DragBikeMike wrote on 05/20/24 at 03:43:40:


When I worked for Highland Heights - I was their Engineer/Building Inspector/Zoning Administrator.  We had a house fire that caused a significant amount of damage to a very nice, old 3 story brick home and the 2 car garage (and cars in the garage) that was located very near the porch.

The investigation resulted in them determining the fire was caused by their daughter who tried to shrink a T-shirt in the microwave.  When it didn't work she threw the hot shirt into the plastic trash can on the wood porch - and the shirt somehow started a fire.

The owners were not able to touch anything until the fire investigators and insurance companies released the home to them.  It took several months for the investigation to be completed, and several more months for the insurance company to settle on the structure damage.  The settlement for the "contents" of the house took nearly 18 months!

After about 2 years they were finally able to clean up the burned garage and cars and haul everything away.  The owners were not committed to fixing up this old house and sold it - the new owner cleaned up the outside damage to the house and boarded up the missing windows - the new owner is not in a hurry to do the renovation and 4 years later the house is still vacant.  The new owner does keep the grass mowed and the property is not unsightly.

I also had a house fire cleanup that went on for several years.  It was a big house and when the owner was in a serious car accident he had a long recovery and turned the big house into a rental.  After the fire the Fire Department Investigators tried to contact the owner - he took off and hid with relatives in a very rural area.  (A few months earlier the occupants had overheard him tell someone on his cellphone that he would be better off if the place were to burn down).  The Insurance Company would not settle the case until a cause for the fire was determined.  It took several years for the owner to finally come out of hiding and the cause of the fire was determined to be an AC unit on the back of the house.  I am not sure why the owner panicked and went into hiding - but it made enforcement for the issue very difficult for me as I had to "post" all correspondence to him on the property.  I had to erect a sign board on the property and post all notices on the board.  We were just about to hire a contractor to clean up the property and place a lien on the property for the cost - when the owner came out of hiding and agreed to clean it up.  After the property was cleaned up a neighbor bought the land to increase the size of their property.

Sorry for the long story......but settlements with insurance companies can go on for years!

DBM - you aren't kidding when you say insurance claims can take a long time.

Yesterday my contractor finally got the architect to come and inspect the foundation.  We got the stem wall completely cleared off, and ended up with a total of 6040 lbs. of building debris hauled to the landfill.  The good news is the foundation and floor survived the fire and is now certified to be rebuilt on.  The next step is to get my contractor to schedule the demolition.