How It Works: Selling a Fire Damaged House in Memphis

Stage One: Somebody With Standing

A plaintiff has to be within the statutory class: a nonprofit corporation as defined in section 13-6-102, or an interested party or neighbour.

That is a wider class than in any other market on this site, and it is the reason the ordinary comfort of nothing having come from the city is not reliable here.

Where an owner can end it: before this stage, by not having a property anybody has a reason to complain about. Securing and tidying the exterior is the cheapest work available and it addresses the thing most likely to prompt somebody.

Stage Two: A Code Violation

The action enforces a local building, housing, air pollution, sanitation, health, fire, zoning or safety code, ordinance or regulation applicable to buildings, against an owner for failure to comply.

Where a certificate of public nuisance is not attached to the complaint, the court may by written notice to the chief housing officer and the chief legal officer request that the code enforcement entity complete its inspection and issue a certificate, or a denial with reasons, within 30 calendar days. The full position is on our page covering the private right of action.

Can I Address the Violation and End It There?

That is the design. The statute is aimed at the condition, so abating the condition removes the basis of the action. Whether a particular case is disposed of on that footing is a question for your lawyer and for the court, and it is the direction every part of this procedure points in.

Stage Three: Failure to Abate

The court's earlier steps come first. Only if those fail to abate the public nuisance does subsection (g) allow the court to appoint a receiver to take possession and control of the parcel to execute a plan the receiver submits.

Where an owner can end it: by doing the work, by agreeing a schedule the court accepts, or by selling to somebody who will. All three are live at this stage and none of them is available once a receiver's lien has been established and unpaid.

Stage Four: Receivership and the Lien

The receiver files a report with the court every 60 calendar days. On completing the approved plan, the receiver files a final report and moves for the court to establish the amount of the receiver's lien.

Where the court finds the work complete, it establishes the lien amount and puts the owner on notice that the owner has 30 days from that finding to satisfy it in full.

And After Those Thirty Days?

The parcel goes to a receiver's auction. A qualified buyer whose bid the court approves takes it under continued supervision until abatement is complete. If there is no bidder above the minimum bid, the parcel is transferred by receiver's deed to the receiver, without the receiver having to pay the minimum bid in cash. That is the end of the sequence and it is why the earlier exits matter.

The Stage That Is Not in the Statute

Being reachable. A civil proceeding advances whether or not a defendant engages, and the reported cases in which Memphis owners lost property run through owners who stopped appearing rather than owners who argued and lost.

For an out-of-town owner that makes two cheap things valuable: a reliable route to reach you that does not depend on post at the property, and somebody local who looks at the building occasionally.

What We Do With Your Address

The court records. First, because whether anything has been filed changes everything else.

The assessor's parcel record. Which municipality holds it and therefore whose codes apply.

The deed. Who is actually on it, which on inherited property here is frequently unresolved.

The building. Whether the framing survived, which decides both what abatement would cost and which market the property is in.

What Comes Back

A written figure with each line visible: finished value, cost of the work, carrying cost and margin. Where a proceeding exists, its effect on our number is stated as its own line rather than folded invisibly into a lower figure.

What If Repairing Beats Selling?

Then the email says so, and here it carries a second benefit, because repairing is what abates the condition the statute is aimed at. In Midtown and much of the suburban ring that is the position more often than not, and we would rather establish it on day two than argue toward a number nobody was going to accept.

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. And we never contact a plaintiff, a nonprofit or the court about your property, and never suggest a hearing can be missed because a sale is in progress.

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 live proceeding. The insurance claim does not have to be settled first.

Do I Need to Be in Tennessee?

No, and if you are not, make sure there is a reliable way to reach you. Distance is the main risk factor in this market.

Something Has Been Filed.

Then a Tennessee lawyer first, and tell us at the start. It is workable and it changes the timetable for everybody.

How This Works, Step by Step