Connecticut AG Says 4 Insurers Agree to Financing Fix for Crumbling Concrete Foundations

Homeowners in Connecticut are getting some help for crumbling foundations.

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said the state has reached a deal with a handful of insurance companies to finance a program meant to compensate affected homeowners.

The program is still being finalized, but it could provide homeowners up to 90-percent of the cost of replacing the damaged foundations.

Jepsen said just four of the 29 insurance companies working in impacted communities in Hartford, Tolland and Windham counties have so far agreed to take part.

Over 200 homeowners have filed complaints with the state about failing foundations. Officials have traced the problem to concrete mix from a quarry in Willington that may contain high levels of pyrrhotite, a mineral mined from Becker’s Quarry in Willington and believed to be a major factor in the crumbling foundations.

Officials say cracks may take 10 or more years after the foundation is poured to develop. Many of the homes with damage were built in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Last October, the state informed insurance companies that they cannot cancel or non-renew a homeowner’s policy due to a crumbling foundation.

Two construction firms — Joseph J. Mottes Co. and the Becker Construction Co. — have voluntarily agreed to stop selling material or product containing aggregate from the quarry in Willington for use in residential concrete foundations in Connecticut until June 2017.

The state investigation into deteriorating foundations in eastern Connecticut continues.