Questions on house fire insurance, the aftermath.?

Question

My apartment unit just caught on fire yesterday, and only the entire kitchen burned down, everything else is covered soot, and there are couple smoke damages on the wall. My family rent the apartment, and the landlord is trying to have us take all the responsibilities. The report labeled the fire under "accidental", but does which kind of accident matter? those caused by a person (negligence)? those caused by uncontrollable factors (appliance defect, electricity leakage)? Also, about when will the insurance person show up? I won't know the terms of the insurance until the insurance person shows up.Please try to answer all three questions.

Answer 1

If you have renters insurance, you need to call them asap and let them know what happened - they'll take it from there, and will also pay for any damages to your personal property.

The landlord probably also carries insurance on the property, and their insurance will cover most of the damages to the actual structure, although not to your personal property, if you don't have insurance. But then their insurance company will "subrogate" the amount of the damages to you if you were responsible for the fire -- that means they'll charge you back for it. Depending on what assets you have, they might or might not be able to collect the whole amount from you.

The insurance person will probably show up a day or two after they're notified. Since it's a weekend, it might not be until Monday or even Tuesday.

"Accidental" just means the fire wasn't deliberately set - it doesn't mean that you are not responsible if for example you left something on the stove and it caught fire - that would be accidental, but your fault. If it turned out to be something like faulty wiring, then you wouldn't be, it would be the landlord/s problem.

Good luck. Be glad nobody was hurt.

Answer 2

If your family has renter's insurance and called the insurance company to report the claim, the on call adjuster (evening/weekend emergency adjuster) should have already been out to see you. If you have renters insurance the adjuster will look at what is the cause of the fire, if is due to negligence such as someone overheating a frying pan then they will proceed to pay your portion of damages for personal items under your policy and also pay your landlord for damage to the apartment under your liability coverage.

If the fire was due to an electrical problem then payment would come under the landlord's own policy for his property damage. If you do not have renters insurance you will not receive anything and further if your family was negligent and caused the fire then the landlord's insurance company can come after you. However from what I have seen if the renters do not have insurance the insurance companies do not bother coming after them unless they are upper income.

I hope you have renters insurance since they will not only pay for your personal property, they will pay for clean up of the smoke damage to your personal property & pay for a temporary rental while your unit is being fixed.

I am sorry for this situation and wish you good luck in resolving everything.

Answer 3

Call the fire inspector in your town. If all it says is "accidental"
the report is incomplete.

If you have loss of use coverage built into your insurance policy you can move to temporary housing until your apt. gets repaired.