The Brick Is Standing, and That Is the Problem
After a fire in an older Salt Lake house the walls frequently look untouched. Brick does not burn, so what is left standing looks like the sound part of the building.
On an unreinforced masonry house it is the opposite. A URM home has brick, block or stone walls with little or no steel reinforcement, and those walls were never self-supporting against lateral force. What held them was the roof and the floors, tied into them.
Why Does That Matter After a Fire Rather Than an Earthquake?
The full position is on our page covering the brick and the exemption.
How Much of This Housing Is Brick
A great deal of it. Utah building codes have prohibited new unreinforced masonry construction since the 1970s, so the stock is older housing, and there is a lot of it.
Published estimates vary with how the area is defined: Salt Lake City Emergency Management has put the figure at around 144,000 URMs across the Salt Lake Valley, Utah's earthquake programme has cited more than 90,000 vulnerable URM buildings along the Wasatch Front, and the Utah Seismic Safety Commission and Division of Emergency Management reported an estimated 175,000 statewide in January 2023.
Whichever figure you take, brick without reinforcement is the normal condition of an older house here rather than an unusual one.
The Second Thing: Your Tax Status Changes When You Leave
Utah gives most homes a substantial break and attaches a condition that a fire quietly breaks.
Under section 59-2-103 of the Utah Code, and Article XIII section 3 of the state constitution, a primary residence receives a residential exemption equal to a 45 per cent reduction in value. Owners with it pay property tax on 55 per cent of fair market value rather than on all of it.
A primary residence is defined as a home serving as the occupant's primary domicile for at least 183 consecutive days in a year. The owner, the owner's spouse, another family member or a tenant may be the occupant.
So a Fire Can Cost Me the Exemption?
What a Fire-Damaged Salt Lake Property Is Actually Worth
The Terms That Move the Number Here
What the exterior walls actually are. Solid masonry or brick facing over a timber frame, which are different buildings.
Whether the roof and floors survived. On a URM house that is a structural question rather than a cosmetic one.
Where you are living now. It bears directly on the exemption.
Whether a declaration has arrived. Ninety days from the date on the letter.
Which jurisdiction. Salt Lake City, the valley cities and the wider Wasatch Front each assess and permit separately.
Anyone quoting without asking what the walls are made of has priced a building they have assumed the construction of.
The Route That Keeps the Exemption
Worth knowing because owners assume displacement is fatal to it. The statute allows the occupant to be the owner, the owner's spouse, another family member, or a tenant.
So a house that is habitable but not somewhere you want to live, let year-round to a Utah-domiciled tenant, can continue to qualify. That is a genuine option rather than a technicality, and it is worth raising with the county assessor rather than assuming the answer.
How the Timeline Runs
An open claim does not prevent a sale. What costs a Salt Lake owner is a declaration that went unanswered and a masonry wall nobody assessed.
If you are weighing several offers, how to tell local cash buyers apart covers the checks that separate them.
Questions Owners Ask
How Do I Tell Solid Brick From Brick Facing?
Look at a window or door opening in section, or ask a mason or engineer. It is not obvious from the street and it changes what the fire did.
Is the Wall Safe to Be Near?
Treat an unbraced masonry wall as unsafe until somebody qualified says otherwise, and keep people and vehicles away from its fall zone.
Can I Sell With an Open Claim?
Yes. Who keeps the proceeds is a contract term rather than a legal barrier.
A Declaration Arrived and I Ignored It.
Contact the county assessor rather than waiting for the tax notice. The consequence is a change in taxable value from 55 per cent to the full amount.
Sources
- Utah Code sections 59-2-102, 59-2-103 and 59-2-103.5 — residential exemption and declarations
- Utah State Constitution Article XIII section 3 — the 45 per cent exemption
- Salt Lake City Fix the Bricks programme and FEMA case study materials
- Wasatch Front Unreinforced Masonry Risk Reduction Strategy (March 2021)
- Utah Guide for the Seismic Improvement of Unreinforced Masonry Dwellings