The 3 phases of claiming your grant,
1.) Acceptance:
2.) Closing: (Adding any unforeseen costs like elevation.)
3.) Final: signing when you are completed with your project.

We have had reports of CTA's telling homeowners to go ahead and start work after accepting the grant.
This is not the correct procedure and it has been confirmed to be incorrect advice by the Program Manager Ted Lemcke on Fri. 3-1-2019 at 4:16pm.

We have had Roberts and a select number of CTA's not explaining or giving poor advice to homeowners regarding additional costs which are unforeseen unmet needs. Let's be sure you all understand that if you are adding elevation allowances to your grant that process is to be finalized by numbers before you sign your closing. Then, once you and the state are good with the grant numbers you sign your closing, the program issues your NTP and then the program changes your grant award to match that of what you agreed on prior to closing.

Please follow the Dec. 28, 2018 Reconstruction SOP to understand in detail what your CTA's should be telling you.

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Below is a copy of the email from the IEM Program Manager / Executive

Mr. Wennerlund,

The Program issues a notice to proceed immediately after the Applicant executes their grant agreement, which marks the date in which a Solution 2 Applicant has to start construction within 180 days. In a practical sense, depending on the time of closing, etc., the NTP normally comes within 24 hours. Therefore, there is little to no risk for an applicant to start activities once they have fully executed their grant agreement at the closing. The risk for an Applicant is starting construction prior to the execution of their grant.

In regard to your comments on the elevation component, for applicants where an elevation applies, you are correct in the sequence you have captured. We must process the elevation portion of the overall grant as a change order following the execution of the grant to ensure the grant "books are balanced" in the Restore system of record. As you may recall, this is why we separated the reconstruction and elevation components on the new calculation form we discussed at the last consult meeting we had at the housing center. That is to ensure the applicant knows what the total grant award is and the order in which they are issued via the closing and change order process.

Ted Lemcke
IEM Program Executive
Restore Louisiana