For Connecticut homeowners whose foundations are crumbling, repairs entail more than just the foundation itself. Related costs include patching up the driveway, repairing basements, porches, garages and landscaping.
Programs, like the Connecticut Foundation Solutions Indemnity Company (CFSIC), are designed to help ease the financial burden of foundation repairs, but don’t extend to parts of the projects that go beyond the foundation.
“It's a major construction site when this happens, and sort of putting all those other pieces back together, which CFSIC does not cover, basically has left people pretty much on their own in terms of taking the hit,” U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney said.
Under a new bipartisan bill making its way through Congress, homeowners could declare costs associated with their foundation repairs on taxes and receive a financial break, Courtney said. Owners would also be able to retroactively declare costs back to 2021.
The bill, being pushed by Connecticut Democrats like Courtney as well as U.S. Rep. John Larson, was approved by the House Ways and Means Committee and will next be sent to the House floor.
About 35,000 buildings, mainly in the northeastern part of the state, are affected by the faulty foundations that came from the pyrrhotite stone gathered from a Connecticut quarry.
The bill builds on an effort from 2017, in which the IRS announced homeowners could use the casualty loss deduction to help pay for foundation repairs. The decision was then limited following the passage of a 2017 tax law pushed by Republicans.
In early 2024, $2 million in federal funding was secured to help Connecticut homeowners repair their foundations. Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) spent four months using a plane to map the entirety of Connecticut to detect the presence of the problem mineral.
Quarries in Connecticut now test their deposits for pyrrhotite. Homes and businesses can still be built on land containing pyrrhotite, but soil containing the mineral cannot be used to make concrete foundations.
Fixing a foundation can range from $120,000 to $200,000 for a house, Courtney said.
Without being able to use foundation funds to repair related damage, many homeowners’ savings are depleted in the process, according to State Sen. Saud Anwar, who represents South Windsor and surrounding towns.
“Nobody plans to suddenly have to leave their home for many months,” Anwar said. “Nobody plans to actually completely uplift the entire home, every surrounding, and then also their garage, their basement, and move things, put them in storage.”
