Rental House Fire (tenant, renter's insurance, fees, carpet)

[SXMGirl]

My tenant of one month left something on the stove and burned approximately 50 percent of my house. Kitchen destroyed and all the floors, walls, and ceilings need to be replaced. I meet with the insurance adjuster and contractor next week. Any suggestions for me before I meet with them? I was out of the country when this happened and the house is 400 miles from where I live, so I haven't seen it yet. Thanks for any info.

[ShaneSA]

First thing is to be sure the contractor has boarded up the house to protect what is left.
Hopefully you have pictures of the before. At least have the latest apprasial for value. Take pictures now, so you have a record of the extent of the damage. Also, as with a car, the entire damage will not be evident until the demo of the burned areas. Make sure there is allowence for hidden damage. If the floors are burned, is the subfloor and beams burned? If the walls are burned, check the supports. You will not know the true extent of damage until the burned parts are removed.
I'm sure the adjuster is aware of that. Remember your appliances and HVAC or window units.
It's a tough spot to be in. Best of luck handleing it. It sounds like you've got a good start.

[SXMGirl]

Shane, do you have suggestions about upgrading? We inherited this house, and there was berber carpet and we want to put in hardwood. The insurance adjuster was very happy when I told her that we were not going to reinstall berber, but we didn't mention hardwood. We did tell her that we were not replacing the popcorn ceiling and she was happy about that. We plan to install a dishwasher that wasn't there before, and I want all new appliances--the laundry area is in part of the kitchen. There is smoke damage throughout the house, but the adjuster tells me that when they are finished that we will never know that there was a fire.

[himain]

How is the tenant being held responsible for this?? They are I'm hoping...Good luck

[SXMGirl]

I have no idea as to how to hold him responsible. I have insurance to cover everything except my travel and hotel expenses. This house had been vacant for several years, and his family lives across the street. Since he is 40ish, I thought he was responsible. We never had planned to rent the house, but his family kept badgering us not just to rent it to him but also to buy the house.

[aragx6]

Your tenant is responsible. that's what renter's insurance is for.

Unless it was an electrical fire you shouldn't be paying a dime.

That being said, he probably doesn't have renter's insurance and he probably doesn't have any money. That's why renter's should always be required by their landlord to have renter's insurance.

[Ultrarunner]

I went through the same thing on Superbowl Sunday several years ago... a lot of problems that needed to worked through...

My tenant had a Superbowl party and was frying fish on the stove, left the kitchen to check the score... The kitchen was a loss and smoke damage to much of the rest of the house.

The city didn't red tag the house since the major damage was confined to the kitchen.

Adjuster came in very low for the work... I put him in touch with my contractor and they agreed to cover the job, less my $1000 deductible...

Work completed in good time and adjuster came back to verify... all was looking good.

The same week I received the final payment, I also received a cancellation notice which made it near impossible to find any decent insurance because I was "Cancelled"

Then the insurance company sues my tenant and my tenants wife works for a law firm...

Tenant says they can't pay me and pay legal fees or payments to insuarance company...

After several months, tenant files bankruptcy when insurance company awarded judgement.

I had a sit down talk with them and said this is going from bad to worse and it would be best for everyone to have a fresh start... they said they appreciated how a handled things and said they would be out by the weekend and they were...

Sorry for the long story... a lot of factors involved here...

[SXMGirl]

Ultrarunner, I never even thought about the insurance being cancelled. Not to be nosy, but did you sue your tenant? Are you still renting your property?

[himain]

It is your tenants responsibility 100%. Did they have renters insurance?? After all you didn't set the fire..

[SXMGirl]

Renter did not have renters insurance. I guess I will contact a local lawyer. The problem is that this is a small town and his sister is a lawyer. After her brother called me to tell me that the house had caught fire, she was the one who called back saying that he was afraid to talk to me. I actually was quite pleasant to him.