Two Things Are on the Table
The property, and the insurance claim. They can be sold together or separately, the price should differ substantially depending on which, and a contract that does not say clearly which is being bought is a contract with an argument inside it.
Under Article 3-A those proceeds are trust assets, so a term about them is not a minor commercial detail. The full position is on our page covering the trust and the records.
What Does a Good Proposal Look Like?
The Buyer Who Prices Both Ways
They will ask early where the claim stands, what has been paid and what remains outstanding, because it changes their number materially.
They will also usually suggest you have a New York lawyer read the proceeds term, because a fight about it after closing serves neither party.
The Buyer Whose Contract Is Silent About It
The commonest problem and rarely deliberate. A standard purchase contract that says nothing about insurance proceeds leaves an ambiguity on a fire file where a claim is live.
The question that catches it: if the insurer pays out next week, who gets that money under this contract. A buyer who has done fire files answers immediately. One who has not will need to check, which is a fair answer and tells you what you are dealing with.
The Buyer Who Wants the Proceeds Assigned Now
Worth stopping on. An assignment of a claim, or a direction to pay, moves something before you have received anything in exchange.
The rule worth holding: nothing about the claim moves before closing. If a buyer needs the proceeds, that is a term of the sale that takes effect when the sale does, not a document signed in advance. Any request of this kind goes to a New York lawyer before it goes anywhere else.
The Buyer Who Offers to Front the Repairs
Proposals where a buyer pays for work on a property they do not yet own, against the expectation of a purchase, put money into your building and a claim into their hands.
The test: ask what happens if the sale does not complete. Where the answer is that they would have a claim against the property or against you, that is a lien in prospect, and it is not a favour.
The Buyer Who Has Not Asked About Contractors
A quick signal. Whether a restoration firm has already been paid, and whether they paid their own subcontractors, determines whether liens may be coming.
The question that reveals them: ask whether they want to know who has been paid so far. A buyer working in this market asks it unprompted, because unpaid trades become their problem after closing.
Contract Assigners
Some parties sign to buy and sell the contract on before closing. On a file where insurance proceeds and possible lien claims are both live, the eventual purchaser inherits a position they were never part of assessing.
The question that catches it: which entity will appear on the deed. A principal buyer gives you a name.
The Checks Worth Making Yourself
Your own ledger. What has arrived, what has gone out, to whom and for what. It is the document every other conversation depends on.
The county clerk's records. For any mechanic's lien already filed against the property.
Your policy. For which parts of the settlement are dwelling, contents and additional living expenses.
A New York lawyer. On any term about proceeds, before signing rather than after.
Where We Fit, and Where We Do Not
We buy as principal, in our own entity, with our own funds, and we take title. We do not assign contracts, we do not take assignments of claims, and we ask for nothing before closing. Ask us what our contract says about the proceeds and you should get both numbers.
We are frequently not the right answer. Across Park Avenue, Brighton and much of the eastern suburbs, where the claim paid properly and the frame survived, repairing or a conventional sale will beat us outright. Our written figure says so when the numbers point there. What happens from there is on our page about how the process actually runs.
Questions About Buyers
One Offer Is Far Above the Others.
Check whether it assumes the proceeds come with the property. That single assumption explains most large gaps on a fire file here.
A Buyer Wants Me to Sign an Assignment.
Take it to a New York lawyer before signing. Nothing about the claim should move before closing.
Does a Buyer Need a Licence?
Not to buy as a principal and take title. Marketing property on behalf of others requires a New York real estate licence, and the state lookup is free.