Are you covered? Did you know renters insurance could protect you if an apartment building next door caught on fire? #RentersInsurance #FireCoverage
What to Know About Renters Insurance and Fires
Relevance and Importance
– The recent fire at a neighboring apartment building brings the importance of renters insurance to the forefront.
– Find out how renters insurance can provide you with financial protection in case of a fire.
Keywords for Search
– Renters insurance
– Apartment fire
– Coverage
Are You Prepared for the Unexpected?
– Learn about the benefits of renters insurance.
– Understand how it can assist you in various scenarios, including fire incidents.
– Explore different coverage options to find the best fit for your needs.
Secure Your Peace of Mind Today
– Take proactive steps to safeguard your possessions and financial well-being.
– Evaluate your current insurance coverage and consider adding renters insurance for added protection.
– Don’t wait until it’s too late – protect yourself now.
“She said we would have to pay, save the receipt, and check if we got reimbursed.”
That sounds like good luck, Im on my lunch break after this phone call.
Not only keep every receipt but photograph every receipt clearly so they can be read. Your home may neeed some specialty cleaning. Your Insurance shoudl have your back, not just a “Go ahead, get a hotel and we will decide later if we reimburse you. What kind of answer is that? Id be standing on someone’s desk.
BTW, I too am in the Bay Area. So I get the whole cost issue.
You need to contact both insurance companies — yours and the neighbors to see what they will cover. What someone needs to pay for is a mediation team. A good company can reduce rid furniture/walls/floors of the stink. You may sell have to soak and wash some items by hand.
Sorry this happened. I was at my brothers when neighbor had a fire. I was very surprised at the greasy residue that stuck to everything.
What’s your deductible?
So, a few things here:
1. You could potentially file a claim under the neighbor’s insurance. I’d recommend trying this rather than having a fire/smoke claim follow you around. You may get the runaround from them however. The reason for going theirs first is that insurance companies are doing a lot of belt tightening and any fire or water claims in the last 3 – 5 years which aren’t weather related gets a big red flag. This will all depend on the cause of the fire though. Was it happenstance (e.g., electrical short) or did the neighbor do something that started it (e.g., left the stove on)?
2. The Loss of Use is for *increased* cost of living when your home becomes uninhabitable due to a covered cause of loss. For example, let’s say it normally cost you $100/wk for food but now it cost you $150/wk because you’re eating out (no kitchen), then they’re only going to pay you the $50/wk difference.
3. No matter which way you go, through their insurance or yours, it’s probably going to come down to receipts and getting reimbursed for Loss of Use.
Oh, P.S., if you do go through your own insurance for this, expect to get a non-renewal notice when your renewal date comes around. State Farm is pretty picky and it’s pretty likely that they’ll drop you for a claim like this. They might not, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
One thing others haven’t mentioned is to talk to your building’s management as well. See if they are also filing a claim (presumably there will be some residual damage on the side of your building). Documentation that they are also filing a claim should pretty much guarantee your personal claim is also approved.
It is common that you have to pay yourself then be reimbursed. At least if you have documentation that your own building is filing a claim for smoke and fire damage that should be enough to ensure yours is covered.
Had a fire in the neighboring building couldn’t stay in our apartment. State Farm covered -300(we paid them) of our 2000$ month long hotel stay. Ended up nearly 4k in the hole
We filled the claim hoping to get help but apparently “no one’s ever filed a claim” and “everyone’s new”. We only did the claim because we were told by our agent we “more than likely” would get everything covered and wouldn’t pay more then our deductible.
It would’ve been cheaper to not have insurance.
It should most likely be covered under loss of use, but good luck getting a penny from State Farm. Their whole business plan is to avoid paying anything, anyone, anytime, regardless of the situation. You’re going to have to fight tooth and nail to get anything covered. They’re betting on you getting exhausted/bored/frustrated and stop trying. Renters insurance in general in my experience has also been notorious for denying everything and making up obscure excuses to avoid payment.
This same situation happened to me a couple years ago. Keep a spreadsheet of all expenses you pay as a result of the fire. This includes the hotel, any damaged property due to smoke, gas from traveling the extra distance, etc. We kept an excel spreadsheet, took the time to look up all cost of replacement items along with links to the items online, along with pictures of recipts for hotel/travel. They did not even question any of our claims and gave us the maximum amount according to our property presented. The person on the other end doing the claim is human also, and this helped them immensely
I think this going to a longer, bigger thing than you think, but could you stay with a friend for one night while they investigate your coverage? As others say, the smell probably won’t just “go away”, so there will need to be cleaning. That will take some time, and cost money.
Call back and push them to open the claim, request additional living expenses, and request cleaning of your personal property/ contents.
File a claim asap and check your policy. Literally, the exact same thing happened to me, and it was covered. Smoke damage is real, and it doesn’t go away easily.
If your policy can cover it, you can get everything professionally cleaned. I was told that I got lucky with my policy because the minimum charge for cleaning is expensive, but thankfully, I was covered. If your policy isnt as good, based on my experience with this, I would fight for as much as you can to be marked as a “total loss.” so you can get money back for your belongings. I would argue that anything with fabric is trashed and should be total loss. Soot is corrosive, so all eloctronics should be total loss as well. Do more research and see what else you can claim.
Just dont stop fighting with them and keep things over email so you have a paper trail. It will be worth the effort.
It probably won’t be covered, they’ll find any excuse.
Sorry to hear about the situation. Even more sorry to hear that you have State Farm. SF and Allstate are two of the worst insurance companies when it comes to paying out claims. The two go hand in hand because they use the same consulting firm when training their claim specialists to find ways to deny claims. There have been numerous class action lawsuits against the two throughout the years claiming dishonest and unethical practices