San Francisco Seismic Retrofit Financing
In efforts to assist building owners with the cost of soft story retrofit improvements, San Francisco has set up a program that provides the public with financing options. This effort was put in place to help the make buildings throughout the city earthquake resistant. Introduced nearly 30 years ago, earthquake retrofitting is an affordable way for home and business owners to reinforce their homes and offices. The mayor of San Francisco called on the banks and lending institutions for help. Buildings that aren’t retrofitted can lead to major disasters during a tremor. However, many building owners don’t have that sort of cash lying about. So, the city knew that it needed to find affordable options for these building owners and started to call on the lending institutions.
Get Your Buildings Inspected For Retrofitting
If you are a building owner in San Francisco you have an obligation to ensure that your buildings are earthquake safe. This can be done by having an inspection done by a trained professional that understands what to look for in the building’s structure. There are many things that could lend itself to you knowing that you need an inspection.
Things such as:
- If there are five or more residential units within the building.
- If the original building permit was pulled before Jan. 1 1978.
- Is your building wood-framed and type B construction?
- Do you have a soft-story building? This is a building that is open on the lower floor, typically a commercial building or parking lot.
- If your building is taller than one story.
These are reasons that you would need to get your building retrofitted, but these are simply guidelines. If you have never had your building retrofitted and don’t know if it was built to the current earthquake standards then you should have it checked out.
Grants Are Available
Not only did the city turn to the lenders to get help with this situation. They will also give you a grant towards getting your building retrofitted as well. This helps building owners take the leap and get this done now rather than later. The idea is to get the building safe for an Earthquake as soon and as affordably as possible. We never know what mother nature is going to throw at us and having your building secure for an earthquake can bring peace of mind and save lives.
If your building is your home, it is there protecting your family. However, if it is a commercial property, you could be facing all kinds of legal ramifications if something were to happen. Get your buildings in San Francisco inspected to ensure that it is ready for the next big earthquake.
Some great points about the financing available:
- You can receive 100% financing that includes closing costs and everything that goes with the loan.
- You have options for how long the loan is for.
There are no balloon payments. - Prepayment is not needed upon sale or refinancing of the property.
- 100% of the cost can be passed onto the tenets of the property per city ordinance.
- There are upfront financing available to help with design costs.
Let’s keep the city of San Francisco safe and get your properties retrofitted today!
