Sell a Fire Damaged House in The Wider Wasatch Front

One Rule, Several Assessors

The residential exemption is a statewide provision under the Utah Constitution and section 59-2-103 of the Utah Code. The 45 per cent reduction, the 183 consecutive days test and the declaration requirement are the same in Ogden as in Salt Lake City.

What differs is which county assessor administers it, and county practice on declarations is not uniform. Some counties will remove the exemption if a form is not returned within 30 days of notice, where the statute allows 90 days from the letter's date. The framework is on our page covering the brick and the exemption.

Which County Holds My Parcel?

The Masonry Question Returns at the Northern End

Worth knowing because owners assume construction gets newer with distance from the city, and along this corridor it does not run that way evenly.

Ogden and Bountiful hold substantial older housing of the same era and construction as the older Salt Lake neighbourhoods, with the same solid masonry and the same dependence on roof and floor structure for lateral bracing. Utah County's growth is largely later and mostly framed.

So the Wall Question Applies up North Too?

We publish no county practices, exemption determinations or values for individual Wasatch Front properties. Each county assessor states its own position for an address.

Distance Widens the Offers

Away from the centre, contractors price travel and buyers price uncertainty about access. That spreads the offers on the same property, because those who have visited price accurately and those who have not guess.

On masonry files that spread is larger still, since the structural question cannot be answered from a photograph. Getting somebody to the property is worth more here than in the city neighbourhoods.

Values Range Widely

Finished values along the Front run from strong to considerably more modest within a short drive, and that decides whether repairing or selling is the better answer more than any legal factor does.

Establish what the house would be worth repaired using evidence from the specific street rather than a regional impression.

The Front in Context

Where the same masonry sits in the oldest city neighbourhoods, see our page about the Avenues and Capitol Hill. Where later construction dominates, see our page for the south valley.

The Statute That Does Not Change By County

Article XIII section 3 of the Utah Constitution and section 59-2-103 of the Utah Code apply statewide: a 45 per cent exemption, tax on 55 per cent of value, and a 183 consecutive day occupancy test. The exemption dates from 1982 and reached 45 per cent in 1995.

Section 59-2-103.5(8) allows 90 days to return a declaration, though some counties apply 30 days from notice. Unreinforced masonry construction has been prohibited since the 1970s throughout the state.

Wasatch Front Questions