People with no insurance asking for tradesman to do work for free after house burned down

[Purpleturtle46]

Saw a post on a local FB group recently where someone's house had burned down and they had no insurance so were asking for donations/tradespeople to work for free.

My initial thought was WTF how rude, how can you expect people to work for free when you cut corners not taking insurance. However the vast majority of the comments were people offering their condolences and offering to help, including several tradespeople offering to help pro bono.

Then I'm started to wonder if I was being a bitch.
How would you react to such a post?

YABU-you would be sympathetic and offer to help
YANBU-you would think that was a cheeky request

That's essentially what happens on DIY SOS.

It depends.

If they just hadn't bothered, then no.

But usually people have to have at least buildings insurance so it's likely there had been a fuck up / mistake so Imd probably be compassionate

I work in home insurance. I would be sympathetic if they had insurance that was I sufficient and they thought the insurance would cover them but it turns out it won't, but I'd think I they were massively cheeky fuckers if they had decided they didn't just want to pay for home insurance.

However - if you don't ask you don't get, and who has the funds required to rebuild a house sitting around? They are trying to find a way to get back on their feet.

I believe that buildings insurance should be mandatory under mortgage conditions just as motor insurance is. If you don't want to insure your belonging than fair enough, but don't ask for charity.

i thought it was?

Well, presumably they’ve lost all their worldly possessions and had a traumatic time.

When you don’t have enough money cancelling services you don’t immediately “see” is very common. Pet insurance, house insurance. You cross your fingers and hope for the best.

If the posting works and gets them a house/funds then I guess it’s worth it. Seems gauche to me. But I say it that from my seat in a heated house.

They have the ability to sell the land and not beg which is what I would do 🤷‍♀️ Or maybe I wouldn’t. I haven’t been totally desperate. Have you? It probably makes people act in unexpected ways.

It has to be in place at time of completion, and probably in the mortgage T's and Cs, but unenforceable if people then cancel or fail to renew.

Shy bairns get nowt and all that.

@Purpleturtle46 you're not in the West of Scotland by any chance are you

I met a young woman who was homeless once who's father's house (who had died) had burned down and she was homeless, living in hostels and had lost everything. I did feel sorry for her, yes but maybe it is different if you meet them in person.

We had dreadful floods in the area where I lived about 10 years ago. I helped clear out some of the soggy, stinking carpet from affected flats a few days after, and was a bit shocked when I heard residents asking who was going to replace their possessions. I realised that several had no insurance. I remember one person getting really angry a few weeks after because his neighbour had received money and they hadn't - he genuinely had no idea how insurance worked. We need to be giving financial education in schools, although if people don't believe or decide they can't afford it...

Act of God? God will build them a new temple.

i think if you live on a flood plain or have been flooded before a lot of insurance companies won’t cover for flood damage, so a lot of people don’t have cover.

I once got shot down after posting on a friend's fb post on a similar topic after some devastating local flooding. Lots of 'sad face' articles on the local news where people had lost pretty much everything, and had no insurance for buildings or contents.

Yet the contents were very visible on one particular news piece - thousands of pounds of home entertainment stuff - giant size tvs, games consoles, dozens of games, music equipment. Home insurance would have likely been a tiny fraction of the cost of that, just on one room alone.

I have sympathy for their situation (and know what a ball -ache having your entire house rebuilt due to a lightning strike actually is) but in the above case it wasn't a choice between food or insurance, it was electronics/lifestyle or insurance. It sucks.

We've had horrendous floods & bushfires in the last few years. Some people didn't understand you had to add these as options on some policies, so we're uninsured for that event. This has changed now & it's mostly standard. People living in those areas now face premiums that are unaffordable, and this means they can't sell either, as no one will buy.

I'm more peeved at people who go overseas without travel insurance or do something stupid (like ride scooters in Bali as it's not covered unless you have a motorbike licence) and then plead for financial help. I think that's the ultimate CF. I've seen a local, well off family who could access the cash do this!

If it’s the same family whose story is in the press it looks like their house is terraced? So the neighbours will be affected too. Sheer stupidity! Years ago we bought an ex council terraced house & had to have our buildings insurance with the council insurers to protect the council housing stock in the event of fire etc. After a few years we were allowed to use any insurer which I always thought was risky as much of the area was terraced housing and a mix of council & privately owned homes.

I suppose I'd have empathy in the way I think
"Oh shit, you never got proper insurance, now you have to publicly beg, that must be really shit for you"

I'd hope it works out for them in the end and they are able to get back on their feet, then pay for bloody insurance!

I'd also think they are CF's. As a PP says, it's different if they are insured s as bd there is an issue with that.

If you’re a bitch then so am I. I also think it about people who do appeals to get medical treatment abroad because they didn’t take out holiday insurance.

If they were completely uninsured I would think that they were CF but if they made an honest mistake I would be more inclined to help.

I seem to see it a lot with people not having travel insurance and then having medical emergencies overseas. I always think that they should have planned better and now it’s on them but go find me seems to think differently

I think similar when people don't get travel insurance and have to crowd fund getting home after an accident or something abroad

Fire and flooding are very different in this respect, as others have said it can be impossible to insure some houses against flooding, which are then difficult to sell.

I would be limited in sympathy for someone who just didn't insure and then lost their home to fire - but then that would be completely hypocritical of me as we let our house insurance lapse for two years without realising. I looked up our policy to inform them about some building work starting, only it turned out we didn't have one. We hadn't read a renewal email properly and assumed the policy would autorenew but it didn't. Then of course a year later there were no reminder emails as there was no policy lapsing. So easily done. Horrifying to think of what could've happened, we could've been ruined.

I always think this about pets and not having pet insurance too. It’s always seemed very American to me I’m not sure why.