House Fire Advice

[DHPMARINE]

My sister and brother in law had a fairly serious fire last night.Thank God no one was hurt.They'll be out of the house for at least a few months.

They have notified the insurance company,and an appraiser is comming tommorrow,and they also have hired their own 'private' appraiser.

Any other advice ?

DHP

 

[mscher]

Re: House Fire Advice

MAKE SURE THE DOORS AND WINDOWS ARE SECURED!!!!!

Use plywood, padlock, whatever.

My sister had a fairly serious fire in a small town and the front door was damaged and would not lock. Several instances, people simply walked in and started taking stuff. No big deal, apparently. Cops busted the intruders and got much of the stuff back.

I was floored that the insurance company never even mentioned securing the premisies as part of a disaster recovery plan.

Have them mentally prepare for a possible major CF (If you know what that means :devil with the insurance company.

Write down everything that's damaged, who they talk to, when and what was said. Keep track of EVERYTHING, values, etc. Nothing should be considered insignificant.

Between the insurance company ineptness, plus trying to get out of paying for anything, nearly drove my sister to a nervous breakdown. After 1 year and a half, they did finally get the house rebuilt, plus money for lost and damaged stuff.

Good luck and it great no one was injured.

 

[Xcusme]

Re: House Fire Advice

Yea, take pictures of everything! Same thing happened to a friend. Friend was away on weekend holiday. House caught fire. Point of ignition was shown (with pics) to be outside mounted A/C power box.....after all was said and done, insurance co. determines point of ignition to be dishwasher opposite A/C meter box .......what b.s........

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: House Fire Advice

Thanks,this is the feedback we need.

we did secure the house,and pictures are a great idea,just in case.

DHP

 

[tomatolord]

Re: House Fire Advice

Be very careful what you say to the insurance company!!

Make sure ONLY the homeowners talk to the insurance company, even casually could be a problem.

Mine required us to answer a taped session about the fire itself before they would settle the claim.

Also mine fought me on bringing the damage up to code, they said my insurance would only pay to have it rebuilt, but rebuilt to what it WAS not what code is today, they wanted to rebuild it to the standard that cuased the fire to begin with!

But what the builder wanted done was at the same cost so they were ok with it.

Tomatolord

 

[nothreat]

Re: House Fire Advice

Watch any inspectors the insurance sends out. A friend's house was hit by lightning and burned to the ground leaving only the foundation. An insurance agent came out to inspect the foundation to determine whether it could be reused. He looked at one wall and was leaving when my buddy pulled up. He asked about the report and the agent said it was okay. Now, the foundation was heat damaged on three walls (it was a basement) and cracked. The agent only looked at one wall. My buddy pointed that out and the agent showed him the service order which clearly stated that he should inspect only that one wall. To shorten this story, it took several months and a third party to make the insurance company stand good. He had nothing but fights for the entire process. Keep records, pictures, everything you can because they will cheat you.

 

[tommays]

Re: House Fire Advice

I helped a friend and a big issue was sealing the smell out of wood that was not fire damaged :devil:

Wear to cut back to start a rebuild is allways a fight


tommays

 

[dolluper]

Re: House Fire Advice

Keep records and receipts for all OUT OF POCKET expenses from this minute on,even if you think they wouldn't be covered........since it could be quite a while before complete settlement is reached and they will have a lot of OOP expenses