Rebuilding Your Home After a Disaster: What you need to know.

Catastrophic events are something many homeowners have to deal with.  Whether it is damage caused by a fire, hurricane, tornado, flooding or something else being prepared is the first step to recovery.  Building back your life, after a tragedy happens, can be made much easier if you have the right things in place.  Let's take a look at what the Town of Hilton Head Island is doing and some things you will need to get your home back as soon as possible.

Should you experience a disaster to your home, the Town of Hilton Head believes being prepared to build back and reestablish the community as soon as possible is of the utmost importance.  To help homeowners do this they have established the disaster recovery procedure so the preapproval process of plans and documents for residential structures are in place.  This allows the process of building back to be much more efficient.  These are required documents that expedite the rebuilding of damaged structures due to disasters such as fire, hurricane, flooding, etc.

The disaster recovery program started for two reasons 1) to reduce the number of approval requests after a disaster and 2) to help owners quickly begin the recovery process.  Disaster recovery documentation means your home will be top priority.  The recovery process will be faster, with less red tape and down time.  In addition, you will have first access to contractors who want to get to work quickly.

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When a disaster strikes your home, where the things you value are kept, it is  important for you to be able to verify the state of your home or business prior
to the event.  If your home is properly documented and registered, rebuilding can occur more quickly.  If you do not have things in place you will have to search for your documents and if they were destroyed you will be required to replace them.  If this happens, you will be waiting in long lines at overburdened town offices trying to obtain the permits necessary to get your life back to normal.

Some key items to have registered for your disaster recovery documentation would be:

• As-built / site plan
• Building plans
• Deed and recorded plat, if available
• Exterior photos showing construction and finishes
• Contents photos*
• Mortgage information, tax records, insurance papers*

* You will be asked to provide an inventory of lost or damaged items.  This kind of detailed record is invaluable for insurance claims.

What should you do to get started?
A surveying company can help you with all the aforementioned items.  Once taken your data is scanned, registered with the Town of Hilton Head and then digitally stored on a CD or memory stick for your records.  Duplicate sets are then stored at the offices of the surveying company and on a secure offsite server.

These are but some of the things that will help you get your life back to normal should you experience a disaster.  If you would like more information or have questions about real estate on Hilton Head Island or in Bluffton, SC, contact PNP Real Estate.

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