What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington
I had a small fire about a month ago. It was one of those many things had to happen together for it to go this way.
1. Cleaning ladies come every two week. They cleaned the (electric ceramic) stove, accidentally left one of the burners on
2. Power failure (probably caused by the cleaning ladies). It was not possible to notice the burner
3. I arrived with boxes and stuff from work at night to find the apartment in complete darkness.
4. I needed to do stuff in the computer, I decided to go to back to the office, after dropping the stuff near the entrance. Kitchen is at the entrance. It was dark, so probably some of the stuff was too close to the stove.
5. Sometime later and before I came back, power was restored, burner got on again and it eventually burned some of the stuff I left there which caught fire.
6. My wife was not at home, neighbors weren't at home. Nobody heard the smoke alarm and the thing got hot enough to catch fire and start the sprinklers.
7. Sprinklers went off for several minutes without nobody noticing until the firemen came in.
The end result is that of course everything in the kitchen and living room got all water/smoke damaged, but that is not that much of my concern. My property coverage should deal with at least most of it. My concern is the liability. I have $100,000 coverage, but there was enough water to get the carpets of other 6 apartments soaked and to leak to the apartment below.
Does that count as negligence? I have proof that there was a cleaning lady checking in the apartment, and I happened to file a power failure ticket to the apartment manager before leaving and before the fire. I don't know how much the damages are going to be, and I don't know if the insurance companies for the building and the neighbors are going to come after me and exceed my coverage. Right now insurance companies are still talking to each other to see who pays what, but it has been a month and I still have no idea whether this is going to cost me or not and how much if it does. I do have legal group insurance, so I will have some coverage if I get sued, but this whole thing is still very scary and uncertain.
Anyone have an idea of whether 100,000 dollars is enough, or how much an accident like this will cost in terms of liability. I would like to have an idea at least.
Thanks
I had a small fire about a month ago. It was one of those many things had to happen together for it to go this way.
1. Cleaning ladies come every two week. They cleaned the (electric ceramic) stove, accidentally left one of the burners on
2. Power failure (probably caused by the cleaning ladies). It was not possible to notice the burner
3. I arrived with boxes and stuff from work at night to find the apartment in complete darkness.
4. I needed to do stuff in the computer, I decided to go to back to the office, after dropping the stuff near the entrance. Kitchen is at the entrance. It was dark, so probably some of the stuff was too close to the stove.
5. Sometime later and before I came back, power was restored, burner got on again and it eventually burned some of the stuff I left there which caught fire.
6. My wife was not at home, neighbors weren't at home. Nobody heard the smoke alarm and the thing got hot enough to catch fire and start the sprinklers.
7. Sprinklers went off for several minutes without nobody noticing until the firemen came in.
The end result is that of course everything in the kitchen and living room got all water/smoke damaged, but that is not that much of my concern. My property coverage should deal with at least most of it. My concern is the liability. I have $100,000 coverage, but there was enough water to get the carpets of other 6 apartments soaked and to leak to the apartment below.
Does that count as negligence? I have proof that there was a cleaning lady checking in the apartment, and I happened to file a power failure ticket to the apartment manager before leaving and before the fire. I don't know how much the damages are going to be, and I don't know if the insurance companies for the building and the neighbors are going to come after me and exceed my coverage. Right now insurance companies are still talking to each other to see who pays what, but it has been a month and I still have no idea whether this is going to cost me or not and how much if it does. I do have legal group insurance, so I will have some coverage if I get sued, but this whole thing is still very scary and uncertain.
Anyone have an idea of whether 100,000 dollars is enough, or how much an accident like this will cost in terms of liability. I would like to have an idea at least.
Thanks
