Fire Update
There is no update.
The fire was June 2nd and we are still waiting to see the fire claim from the insurance company. This claim got started unnecessarily late because
a) The property management company hired to manage the association properties and to “faciliate” the process in a claim situation actually put a halt on calling insurance to file the claim due to a secret uncommunicated process we only discovered after multiple follow up phone calls
b) The contractor the we were told we HAD to use because they allegedly had an exclusive contract with the property manager did not have any mention of expertise of interior remodeling or fire and water restoration listed on their website. And.. when they sent their rep out to do an initial assessment of damage he made the fatal mistake of talking down to me. I went to the next association meeting and had him removed.
Back to the claim. Once we see what is covered under the Association’s Policy Claim, we can see what is left to be restored that will need to be out of pocket from our new roommate.. because again… she had no Homeowner’s Policy.
This gets tricky because the fire was electrical. Lighting struck the electrical box, fried the home runs, and now it is looking like the whole 3000 square feet need to be gutted and rewired. And insulated. And sheet rocked. The tricky thing is that interior items that would not generally be covered under the association policy may need to be removed and replaced in order to accurately repair the electircal. So there is actually quite a bit more grey area than usual.
Do you want to know what makes this more complicated? I’ll give you a quick list.
The Homeowner’s Association has just decided the original contract they signed with the restoration company is void. They have requested a new one, quotes for work that needs to happen, etc and so forth. Essentially out of nowhere pulling the plug on the only thing done (hiring the restoration company), deciding they are the experts on the insurance policy (they aren’t), telling us we need to sign the contract (the opposite of what they said a month ago), addressing emails to our roommate (as if she can deal with it) and spending a lot of time to go out of their way to overcomplicate the entire situation.
The Homeowner’s Association works with a property management company that allegedly claims to need to facilitate the process but is generally unavailable and has yet to show any value.
The restoration company working on the claim has a whole pile of civil cases brought against them, including insurance fraud, but is also a company our business has had a successful business relationship with for several years and they are the ones working the hardest on our behalf right now. So while I’m not super anxious to get screwed over I also believe that I’m smart enough not to allow it.
The insurance company hired an independent claims adjuster to assess damage and what it will take to restore the home.
My roommate is living in my basement until this is resolved. We need to estimate out of pockets costs so we can determine if she even has enough to move back there. She is super oblivious, rarely asks for an update but definitely has “bring all the clothes I never wear to the dry cleaner so I can complain about the cost of the bill” on her list.
Ugh.
If you think I’m not sending daily updates on where we are at and what we need to ALL involved parties, then you’ve never met me.