House Fire!

[PC]

I was just thinking "What a boring day at work..." and the phone goes off.
Frantic call from the property manager - There's been a fire!

Tenant had been frying chips on the stove.
He left them cooking and went outside.
Next thing you know - the stove is all ablaze.

My, what a mess!
Luckily all my rentals have fire extinghuisers and the tenant who had barely been there a week remembered!
It was well ablaze - he was probably extremely silly to have gone back into the house.
Lucky he did - it would have been two units gone!
Thanks APIA for promoting the extinguishers.

The heat melted light fittings & plastic venetians ten feet away.
Soot all over the ceilings.
Curtains, wallpaper - almost black!

Scary how fast and hot a fat fire gets.

Insurance assessor turned up within an hour.
Cleaners, electrician and builder on their way.

Tenant was still game to live in the place as the bedrooms where fine.
So rent free and takeaways for dinner!

Hope the tenant heeded my warnings to have contents & liability insurance.
I doubt he'll find my insurance company very friendly!

Anyone else gone through this?
Any traps to be wary of?

[Aston]

Hi PC,

Yes I've had 2 fires!

Turns out they were deliberately lit by the same tenant, although I didn't know that at the time. Very, very long story but turned out he was the Wellington arsonist of about 7 years ago. He's now deceased.

Same thing happened to me.... quiet day at work till the phone rung. To me it happened twice though about 4 weeks apart. I now insist that my tenants have contents insurance cover. No insurance.... no tenancy agreement.

I also always have insurance to cover loss of rent. The advantage of this of course is that it gets the insurance company into action beacuse it's costing them money every day you're tenant is out of the property.

One thing I found out much too late was that the electrician only replaced the sections of wiring that were actually burned, whereas they should have actually replaced all of the wiring in the damaged area of the house. Make sure you insist on this. I was up for a re-wire about 3 years later.

Also keep an eye on the carpenters, these guys who work for insurance companies tend to be jacks of all trades. The carpenter did the building, glazing, painting and roofing and some of the work was a bit shonky.

I also used the opportunity to fully redecorate the place. I'm not sure if your place needs it but it's a good idea, while the insurance company is paying the rental.

Very stressful....... good luck.

[PC]

Thanks Aston.

I was sitting in front of the idiot box last night (reading the property press of course!) and the fire departments' don't leave cooking unattended ad came on.

Took notice of it this time!

[SEIBU]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to advise your tenant to cut down on oily food
Here in Japan, everything is gas, I'm always worried I'm going to set the whole street alight - I check everything 2 or 3 times before leaving the house (yeah I'm phobic I know )

[Glenn]

Blah that is nothing.
I had the whole dam house lot burn down last week.
One half of the old house as black as my toast when I give it two blasts in the toaster. Other half sodden and un livable.
I had to issue a 7 day notice to terminate the tenancy on Monday because the "good half" tenant still had his gear inside and his rotten old cars outside. At long last he got a house today and with the loan of my big trailer his stuff was on its way at 4pm today.
The rotten owner is demanding I get rid of the tenants rubbish in the shed. so it looks like I will have another clean up job to do.
Hope she does not want the stove cleaned.
I have not had a look. perhaps the inside of the stove will be cleaner than the outside for a change.