise, I have never seen a foundation that would lose certificate of occupancy by a regulatory authority due to clay soil movement. Has anyone seen a foundation considered uninhabitable by the AHJ? My point is foundation movement affects the value and is not necessarily a habitability concern.

Wow. 48 views and no one has seen a slab home that was uninhabitable (aka unsafe). That suggests we are judging value based on perceived performance over an instant in time. Value is also affected by local soil conditions, the age of the home and marketing location. It’s a WAG

Oh, it was a slab foundation. We don’t see many slabs foundations up here. They are mostly basements or crawls. I was thinking basement and I have seen one on a hill that, if it wasn’t uninhabitable when I wrote the report, it was going to be shortly due to the continued movement that one could almost stand there and watch the upside earth bulge the blocks down the hill. Let’s say I didn’t stay in the basement very long when I saw that.

I did see a picture of a slab home being move about a mile down the road that didn’t make it. Years ago one of our local house movers, that we used with Habitat for Humanity, got a job down south, in Louisiana I think it was, to move a bunch of slab homes and this one didn’t make it…but I was impressed that he could do many others without a hitch…amazing to me.

I don’t recall any, but I try to avoid distressed house inspections.

An AHJ does’t withdraw a CO on a home. That is not the procedure to declare a home unsafe or uninhabitable. What you are talking about is civil condemnation. The house is condemned, torn down, by the jurisdiction.

Good point. A few cities around Dallas have a high percentage of rentals. When a tenant moves out the city requires a new CO in order to turn on the water meter. The city inspects every rental for safety and sanitation before allowing it to be rented again. I am not sure if the process is called a CO. I’ll check on it.

Here is the link to the city of Mesquite. It is called an RCO. The link contains a link to their checklist and they do reference foundations. It would be interesting to investigate their acceptance criteria.

Rental Certificate of Occupany (RCO) Program | Mesquite, TX - Official Website