Doctor blows up house in divorce-is his wife going to get anything?

That’s not always a given. My life insurance will pay out for a suicide as long as the policy has been held for more than two years. I asked the agent.

No, I’m not planning to kill myself. I was just curious.

I wish I could have seen the look on your agent’s face…

That’s pretty standard, actually:

http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAWS+&QUERYDATA=$$ISC3203$$@TXISC03203+&LIST=SEA18+&BROWSER=36261480+&TOKEN=16751403+&TARGET=VIEW

Any new construction might be restricted by lotline setbacks as well.

I don’t know about New York, but more than a few people in San Francisco have run into difficulties when they find out that their rebuilt house needs to be at least *x * feet from the property lines resulting in an absurdly skinny sliver of a house, whereas if it was a remodel and the original structure was still standing, the house could continue to touch the adjoining buildings on the 25 foot wide lot.

I haven’t looked up the NYC Zoning Resolution for that particular block, but there shouldn’t be those type of setback restrictions where the townhouse was located.