To ask for a hand hold. We lost our home.

[notgreatthanks]

We have had a house fire. We weren't there and are all ok. We have lost the majority of our belongings, we were visiting family so had a suitcase of clothes/toiletries . We are staying there until accommodation can be sorted in our home town. It was upstairs so some of down stairs may be salvageable although some has smoke damage but need to wait till it's been assessed . It's just unreal we have gone from having normal everyday lives to losing our home within a few hours. We are lucky to have family support and that we are all ok but all our stuff is gone (memories etc. we don't know if it will all be covered on insurance yet and there's stuff that's irreplaceable. Nothing anyone can do just want to share.

I’m so sorry. Hug and handhold from me.

With regards to decorating they did everything, we haven't had to pay a penny. They asked us about colours etc. Some things they did 'partially' - they were told to do 2 coats, so we've had to do an additional coat in a few places.

We're still waiting to hear back about the value of the contents, but we'll be given a cash sum. They've already given us some money for the clothes that were written off and an 'advance' to start buying furniture.

The cleaning was done first, which took about 2 weeks, socket replaced, replastering where necessary, our downstairs ceiling was taken down and replaced (damaged when the fire was put out), decorating another 2 weeks ish. Some delays caused by us (the time taken to find values for what has been written off)

We've also taken the time to do some additional decorating ourselves, and get our electrics fully sorted.

The standard of work has been very good I think.

I didn’t want to read and run but I really can’t say anything you will not have already heard.
It must be hard to hear “at least you are all safe” but that was my first thought. I’m so pleased to read that you have insurance. I’ve known two people personally who’ve suffered house fires. One had no insurance and was literally left with the clothes he was wearing and it was awesome how everyone around him tried to help. One had a very tragic end. (He came home and drunk, caused a chip pan fire and lost his life)
Please know I’m so sorry you are going through this, I can’t think of anything worse to happen to my home. 💐

How awful yes important to remember we are lucky to be ok.

Thank you massively helpful

Not that I'm aware of.

Was the electrical fault due to a faulty appliance?

Ring the school first thing tomorrow assuming you have children. They will have support in place they can mobilise and they will want to help

This may complicate matters
the insurance company will want to investigate the cause
as if it was an appliance faulty, then they can pursue the manufacturer

We had damage in a rented house where although we were insured the LL had inadequate insurance. It was due to arson in the adjoining property under distressing circumstances. It made the national papers.

I'm glad you're all well and hope it's sorted for you as soon as possible.

You will get someone turning up who is a mediator between you and your insurance. We were in such a mess we turned ours away. Had we not, l think we would have had more from the insurance company. I think they are called Loss Assessors. Anyway, hang into them even if it’s the thing you do.

Neighbouring property so LL’s insurance wouldn’t have been called upon?

unless he also owned!

did your contents cover you fully?

The loss adjusters work on behalf of the insurance company

their role is to go back to the insurance company with an idea of the monetary loss involved

Insurance experience (from water damage not fire) is that they will expect you to source all replacements/works. I spent AGES detailing things like light fittings, the painting of the ceiling AND the coving - because if I didn't state coving it wasn't included and the bill reduced etc.

I was sent a schedule of what they had decided we needed... line by line... I.e. paint x sqm of wall £X amount, replace x sqm of ceiling plasterboard ceiling (but they didn't include painting it with undercoat and then paint until I challenged it)

Hopefully your insurance is more helpful. Mi e paid up as soon as I added to the list but I think I added 3 or 4 times the bill in the end with things they 'didn't know we needed'. I had water damage to 2 rooms from water leeks upstairs.... it took weeks of my time to sort out. I absolutely don't envy your take of a whole house. But you will get there.

And remember - memories are in your mind! (And your google/icloud account!)

Oh I'm so sorry, you must be devastated
As terrible as it is, I'm glad you weren't there at the time

Oh you poor thing. That’s such an awful thing to happen. Coincidentally, I’ve just seen pictures on FB of a house fire in York and it is heart-breaking.
I’m glad you are all ok though.

We are about to move back in, six months after a house fire. I am actually enjoying my new minimalist life - I can get dressed in a fraction of the time as well.
We're getting proper insulation and underfloor heating - it was freezing in winter before.
But it was very traumatic at the time and I am still easily panicked by a whiff of smoke or the smell of a bbq.
I had to throw away almost all my clothing (the specialist clothing recovery service failed) but saved my favourite things, soaked in baking powder solution and hung out to dry, are ok to wear to bbqs
Wishing you all the best

If you have digital photos stored in the cloud, ask a family member to go through them for ones of your house, put copies in a folder and the write lists of every item they can see in the photo as it might help with contents insurance claim.

I have also heard that hiring your own loss adjuster can help hugely

sending a hug

Hi thanks for replying who decided wether clothes etc were ok, was it you or the company?

Yes a loss adjustor started the process with the insurance company for us.

The fire brigade stated the cause of fire was electrical fault, however the insurance still sent out a forensics team who were the most insensitive bastards ever when dealing with an old lady. They wrote up a report stating that some household items acted as accelerants to the fire ( think flammable aerosol cans you'd find in any normal house, we weren't storing Jerry cans of petrol in bedrooms.) Ultimately they agreed the fire started as an electrical fault.

Insurance did pay out, after stressing us all out no end.

@Ohthatsexciting will that impact on our claim?

Yes either a plug adapter or battery power pack. Fire service just recorded accident as the whole thing was destroyed so they couldn't state cause.

only insofar as may delay as the insurance company will understandably want to investigate to ensure there is not a manufacturing that they can then pursue.

but their responsibility is to you. So they will pay you the claim and then seek to recoup if appropriate from the manufacturer
So financially - no
speed - potentially

@notgreatthanks the morning after the fire I called a specialist post-fire company who came round and assessed the damage and brought in special fan things for extracting the smoke smell (we have very high ceilings). My upstairs neighbour had to move out for a week while the carbon monoxide levels were high (the smoke went in to her flat). I got them to quote for several phases of work and the insurer agreed the first phase immediately. Within days they had removed all the burnt material and wet stuff (7 fire engines!) and over the next few months they've treated everything right back to the brickwork. I organised this for the other flats as well. Then their specialist company took away all my clothes (about 75 items, the rest i threw away) and itemised everything then cleaned it all in some sort of ionising chamber. They they gave you a list with all the items with a price for each and whether they were successful or not. This is basically just for your insurance. Any that aren't successful are returned and everything else has an individual price (less than dry-cleaning) and you can choose whether to go ahead or not. Mine was a total failure but I fared better iwth a local dry cleaner and just soaking, washing airing. Feel free to DM me.