Latest News…November 27 2023

What To Do When You Get Your PA…

The most important thing to remember when you finally get your Participation Agreement is to actually read the transmittal email.

The PA will be attached to an email from the Superintendent’s office (Michael Maglaras & Company). It will NOT come from ESIS.

Read the email transmittal…and we mean every word…because, after waiting as long as you’ve waited, the last thing you want to have happen is to have your funding tied up because you simply didn’t read what we sent you.

Approximately 40% of the victims of this crisis receive their PA and don’t read the transmittal instructions. As a result, they send inadequate information back to the Superintendent’s office. This delays the processing of their PA and delays their funding…sometimes for weeks.

Here’s what the transmittal requires: you must return, with all pages of your signed and witnessed PA, (i) the original signed contract for construction with the contractor you chose, and (ii) the contractor’s worksheet showing the calculations the contractor made for your remediation according to CFSIC’s allowable costs.

That’s three things coming back to us: the signed and witnessed PA, the original signed contract with the contractor, and the contractor’s worksheet. It couldn’t be clearer, yet 40% don’t get it right.

Let’s be clear about the construction contract.

Your ESIS claim adjuster approved the allowable costs contained in a foundation remediation contract that you agreed to. Your contractor signed it. You signed it. This is the document that details what CFSIC will pay for. You should have it in your possession.

Take the time to read the transmittal. If you don’t understand the transmittal, call the Superintendent’s office. Do not call your claim adjuster at ESIS for assistance. Why? Because the reason we request a copy of the contract all over again, as well as the contractor’s worksheet all over again, is because claimants change their contracts after they have originally been signed and don’t tell us. When this happens, the process grinds to a halt.

That’s right…even though your claim adjuster at ESIS has a copy of your original signed contract and the calculation worksheet, we require you to send it to us all over again as if we never had it. This is to assure that we are dispensing funds according to the contract you originally signed.

If you are in doubt that what you have in your files is the correct documentation, call your contractor. They can’t get paid unless the Superintendent countersigns your PA…so they have a deep interest in helping you.

What are the biggest mistakes claimants make with their PA?

– They return just the signature page of the PA….it’s not enough. We need the whole document.

– They return the contract where the signing date is the date they return it to us. (The number of claimants who don’t actually have, in their possession, a valid copy of the original final contract signed by them as well as the contractor is staggering.)

– They don’t return the contractor’s worksheet at all.

The biggest problem of all is simply a failure to read the transmittal sending the PA to begin with. Not only are these requirements clearly spelled out in the transmittal, but they are in red type. You simply can’t miss them. (Unless, of course, you skim over the transmittal to being with.)

Lastly, remember something important: we do not accept personal visits to the Superintendent’s office to hand-deliver PAs at any time. It is a security issue. The transmittal makes it clear in no uncertain terms that PAs may not be hand-delivered. The hand-delivery of a PA permanently removes your claim from the system, and your claim will not be paid.

The rules are clear. The rules are easy to follow. You just have to read what we send you.