Sell a fire-damaged house in Illinois, as it stands.

The Illinois seller disclosure report doesn't ask you to repair anything before a sale. It says in its own text that the parties may choose to negotiate a sale of the property subject to any or all material defects disclosed in the report, which it calls "as is."

What changes after a fire is who can buy it. A house with fire, smoke, or structural damage often can't be lived in as it sits, and buyers who need a mortgage and plan to move in usually pass. That leaves buyers who pay cash and rebuild, which is what we do. You don't remove the debris, gut the kitchen, or get a contractor's estimate before we look.

If the house was insured, the claim is yours and it comes first. Before you agree to sell, ask your insurer, in writing if you can: what has been paid and what is still owed, whether any payment depends on you repairing or rebuilding, and what happens to the claim if you sell the house as it is. The answers depend on your policy, and we can't read it for you.

If there's a mortgage, ask the mortgage company how claim payments on the structure are handled and what the payoff is. In a sale, the mortgage is paid from the price at closing like any other.

If the claim is disputed, the people who can help are your insurer, a lawyer, or a public adjuster. Illinois requires anyone acting as a public adjuster to be licensed, and requires a public adjuster's contract to be in writing and to state the adjuster's full compensation. We aren't adjusters and don't negotiate claims.

Under the Illinois Insurance Code, when the amount recoverable for fire or explosion loss to a structure is above a threshold set in the statute, the insurance company can't pay the claim until it receives a certificate about the property. The certificate either says there are no delinquent property taxes and no unpaid demolition expenses, or lists them and directs the insurer to pay them.

If there are any, the insurer pays them out of the claim directly to the tax collector or the local government, and the remaining proceeds go to the insured owner. If the proceeds won't cover both, the property taxes are paid first. So if the taxes are behind or the town has already spent money on the building, expect that to come out of the insurance check. Your insurer can tell you whether this applies to your claim.

The Illinois Municipal Code lets a municipality demolish, repair, or enclose a dangerous and unsafe building. The town applies to the circuit court after giving the owner and the lienholders of record at least 15 days' written notice to make the building safe or take it down. The statute says it's not a defense that the building is boarded up.

If the town does the work, the cost is recoverable from the owner and becomes a lien on the property. When a notice of lien is recorded within 180 days, that lien comes ahead of earlier liens, except taxes.

Board-up deadlines, permits, and inspection rules beyond that are set town by town, so call your building department and ask what they expect and by when. If you've received a notice, show it to us. An open order doesn't rule out an offer, but it's part of what a buyer takes on, and a recorded lien gets paid at closing.

The Illinois disclosure report has 24 statements and none of them asks whether the house has had a fire. Several cover what a fire leaves behind: leaks or material defects in the roof, ceilings, or chimney; material defects in the walls, windows, doors, or floors; material defects in the electrical, plumbing, and heating systems; and any notice of a violation that hasn't been corrected.

You answer from what you actually know. The form defines aware as actual notice or actual knowledge without any specific investigation, and the Act says a seller isn't obligated to make any specific investigation or inquiry to complete it. It also says the report reflects the current condition of the premises, not previous problems the seller reasonably believes have been corrected. With a house that hasn't been repaired, that means saying so plainly. Our guide to what Illinois sellers have to disclose goes through the form.

Water does its own damage after a fire, and plenty of houses come to us with water damage and no fire at all: a pipe that froze in a vacant house, a failed sump pump, a roof that leaked for a season. We look at those the same way, as they stand.

The disclosure report asks about water directly. It asks whether you're aware of flooding or recurring leakage problems in the crawl space or basement, whether the property is in a floodplain, and whether you currently have flood hazard insurance. The form's statements don't name mold, but damage to walls, floors, or systems that you know about belongs in the answers about those.

It starts with the address, what happened, and where the insurance claim stands. We walk through whatever can be safely seen. If the fire department or the town has restricted entry, tell us and we'll work from outside and from photos. If we can make an offer, it's in writing: our name, the price, what stays, who pays which closing costs, and the closing date.

Take it to a lawyer; we recommend it. A title company searches the title, orders the mortgage payoff, and shows any tax or municipal lien on the settlement statement before you sign.

The honest trade-off: a cash offer is usually lower than what a repaired, listed house would bring. If your policy pays to rebuild and you want the house back, rebuilding is the better outcome for you. A sale as it stands is for when you don't want to manage a rebuild, the money won't cover one, or you're ready to be done.