Smoke damage from neighbour's property

hb1

Hi, just wondering if anyone can help.

I came home to a house filled with smoke on Thursday plus a horrendous burning smell. After investigating to make sure my own house wasn't on fire, I knocked on the neighbour's door to see if they could shed any light on this. It turns out that she had put a pan on the hob, switched it on and gone to bed. The pan didn't catch fire but did fill their house with smoke which travelled through to our adjoining house.

After opening every window and door in my house, and leaving them open for a good few hours, I started to worry about the risk of fumes and rang the fire service for advice. They blue-lighted out to us and checked to ensure there was no risk of fire in the walls and no toxic fumes.

We're just left with a horrendous smell and after cleaning, opening windows, using countless cleaning products, fans, candles, air fresheners, we have found that the smell is still coming up through the floorboards into our house.

I've asked the neighbour today to contact his house insurance and see if they can do a deep clean or air cleaning process to try and get the smell out as it will keep coming through to us until they get rid of the smell. They have taken a rather annoying, laid back approach of hoping the smell will just go. Barely even an apology from them let alone any effort to get things put right. We've got stingy eyes, sore throats and a smelly house through no fault of ours. They're acting as if it's no big deal. The smell is putrid! I've just pulled the bath panel off trying to trace where else the smell might be getting in, under the bath, where it's not been tiled, stinks as its bare floor boards so the smell is still coming up through the floor.

My question is - can I contact my house insurance and claim against them to get things put right if they don't sort it? I don't see why I should be out of pocket. Ive told the neighbour today its already cost me a fortune in cleaning products and odour neutralizer - he didn't bat an eyelid!

-taff

Why don't you contact your house insurance and see what they can do?

Fire_Fox

The only way you will know what can be done is to read your home insurance policies or contact your insurers.

Overusing air fresheners, cleaning sprays, and fragranced candles is more likely to affect your family's health than any residual smoke. Those things are loaded with known irritants and known allergens.

You might run an advanced search on this sub for air purifiers. One of my recent posts:

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Consumer organisation Which? have four Best Buy air purifiers: Blueair 405 (81% overall score, £500), Philips AC2889/ 60 (76% overall score, £300), Philips AC3259/ 60 (78% overall score £425), Vax AC02AMV1 (75% overall score £250).

Which? explain "Air purifiers are fans with filters attached. Air is sucked in and passed through the filters to capture particles floating in it. Our air purifier reviews clearly show which models you can rely on to clean the air in your home quickly and effectively, removing particles such as dust, smoke and pollen. We’ll also show you the models that are best avoided.

We rigorously test in lab conditions to answer the most important air purifier questions, including: How well does it remove allergens, such as dust, smoke and pollen from the air? How many polluting particles are captured? Which size of room is it best suited to? How noisy is it on full and low power? How much energy does it use? Are the filters easy to remove and replace?"

HTH.

jk0

Just have all the windows open a crack for a week. I'm sure it will dissipate.

paddy's_mum

Baby wipes are highly effective in cleaning (mildly) smoke damaged items.

You need to be aware too that smoke is acid in nature and can cause lasting damage to some things, especially electrical items where the acid keeps on gently eating away at cables...this is why we had to skip every single electrical item we owned when our house caught fire.

I second the advice to speak to your own insurers. If nothing else, hopefully they will make your soppy neighbour realise that he stands to be facing a lot more ire and action than his current 'laid back' attitude recognises.

Good luck.

JimmyChanga

How did the smoke come through?