Stop One: Still With the Insurer
Nothing under Article 3-A has happened yet, because no asset of the trust exists. What matters at this stage is the claim itself: the scope, the adjuster's figures, and which components the settlement is split into.
What to do here: get the settlement broken down. Dwelling, other structures, contents and additional living expenses are different things with different purposes, and owners who never learn the difference make their worst decisions at the next stop. The framework is on our page covering the trust and the records.
Stop Two: In Your Account
The moment the money exists, section 70(3) says the trust commences, whether or not there is at that time any beneficiary. You are the trustee under section 70(2), and the proceeds are trust assets under section 70(5)(f).
What to do here: make the money identifiable and start the ledger. Separate accounts are not required where proper books and records are kept, and a separate account is the simplest way to have proper books and records without trying.
How Long Does It Usually Sit Here?
Stop Three: With a Contractor
Once you pay a contractor, the funds they receive are assets of a trust of which they are the trustee, under section 70(1) and (6). Their subcontractors and suppliers are the beneficiaries.
Under section 79-a(1)(b) a trustee who applies trust funds for a purpose other than the trust purposes is guilty of larceny where the funds were received as contractor or subcontractor and a trust claim goes unpaid for more than thirty-one days after it is due.
What to do here: get lien waivers as you pay, and keep them. Evidence that a beneficiary has been paid is worth as much as the payment itself.
What If the Contractor Stops?
Stop Four: The Closing Table
Where a sale happens, whatever remains is dealt with by the contract. Either it stays with you and the price reflects that, or it passes to the buyer and the price reflects that instead.
What to do here: have a New York lawyer read the term. On a fund with a statutory character and possible beneficiaries, a vague clause is not a small thing.
What We Do With Your Address
Local sale evidence. What the house would be worth repaired on your actual street.
The county clerk's records. For any mechanic's lien already filed, and for what else is recorded.
The parcel and permit record. For the build year and any work already permitted.
The structure. Whether the framing survived, which decides the repair-or-rebuild question and matters more after each winter here.
What Comes Back
A written figure with each line visible: finished value, cost of the work, carrying cost and margin. And two versions of the price where a claim is live, one assuming the proceeds stay with you and one assuming they do not, so the difference is a number rather than a conversation.
What If Repairing Beats Selling?
What Never Happens
No fee at any stage. No request that you clear the site, commission a report or repair anything first. No requirement that your claim be settled. No assignment of the contract to a third party. We never ask for an assignment of your claim, a direction to pay, or any part of the proceeds before closing, and we do not speak to your insurer.
Common Questions About the Process
How Long Does It Take?
Address to written figure is usually a few days. Closing depends on title and on any liens filed. The claim does not have to be settled first.
Do I Need to Be in New York?
No. Out-of-state owners are common on inherited property and remote closing is routine.
I Have Already Spent Some of the Money.
Common, and say so at the start. What matters is what it went on and whether anybody is owed, and it is far better raised early than discovered late.