No HomeOwners

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania.

A family member recently had a severe fire in their town home which caused damage to the houses on either side. Unfortunately, they did not have homeowners insurance. Can the insurance companies from the other two houses put a lien on my family members house in order to reclaim their loses?

scm02 said:

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania.

A family member recently had a severe fire in their town home which caused damage to the houses on either side. Unfortunately, they did not have homeowners insurance. Can the insurance companies from the other two houses put a lien on my family members house in order to reclaim their loses?

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**A: no, but they can sue and win a judgement and with the judgement can file a lien. If there is a mortgage, the mortgage lender has first lien.

Having handle several similar cases; the answer is "no", but not for the same reason raised in the previous post. The neighbor's first party or primary carrier is obligated to pay their losses.

The insurers will not sue your family members unless one or more of the following circumstances exist:

1. The neighbor, or neighbors, repeatedly warned your family member of the broken gas valve on the side of their house next to the gas grille and after repeated and written notice[constructive notice], your family member failed to mitigate the potential liability.

2. Your family member's clear and unambiguous negligence contributed substantially to the fire and the family member knew that his/her actions were likely to cause the fire. AND that the family member knew that the fire borne of his negligence was likely to cause the damage to the other homes.(language varies state to state).

The long and short: Not likely.