[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Commissioners
of the Township of South Whitehall 1-4-1995 by Ord. No. 616. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
The Treasurer of South Whitehall Township or
such official's designee is hereby appointed as the designated officer
who is authorized to carry out all responsibilities and duties stated
herein.
A "fire loss" or claim for fire damages is defined
as any loss occurring after the effective date of this chapter and
covered under a policy of fire insurance, including all endorsements
or riders to the policy.
No insurance company, association or exchange (hereinafter the "insuring agent") doing business in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shall pay a claim of a named insured for fire damage to a structure located within the Township of South Whitehall (hereinafter the "Township") where the amount recoverable for the fire loss to the structure under all policies exceeds $7,500 unless the insuring agent is furnished by the Township Treasurer with a municipal certificate pursuant to § 508(b) of the Insurance Company Law of 1921, as amended (the "Insurance Law") and § 174-4 of this chapter, and unless there is compliance with §§ 508(c) and (d) of the Insurance Law and the provisions of this chapter.
The Township Treasurer shall, upon the written
request of the named insured specifying the tax description of the
property, name and address of the insuring agent and the date agreed
upon by the insuring agent and the named insured as the date of the
receipt of a loss report of the claim, furnish the insuring agent
either of the following within 14 working days of the request:
A.
A certificate to the effect that, as of the date specified
in the request, there are no delinquent taxes, assessments, penalties
or user charges against the property and that, as of the date of the
Township Treasurer's certificate, the Township has not certified any
amount as total costs incurred by the Township for the removal, repair
or securing of a building or other structure on the property.
B.
A certificate and bill showing the amount of delinquent
taxes, assessments, penalties and use charges against the property
as of the date specified in the request that have not been paid as
of the date of the certificate and also showing, as of the date of
the Township Treasurer's certificate, the amount of the total costs,
if any, certified to the Township Treasurer that have been incurred
by the Township for the removal, repair or securing of a building
or other structure on the property. For the purposes of this subsection,
the Township shall provide to the Township Treasurer the total amount,
if any, of such costs, if available or, the amount of costs known
to the Township at the time of the Township Treasurer's certificate.
A tax, assessment, penalty or user charge becomes delinquent at the
time and on the date a lien could otherwise have been filed against
the property by the Township under applicable law.
Upon receipt of a certificate pursuant to § 174-4A of this chapter, the insuring agent shall pay the claim of the named insured in accordance with policy terms, except that if the loss agreed upon by the named insured and the insuring agent equals or exceeds 60% of the aggregate limits of liability on all fire insurance policies covering the building or other structure, the procedures set forth in § 174-7, below, shall be followed.
Upon the receipt of a certificate and bill pursuant to § 174-4B of this chapter, the insuring agent shall return the bill to the Township Treasurer and transfer to the Township Treasurer an amount from the insurance proceeds necessary to pay the taxes, assessments, penalties, charges and costs as shown on the bill, or the full amount of the insurance proceeds, whichever is the lesser amount. The Township shall receive the amount and apply or credit it to payment of the items shown in the bill. Further, the terms of § 174-7 shall be followed, if applicable. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the ability of the Township to recover any deficiency.
A.
Where pursuant to § 508(b)(1)(i) of the Insurance Law, and § 174-4A of this chapter, the Township Treasurer issues a certificate indicating that there are no delinquent taxes, assessments, penalties or user charges against real property, the insuring agent shall pay the claim of the named insured, provided however, that if the loss agreed upon by the named insured and the insuring agent equals or exceeds 60% of the aggregate limits of liability on all fire insurance policies covering the building or other structure, the following procedures must be followed:
(1)
The
insuring agent shall transfer from the insurance proceeds to the Township
Treasurer in the aggregate of $2,000 for each $15,000 of a claim and
for each fraction of that amount of a claim, this section to be applied
such that if the claim is $15,000 or less, the amount transferred
to the Township shall be $2,000.
(2)
If at the time of a loss report the named insured has submitted a contractor's signed estimate of the costs of removing, repairing or securing the building or other structure in an amount less than the amount calculated under Subsection A(1), above, the insuring agent shall transfer to the Township from the insurance proceeds the amount specified in the estimate.
(3)
The
transfer of proceeds to the Township shall be on a pro rata basis
by all companies, associations or exchanges insuring the building
or other structure. Policy proceeds remaining after the transfer to
the Township shall be disbursed in accordance with the policy terms.
(4)
After
the transfer, the named insured may submit a contractor's signed estimate
of the costs of removing, repairing or securing the building or other
structure, and the Township Treasurer shall return the amount of the
funds transferred to the Township in excess of the estimate to the
named insured, if the Township has not commenced to remove, repair
or secure the building or other structure.
(5)
Upon
receipt of proceeds under this section, the Township shall do the
following:
(a)
The Township Treasurer shall place the proceeds
in a separate fund to be used solely as security against the total
costs of removing, repairing or securing the building or structure
which are incurred by the Township. Such costs shall include, without
limitation, any engineering, legal or administrative costs incurred
by the Township in connection with such removal, repair or securing
of the building or any proceedings related thereto.
(b)
It is the obligation of the insuring agent when
transferring the proceeds to provide the Township with the name and
address of the named insured. Upon receipt of the transferred funds
and the name and address of the named insured, the Township Treasurer
shall contact the named insured, certify that the proceeds have been
received by the Township and notify the named insured that the procedures
under this subsection shall be followed.
(c)
When repairs, removal or securing of the building
or other structure have been completed in accordance with all applicable
regulations and orders of the Township and the required proof of such
completion received by the Township Treasurer, and if the Township
has not incurred any costs for repairs, removal or securing, the fund
shall be returned to the named insured. If the Township has incurred
costs for repairs, removal or securing of the building or other structure,
the costs shall be paid from the fund and if excess funds remain,
the Township shall transfer the remaining funds to the named insured.
(d)
To the extent that interest is earned on proceeds
held by the Township pursuant to this section, and such proceeds are
not returned to the named insured, such interest shall belong to the
Township. To the extent that proceeds are returned to the named insured,
interest earned on such proceeds shall be distributed to the named
insured at the time that the proceeds are returned.
B.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit
the ability of the Township to recover any deficiency. Furthermore,
nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit the Township
and the named insured from entering into an agreement that permits
the transfer of funds to the named insured if some other reasonable
disposition of the damaged property has been negotiated.
The Board of Commissioners may, by resolution,
adopt procedures and regulations to implement § 508 of the
Insurance Law and this chapter and may, by resolution, fix reasonable
fees to be charged for municipal activities or services provided pursuant
to the Insurance Law and this chapter including, but not limited to,
issuance of certificates and bills, performance of inspections and
opening separate fund accounts.
Any owner of property, any named insured or
any insuring agent who or which violates any provision of this chapter
shall, upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to pay a fine of
not more than $1,000 plus costs and, in default of payment of said
fine and costs, to a term of imprison not to exceed 30 days. Each
day that a violation of this chapter continues or each section of
this chapter which shall be found to have been violated shall constitute
a separate offense.
