Tenant accidentally set kitchen on fire, advice needed!

[MariaDingbat]

My tenant put the oven on to preheat and took the dog for a walk. Unfortunately she accidentally turned the hob on too and came back to the kitchen on fire and the toaster exploding. She called the fire brigade and they were thee in minutes and put it out but had to use the hose. So there's water damage, the extractor fan is melted and there's smoke damage in the kitchen and living room. Frustratingly I had only replaced the 20 year old kitchen last Feb so the kitchen was less than a year old!

Any ideas how this works with insurance? Should I be expecting a huge bill to fix the kitchen and will it increase my insurance premiums?

Good! Well done OP.

People don't realise the overall impact of a fire. Expert assessors are needed. I am glad they have advised and agreed the re-wiring, ceilings, white goods etc.

The insurance company sound good - the brokers hopeless!

All very exasperating for you, but I do feel for your tenant. I was at someone else's house once making toast and we moved the toaster a bit...to under the window... and the curtain caught fire. Luckily despite being quite drunk we managed to extinguish it very quickly. But it was easy to see how quickly a fire could spread.

Your insurance company sounds fantastic. Can you share the details or is that not allowed? It’s one of those things you hope you never need but id like to think mine would be as good. Also until reading this thread i had no idea that fire caused so much damage.

OP you sound great. I hope it gets sorted soon.

Thank you for seeing your house as the tenants home not just 'a rental'. You sound like a very lovely and fair landlord. Unlike some other posters on this thread.

It’s accidental damage so check your policy carefully to make sure it’s covered. In this case, provided it wasn’t a fault with the cooker, I think she probably should lose her deposit - but check contracts carefully. You aren’t obliged to find her somewhere else to live but if the house won’t be habitable you can’t take rent.

Good outcome
You sound like a lovely landlord

Sorry to hear about the damage but luckily your insurers and their adjuster are obviously one of the better ones - there are nightmare stories about the behaviour of some of the adjusters used! However when your policy comes up for renewal I would seriously consider changing your broker or if your insurer is one of the mainstream ones, dealing with them directly. Your broker has not handled this well at all imho. They are there to represent you and should have given you much better service.

@Cissyandflora

Your insurance company sounds fantastic. Can you share the details or is that not allowed? It’s one of those things you hope you never need but id like to think mine would be as good. Also until reading this thread i had no idea that fire caused so much damage.

Smoke causes far more damage than most people imagine.

Stunned at peoples concern for the tenant, she was a reckless idiot! Her welfare would be the last thing on my mind. Will insurance even pay out given how stupid she was leaving both an oven and hob on when she was out of the house?

Sorry only spotted your update- agree with others your insurers sound really amazing! They could have had a good case for not paying out based on your tenants utter stupidity.

@sundowners
We’ve all done it though, turned the wrong knob or flicked the wrong switch, luckily it doesn’t always end in a fire but it’s hardly utter stupidity

Out of interest, who was your insurer? It’s good to hear a positive story.

Sundowner, let’s hope you’re not a landlord - part of running a business is understanding that sometimes your employees or clients do daft things and expensive costs occur. The sensible business person always has a contingency fund to cover these things which at some point inevitably occur. Yes, you hope they di t happen too often, but to not be prepared for them financially is irresponsible. And becoming a Landlord is a business where you have to accept you’re dealing with peoples lives not just widgets and be able to respond accordingly, even when people do daft things. People shouldn’t be Landlords if they haven’t got the finances behind them to fund these incidents and to fulfill their obligations.

People seem to think landlording is just about receiving the rent on a monthly basis and doing nothing. There are all kinds of costs involved and the Landlord has to be able to fund them or have things like insurance in place to cover them...it is not acceptable to say to a tenant ‘I can’t fix your draughty window because I can’t afford it’ or ‘you caused the fire so I’m not paying for the repair you must pay’. Business plans need to be drawn up to ensure that the rent received allows contingency funds to build up so these costs of maintenance and repair and decoration can be covered. And they should be covered without grudging them..they are simply the costs of this kind of business and any or for can only be seen once these have be accounted for. If a landlord decides that after paying their mortgage, taxes, safety and legal obligations, maintenance, emergencies etc, the rent doesn’t provide a profit, they should exit the industry. But really, that shouldn’t be the concern of the tenant. The tenant pays their rent and has therefore paid for the property plus the legal requirements, upkeep, repairs etc. They are not extra bonuses on top.

insancerre leaving hob on in error- can occasionally happen to us all. Leaving hob on in error as well as purposefully putting the oven on when you are about to leave the house- in someone else's property- is stupid.

WombatChocolate its not just about tenants right though is it? They are also obligated to take reasonable care of and look after their home.

Maybe get the tenant to pay the increase in your premiums. Doesn't seem right they they get away not paying anything and you have to pay more, as it was caused by something they did, not like a wiring fault etc.

@sundowners

Stunned at peoples concern for the tenant, she was a reckless idiot! Her welfare would be the last thing on my mind. Will insurance even pay out given how stupid she was leaving both an oven and hob on when she was out of the house?

Most accidents are the result of stupid mistakes. This is what insurance covers. The OP has landlords insurance. Unless the OP deliberately started the fire she should be covered.

Lots of insurers do not increase the premium just because you have had a claim. I have claimed on my car insurance twice when it has been my fault and even the impact of losing the no claims bonus wasn’t that great.

I have claimed twice in buildings insurance: no increase in premium.

But I insure with reputable companies, not the cheapest unheard of company that comes up in CompareTheMarket.

Tbh the service the OP had in terms of the loss adjuster coming out after a fire is standard, IME. For fires. (One work fire, one family member fire... I am not a serial pyromaniac)

Your home insurance for the house damage - wiring, cupboards, oven if it’s yours, drenched plasterboard etc.
Their contents insurance to replace all their stuff, toaster, kettle, dining table etc etc.

I agree, that human error is a key cause of damage. It is what insurance basically covers in the case of people having car accidents, household incidents etc.

Of course the landlord isn't thrilled by this - by the fact the tenant made the error or the cost or the inconvenience. But at the same time, it really is par for the course and something that all Landlords should expect in some form and be prepared for financially and able to deal with professionally when it does happen. Being furious or finding you do t have the financial means to cover it and to offer re-housing just isn't professional.

Yes, tenants are obliged to take resonable care. The Op says this tenant has been there 14 years. Even with reasonable care, mistakes happen. When you make a mistake in your own home, the financial burden is on you. When you make a mistake in a rented home, one of the things your rent money covers is mitigation of that damage - the landlord pays.

Of course, if a tenant proved to be consistently causing damage or accidents, a LL could not renew their tenancy. At the moment with Covid it is impossible to evict people who don't want to go, even if they are in massive rent arrears, but in normal times, it isn't us usual for LLs to not renew tenancies if a major damage has occurred. That though doesn't mean the tenant pays for the damage and actually getting new tenants always costs the Landlord anyway.

Most Landlords who've been in the business for a while or who have several properties will have an idea of how frequently and how expensively incidents like this will occur...and budget for them. But everyone also knows you can be lucky and have fewer than the norm or unlucky and have lots more. There are lots of risks of being a landlord like void periods or tenants who do t pay the rent or cause damage. Again, if you can't face those issues or fund them, it's not the business to be in. It's all part of the complete package of good and bad bits!