Questions We Get Asked

On most residential transfers, yes, under Chapter 47E. Limited exemptions exist, including the first sale of a dwelling never inhabited and transfers where both parties agree in writing not to complete one.

On the questions carrying that option, yes. The Real Estate Commission's form states that an owner is not required to disclose material facts carrying a No Representation option even where the owner has knowledge of them.

No. The form warns that failure to disclose latent, meaning hidden, defects may result in civil liability, and declining to represent is not the same as representing something untrue. Take an attorney's view rather than a buyer's.

Chapter 47E allows an owner to discharge the duty to disclose by attaching a written report from a public agency or a qualified expert to the disclosure statement. On a fire file a structural engineer's assessment does that. The mineral and oil and gas disclosure is excepted.

No later than the time the buyer makes an offer to purchase. Late delivery gives the buyer a cancellation right they would not otherwise have.

The owner must promptly correct material inaccuracies that arise after delivery. On a fire file where findings arrive in sequence, that is a live obligation.

Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement, wherever in the county you are. It handles plan review, permitting and inspections for Charlotte and the six towns of Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill and Pineville.

For building permits, largely not, which is unusual and helpful. Zoning is different: it stays with the city or town, and Code Enforcement will not open plan review until the zoning use permit is approved.

Yes. Permits are required for construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, removal and demolition, with separate permits for electrical, mechanical and plumbing work.

That is a zoning question and therefore a municipal one. Charlotte and each town set their own rules, and several of the towns are more restrictive than the city about scale.

Inside the Charlotte city limits, the fire department. Outside them, the county fire marshal's office, which sits within Code Enforcement and conducts fire investigations for projects outside the city.

Because it establishes cause and origin, which affects the insurance position and answers the first question any serious buyer asks. It is also the document most often requested late and hardest to produce quickly.

Check that you are asking the right office. Owners in the towns routinely ask a city department and are told nothing exists. One usually does.

Older dimensional framing can sometimes be repaired in sections. Newer engineered trusses and floor systems exposed to heat come out whole, so a newer house more often becomes a rebuild.

Where the fire reached the structure, it is usually the highest-return spend available. It settles the largest unknown and it gives you a statutory disclosure route at the same time.

On some Charlotte and town parcels it does, and that turns entirely on the municipal zoning rather than on anything the fire did. Check it early, because it decides which kind of buyer you should be approaching.

Wait until an engineer has been. Once the structure is gone so is the evidence, and in a state where your disclosure position depends on what you can substantiate that matters. Buyers price demolition in regardless.

Yes. The proceeds and the property are separable, and who keeps the claim is written into the contract. Raise it in the first conversation; a buyer who proposes keeping your carrier in the dark has told you what you need to know about them.

None. We do not take a fee, a commission or any spend from you, and declining costs you nothing at all.

North Carolina charges excise stamps on the deed, and the rate is modest compared with most large metros. Your closing attorney will quote the figure for your sale price.

North Carolina closes through attorneys, so yes, and it works in your favour here because the disclosure decision is exactly what they are for.