Location: North Carolina
I’ll keep this brief – my brother and I share an apartment which was rendered uninhabitable over the weekend by water damage, as our upstairs neighbor started a fire in their unit.
I was crushed when I realized that I set up our renter’s insurance under my name only – long story short, I do not think I will be able to claim any of his personal property for reimbursement.
What options do we have in a situation like this? I am crushed as I feel like I am responsible. Is he able to go after our neighbor’s insurance directly himself? Surely they are liable for wrecking our life. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I have never been through something like this.
Comments
Have you talked with your insurance? They may cover common/shared property, if that applies here. Talk to them and see.
Yes, your brother can try to file a claim against the neighbor who started the fire, if they have applicable liability coverage. He’ll need to get in contact with the neighbor or property manager and get their insurance info. The other option is suing them in small claims court, if they’re not insured to cover this.
If you are able to go the insurance route, make sure you carefully inventory the damages with as much detail as possible. They are going to pay out the lowest fair market value for his items. So you don’t want to list “microwave”, you want to list “Breville wave microwave, 1 year old”. As an example.
What caused the fire? If there was negligence, yes, your brother can definitely make a claim with the other person’s renter’s insurance (if they have it), but I’ll guess you and your brother aren’t the only ones who have damaged items, plus the building itself. So it’ll be a line of people trying to get money from that insurance and it will take a while for that all to be sorted.
Otherwise, you’ll need to see what your insurance says and/or review your policy, to determine the coverage it provides for personal property. He is your brother, so a family member, as opposed to an unrelated roommate. That might allow for more coverage.