Tenant Flat Fire - Next stage - how to sell?

beingjdc

Good luck sorting it all out.

This thread should be compulsory reading for all the amateur landlords round here renting out ex-council flats on a residential mortgage (presumably therefore with no special insurance!)

Loretta

Here are a few points that came to mind as I read this. Years ago I worked for a local authority dealing with the homeless. We were dealing with a women who had burned down just about every place she had lived in throughout her adult life including her council flat putting other people at risk, several ending up in hospital luckily only with mild smoke inhalation but it was a miracle it was not worse. Everyone was passing the buck, social servicwa thought the problem would be over if the council gave her somewhere to live!!!

She went to court, she had been in custody, and the court decided that they would give her bail if she had an address and her solicitor phoned the housing dept to insist that she be rehoused and in the meantime the council provide temproary accomodation, B&B for her. Rather than refuse I phoned every B&B on the list we had plus any I could think of in the town and explained that I needed accomodation urgently for a poor lady who had had a fire, they all said was it the woman they had read about in the local evening paper and I said yes and they all refused, a couple didn't know and I advised them to go and buy a paper and phone me back if they were happy to have her! I did not give her details but with a bit of prompting they all got the message. I could not find her anywhere (surprisingly) and the solicitor had to go back to court and explain. I really felt that the court and her solicitor were extremely irresponsible, maybe if you find you have to provide alternative accomodation your could try something like this, people don't use their common sense, especially LAs and you have to use yours for them.

My tenant would have been intentionally homeless and I presume yours would too in these circumstances, whether she started the fire herself or had someone living there against your wishes who started the fire.

Now concentrate on yourself and stop feeling guilty and trying to help.

Do not contact her, you gave her notice and she left and then there was a fire, that's all you know. Make sure you do not find out where she is living

If she is staying somewhere she is not homeless she has found herself alternative accomodation, if she cannot stay there she will be homeless from that address not yours

Unless you have seen a property after a fire you cannot begin to imagine what it is like. Anything in the flat has been detroyed by the fire, smoke and water and is unidentifyable

I started my own cleaning business in 1989 and do 'disaster cleaning' and have dealt with many fires and I am wondering what the delay is, I usually go in as the fireman are leaving. I have done an arson, a garage, and I was the first one in after the forensic people left. Why hasn't your insurance company done something already? They should be providing accomodation usually (although not in these circumstances)

I do my work for a loss assessor, the adjuster works for the insurance company to make your claim as low as possible and delay things until you are sick of it and accept a low sum, an assessor works for you to make sure you get what you are entitled to and fast. Most people have never had a fire or even know anyone who has had one and I think it is impossible to try and deal with it yourself even if you lived round the corner. There is not just your flat but the other residents including the elderly man and maybe neighbours

An assessor arranges all of this including boarding up, the council tax, clearing out, her stuff would have gone by now and very quick decision has to be made about contents as you will not find storage, none of the big firms will take it when they know it is fire and smoke damaged and when people realise the terrible smell of smoke which will be around for months and is impossible to get rid of you will not even find a garage to rent becuase all the neighbouring ones will smell and the houses near by. You have to claim for extra electrity and gas, for the drying out, extra phone calls, you don't think of this for weeks until you get the enormous bill, gas and electricity should have been safety checked immediately, lots of things to do

I wish I could help, pm me if you want

clutton_2

brilliant post loretta - utterly brilliant !!

[Deleted User]

Thanks so much all of you for this advice.

The insurance is a commercial one taken out by the freeholder to which we leaseholders contribute.

The insurers told the freeholder they would cover lost rent.

Loretta - thanks so much!

The loss adjuster wanted to come the day after the fire but couldn't because the home office forensic were still at the scene of crime.

He made an appointment to come on Thursday or Friday, but the freeholder (who has beeen poorly and who is the head policy holder) wasn't free due to hospital appointment, etc. so it has to be this Friday.

The insurers would have provided accomodation - they have for other people in the other flats in the house.

But I don't know where my tenant (now ex-tenant as her s21 ran out on Saturday) is - and I don't want to know.

You are right, I don't have to deal with all of this. The insurance company can do it.

An assessor sounds a good thing. How do you get one?

I worked out that an adjuster would be trying to save money.

How do I make sure we don't get short shrift?

Very useful information, Loretta.

I now feel that I have done my best to get my head round everything that's going on.

With all the help I have had on this site I am in a much better position.

I will stop feeling guilty and trying to help.

Thank you

paintpot

Hi Loretta, I am a landlady and hope never to have this problem :eek: but your post was most useful - forewarned is forearmed and all that and I am sure it has helped the OP so thank you.:T

[Deleted User]

Too true paintpot - very useful!

I hope it never happens to you.

reformedEffortMaker_2

Loretta, you said everything I wish I could have said in my post :rolleyes:

paddy's_mum

cgw - look in your Yellow Pages under Loss Adjuster. Then ring them up and ask if they will take instruction to act for you in the negotiations with the insurance company. Many will or can recommend an adjuster in your own area.

When our home caught fire and, as Loretta so accurately points out, the insurers were delaying things until we were sick of it, we appointed our own expert to fight things out for us. His fees eventually totalled a little over £500 but for that money, he gained us thousands of pounds worth of advantage/benefit that we would never have spotted in the small print!

Looking back, even if he hadn't gained us a penny, he would have been worth it for lightening the load upon our backs at a dreadful time in our lives. Good luck and I hope things look a little happier very soon.

Loretta

paddy's_mum wrote: »

cgw - look in your Yellow Pages under Loss Adjuster. Then ring them up and ask if they will take instruction to act for you in the negotiations with the insurance company. Many will or can recommend an adjuster in your own area.

When our home caught fire and, as Loretta so accurately points out, the insurers were delaying things until we were sick of it, we appointed our own expert to fight things out for us. His fees eventually totalled a little over £500 but for that money, he gained us thousands of pounds worth of advantage/benefit that we would never have spotted in the small print!

Looking back, even if he hadn't gained us a penny, he would have been worth it for lightening the load upon our backs at a dreadful time in our lives. Good luck and I hope things look a little happier very soon.

ASSESOR not adjuster, an assessor works for you an adjuster works for the insurance compnay. The insurance company and their adjuster are not there to help you they are there to save money

[Deleted User]

The police told me that the 'cause for concern' call was from daughter (b) because mum had gone missing.

She is now no longer living in the same county, they said.