Reclaiming excess after house fire

[Wildcat45]

TLDR: Pensioner’s house privately owned damaged by fire in adjacent housing association property. Old folks are £100 quid down. Worth claiming? If so, who?

Back in the summer my wife’s elderly grandparents - infirm and approaching 90 - called late at night. The next door house was ablaze, they were at a neighbours and their house was in danger.

We live some distance away and arrived as quickly as we could to find fire crews damping down a substantial fire that had caused ground floor to roof damage on the adjoining semi to the grandparents. Floors collapsed 50% of the roof gone.

The grandparents’ house had damage to the roof and plastic guttering drain pipes etc. They were able to move back in once the firefighters had vented smoke, and were happy things had cooled down.

I dealt with their insurers who quickly sorted things. The old folks paid a £100 excess.

I discovered that the cause of the fire was a faulty charger and that the house where the blaze started is owned by a housing association.

The housing association made no attempt to contact the grandparents who were left pretty upset by the whole episode. I guess it is not relevant but it does show a lack of courtesy.

The grandparents are £100 down. Not a huge amount but it’s probably a lot to them. They have asked me to get the money back if I can.

Who is responsible? The housing association? The tenant?

I am minded to let it go, but they’ve asked for my help.

Any advice appreciated.

[Chozza]

You claimed from your grandparents insurers ?

I'm assuming that they then claimed from the neighbours insurers - so can you not ask you grandparents insurers to refund the excess /include that as part of the claim ? which is how it would work if its car insurance.

Call them and ask

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Wildcat45 said:

I discovered that the cause of the fire was a faulty charger

That doesn't sound like negligence to me. You cannot claim anything off anyone (with a couple of obscure exceptions that aren't relevant here) unless they have been negligent. It's a common misunderstanding that if someone's property or a person damages your property, they are liable. They aren't unless they were negligent.

I'm afraid they won't be able to claim their £100 back, and their insurers won't be able to claim back what they paid out to fix the damage.

[Wildcat45]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Wildcat45 said:

I discovered that the cause of the fire was a faulty charger

That doesn't sound like negligence to me. You cannot claim anything off anyone (with a couple of obscure exceptions that aren't relevant here) unless they have been negligent. It's a common misunderstanding that if someone's property or a person damages your property, they are liable. They aren't unless they were negligent.

I'm afraid they won't be able to claim their £100 back, and their insurers won't be able to claim back what they paid out to fix the damage.

Thanks. A lot less hassle for me then.

[Chrisgr31]

I got my excess back when a fire which started in my neighbours pond electrics burnt down my shed.

My insurer said I would have to pay it as the neighbour had not been negligent. I said they must have been as the the electrics caught fore for one of the two reason, either the water level in the pond was too low, or the electrics were faulty. They were responsible in my opinion for the latter as they hadn’t had them tested.

I got my £250 back.

Phone chargers are renowned for catching fire and there is advice on what to do with them. https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/safety/the-home/ele... Has the housing association given advice to tenants of the dangers and told them what to do? If not then you could suggest they were negligent, if they did then ask when they last inspected to ensure charging was being done safely and you’ll probably find they haven’t.

It’s definitely worth a go

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Chrisgr31 said:

I got my excess back when a fire which started in my neighbours pond electrics burnt down my shed.

My insurer said I would have to pay it as the neighbour had not been negligent. I said they must have been as the the electrics caught fore for one of the two reason, either the water level in the pond was too low, or the electrics were faulty. They were responsible in my opinion for the latter as they hadn’t had them tested.

I got my £250 back.

Phone chargers are renowned for catching fire and there is advice on what to do with them. https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/safety/the-home/ele... Has the housing association given advice to tenants of the dangers and told them what to do? If not then you could suggest they were negligent, if they did then ask when they last inspected to ensure charging was being done safely and you’ll probably find they haven’t.

It’s definitely worth a go

You could be right. I said I didn't think it was negligence, but whilst I know a little bit about the law of tort, I'm no expert of phone chargers.

[Chrisgr31]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

You could be right. I said I didn't think it was negligence, but whilst I know a little bit about the law of tort, I'm no expert of phone chargers.

For £100 it’s not going to be worth going to the Ombudsman or Court or anything, but possibly worth one letter. It worked for me might not work for the OP.

[JQ]

Chrisgr31 said:

For £100 it’s not going to be worth going to the Ombudsman or Court or anything, but possibly worth one letter. It worked for me might not work for the OP.

Have a Google and you'll find lots of evidence of cheap phone chargers catching fire and advice not to lease them unattended. As you say, definitely worth a go.

[surveyor]

I'd argue that no-one supervises their phone charger.

I don't think it's negligent personally.

[joshcowin]

surveyor said:

I'd argue that no-one supervises their phone charger.

I don't think it's negligent personally.

This in the real world!

OP you've asked the question as you said you would (good on you) unfortunately not looking likely!

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Chrisgr31 said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

You could be right. I said I didn't think it was negligence, but whilst I know a little bit about the law of tort, I'm no expert of phone chargers.

For £100 it’s not going to be worth going to the Ombudsman or Court or anything, but possibly worth one letter. It worked for me might not work for the OP.

For the price of a stamp, what's to lose. If they say "get lost", you're no worse off.

[miniman]

Give them £100 and tell them you were able to get it back for them. They get the £100 and the feeling that their Grandson did something good for them. Little white lie never hurt anyone.

[Wildcat45]

miniman said:

Give them £100 and tell them you were able to get it back for them. They get the £100 and the feeling that their Grandson did something good for them. Little white lie never hurt anyone.

Haha. I thought of this.

I think for the cost of a stamp and a few minutes writing a letter I'll ask and argue negligence. As suggested, they can always say no.

Thanks for the advice

[davek_964]

Wildcat45 said:

miniman said:

Give them £100 and tell them you were able to get it back for them. They get the £100 and the feeling that their Grandson did something good for them. Little white lie never hurt anyone.

Haha. I thought of this.

I think for the cost of a stamp and a few minutes writing a letter I'll ask and argue negligence. As suggested, they can always say no.

Thanks for the advice

Are you sure it's the best idea to accuse the tenants living next to your 90+ year old grand parents-in-law of negligence for the sake of £100? I know it's not them you're writing too, but if they're being accused of negligence and it's taken seriously I'd expect them to find out

[hutchst]

This. It could get interesting when the neighbour appears on the doorstep to 'ave a word.

[Porsche guy]

miniman said:

Give them £100 and tell them you were able to get it back for them. They get the £100 and the feeling that their Grandson did something good for them. Little white lie never hurt anyone.

This all day long, not worth the cost of a stamp/effort

[Wildcat45]

davek_964 said:

Wildcat45 said:

miniman said:

Give them £100 and tell them you were able to get it back for them. They get the £100 and the feeling that their Grandson did something good for them. Little white lie never hurt anyone.

Haha. I thought of this.

I think for the cost of a stamp and a few minutes writing a letter I'll ask and argue negligence. As suggested, they can always say no.

Thanks for the advice

Are you sure it's the best idea to accuse the tenants living next to your 90+ year old grand parents-in-law of negligence for the sake of £100? I know it's not them you're writing too, but if they're being accused of negligence and it's taken seriously I'd expect them to find out

In what way?

I doubt they have a means to mount a defamation action.
As for "trouble" again, I doubt they would have the means.



Thanks again for the advice. I'll give it one go in a letter, then drop it if I get nowhere.

[Porsche guy]

Wildcat45 said:

Thanks again for the advice. I'll give it one go in a letter, then drop it if I get nowhere.

Christ, £100 must mean a lot in your life

[davek_964]

Strangely, if you ps off the housing association tenants next to a couple of 90 year olds, then suing for defamation wasn't what I was thinking of.
Neighbours can be very unpleasant, especially if you give then a reason without needing any 'means'.

Good luck

[surveyor]

davek_964 said:

Strangely, if you ps off the housing association tenants next to a couple of 90 year olds, then suing for defamation wasn't what I was thinking of.
Neighbours can be very unpleasant, especially if you give then a reason without needing any 'means'.

Good luck

It’s also a little unpleasant. Hopefully they were insured themselves. If not it will have cost then more than a £100 and frankly this is a stty move.

I’d suggest an informal conversation first. Hey were you inside? Yes, great. My grandparents are a £100 out of pocket - I’m going to send you a letter that you should pass on to your insurer to deal with... or st that’s bad news. Listen my grandparents are a £100 out of pocket. You’ve got bigger problems to deal with but perhaps you can think about some sort of gesture when you’ve begin to get sorted...