House Fire - Repair Costs

AdrianC

Whether the council have insurance or not is irrelevant. They do "have insurance" - they self insure. They can afford to cover costs.

The only difference is whether it's the insurer or the council directly who are pursuing you for the costs of your negligence.


Whether you think the work was "needed" or not is, again, irrelevant. It is the opinion of the body footing the bill that it was necessary, due to your negligence.

You are now being pursued for around a quarter of the cost to rectify the damage caused by your negligence. That, to me, sounds like a good result on your part.


You admit that you could have purchased contents insurance - but it seems you didn't. Contents insurance would have covered the damage and losses to your furniture and dog food.

DaftyDuck

How about you pay for your accidental damage to the flat in full, then expect the Council to pay for the accidental damage they caused in full....

AnotherJoe

JadonM wrote: »

It wasn’t a case of leaving the dogs in a house with a naked flame, they were in the garden at the time anyway. This was an unfortunate accident, which we’ve obviously learnt from but I don’t think the dog warden should’ve come to us in such a way that as good as forced us into giving the dogs over, when we never actually agreed.

However, the dog kennels were around £220 according to the invoice we’ve got a copy of.

You did agree. "Here are the leads, here are the dogs". Whats that if its not agreeing?

I do agree after the event they should have returned dogs when you asked but maybe they were investigating if you were a fit and proper couple to look after the dogs given your apparent lackadaisical attitude to safety ? That might account for refusal to tell you or return. But on the face of its thats out of order. Id go with whatever advice you got legally regards that.

bouicca21

You caused a fire that necessitated the fire brigade to smash their way in. The house must have been empty or you would either have sorted out the fire yourselves or opened the door to the firemen. Your dogs (plural so at least two) were left unsupervised in the garden for who knows how long.


You got alternative housing whilst repairs were carried out, your dogs were cared for, and you are out a quarter of the cost of repairs, a bit of wood and some tins of dog food. Oh, and the charges for the kennels because the level of neglect was not enough to prevent you from getting the dogs back.



Why am I coming over all judgmental?

diggingdude

Surely the delays by the council gave you time to save up what you owe them? Now pay and consider yourself lucky no one died

JadonM

Perhaps I’ve not explained this enough, as that’s not true at all.

The dogs were in the garden as the back door was open, they were playing in the garden. My partner had just left for work so I locked the front door, as I always do when she leaves just as a safety thing. My step son then ran into the garden after throwing a toy as he was upset she had left.

Then I heard a strange noise, realised the netting had caught on the candle. At this stage it was small and I managed to put it out, so I thought. However, it is believed that some of the netting fell and caught on other items and started a small fire.

The door was locked and they had to break in because I’d locked it and left through the back rather than running through the kitchen where there was the fire. I called 999 when in the back garden and then ran round to the front of the house to give my step son to my neighbour, the back door had been shut by this point.

The dogs were not in the house alone, the candle wasn’t on without anyone in the house. The netting was there before we even moved in and from our understanding it’s council supplied.

We didn’t know the exact cost of what it would’ve been, but, due to the way they handled the entire situation plus some other events it led to me being detained and sectioned under the mental health act. The main reason was due to how they handled it all, bringing it all back up exactly one year on after the fire had happened with the charges.

It’s hard if you’re not in the situation to fully understand why we handed the dogs over. We were scared, stressed and upset. When there’s a dog warden in front of you telling you to do X Y and Z we felt we had no choice but to do as she told us, despite us saying we were looking for places for the dogs. If I recall we’d almost found a family member to take them for a few days whilst it all got sorted but as the dog warden was told to collect the dogs, none of that mattered.

The entire process on their part has been handled horrifically. The kitchen which never needed pulling out, as we have photos of it being in perfectly good and clean condition.. the new one has been fitted so poorly it’s falling apart, literally. They’re refusing to do anything about that though and blaming us, despite other council workers agreeing with us when they’ve come to do repairs.

pinkshoes

By all means argue they did unnecessary work, but I guarantee you the required work will come to more than the £2000 you are being asked to pay.

Your own negligence caused this. A candle next to net curtains????? Seriously?????

Pay up or risk a bill for the whole amount. The council have been more than generous.

Elinore

I have never known a council to do unnecessary work - i've even been party to cases when it's been a struggle to get them to do really vital works.

If a pump attended and used a hose or any appliance that used a decent amount of water, it will be very likely that the kitchens chip units will be internally damp, as such over time that will blow. Not immediately apparent but it does swell over time.

If i was the council, I would take the same tack as mentioned, pay for any issues that resulted of your mistakes, in full - we will settle all bills that were our mistake.

You - £8000
Council - £200 dog kennels, £59 drawers and £50 dog food.

Clutterfree

pinkshoes wrote: »

By all means argue they did unnecessary work, but I guarantee you the required work will come to more than the £2000 you are being asked to pay.

Your own negligence caused this. A candle next to net curtains????? Seriously?????

Pay up or risk a bill for the whole amount. The council have been more than generous.

Must admit I thought the same when I read that the lit candle was next to net curtains. :eek:
BUT did you not read that the nets belonged to the council not the OP? Therefore it must be the councils fault because if the nets hadn't been there then the fire wouldn't have occurred...!

Really OP be thankful nobody was hurt or killed and just accept responsibility and pay up - things could have been a whole lot worse.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

JadonM wrote: »

The netting was there before we even moved in and from our understanding it’s council supplied.

The implication that it's the council's fault because they provided the nets made me smile.

Listen, you and your partner were extremely foolish and I hope lessons have been learned regarding candles. You caused significant damage to a property that is not yours. Thankfully, no one died. However, the damage has now been repaired. You have your home and pets back. You also have a much smaller repair bill than anticipated. Consider it a really difficult time of your life that is thankfully over - in fact, it was so difficult it caused you to have a breakdown. You need to forget the dog food and dressing table, make an arrangement to pay the money, on a weekly or monthly basis at a rate that is affordable and move on.

If you choose to keep banging this drum then you need to lodge a formal complaint, in writing, with the council. Keep it factual and emotionless. Take it through all three stages (if it is not resolved) and then, if necessary, take it the Ombudsman. Be warned though, it is going to cause more stress and you have to be honest with yourself as to what you hope to achieve and if the additional stress is worth it.

The council may not have covered themselves in glory (but we only have your side of the story; I am sure theirs would be very different) but ultimately this entire situation comes from your extremely foolish actions and you have to take responsibility for that.