In what I consider to be a knee jerk reaction to the South Lake Tahoe fires recently experienced in our State, the City Council of Big Bear Lake decided last night that wood shake roofs in the Big Bear Lake City limits create such a “dire” fire danger that they are going to try and eliminate them by 2012. Though the ordinance still needs some tweaking on specifics of enforcement, it passed.

From a Realtor’s perspective, my concern with this ordinance is the “point of sale” trigger that is a major part of the enforcement. The ordinance proposes that when a property in Big Bear Lake with a shake roof sells and is transferred to a new owner, it would trigger the need for the roof to be replaced with a more fire resistant roof such as composition or metal. The fire chief would be the responsible party for enforcement with escrow companies and/or Realtors also involved in the process. There was some discussion on a possible 6 month extension from the sale date or close of escrow for the roof to be replaced but it was not a guarantee. It was said that “reasonable” requests for the 6 month would be allowed.

I also think putting the responsibility of this ordinance on one segment of society, specifically the sellers of property in our area, is wrong. I am sure most buyers are not going to want to pay for a new roof in our current real estate market. The sellers (and most likely some real estate agents) are going to have bare the cost of this ordinance. We are not talking about small numbers here either. Depending on the home size and characteristics, the costs for such roof replacement will range from $3,500 on the low end to upwards of $35,000 for some of the larger homes in the area.

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