Apartment Fire

[Rosa_L1969]

What is the name of your state? NJ

I wonder if anyone knows if I have a case against my former landlord? We lived upstairs over him. One day there was a fire that destroyed the whole apartment. The fire chief told the landlord that there was not enough amps to support our apartment. At the time of the fire, the landlord told us that he would "help us out"...well that was in June. We did not get insurance because the place had a few problems and we were planning to move. That may not have been the smartest thing but-not having enough electricity in your home isn't either? Any comments would really help.

 

[Cvillecpm]

You should have gotten renter's insurance and your comment that you would be moving is SILLY - the insurance would go with you since it would be on your BELONGINGS and not the property address.

Caulk it up to a "life lesson" and always have insurance

 

[FarmerJ]

Was the fire dept able to cite a specific code violation ? You need to know there are many different code allowences. In some places as small as it may see they still allow up to 500 sq ft of living space to be on just one single 15 amp circuit, so its not uncommon to still see older apartments or very small homes that are on 2wire 30 amp mains with two 15 amp fuses covering every thing. Before even thinking of going to a attorney to try to talk about suing the LL you need to know IF a housing code was violated or not. If the wiring met a older code there likely is nothing more you can do about it.

 

[JETX]

The fire chief told the landlord that there was not enough amps to support our apartment.That may not have been the smartest thing but-not having enough electricity in your home isn't either? Any comments would really help.

Comments?? About what?? You didn't ask any questions.

If you mean can you pursue litigation against him to recover for your loss... your post makes NO claim that the landlord was negligent or malicious.
Can you PROVE to the court that the landlord KNEW of the hazard before the loss??
If not, you have no case.

 

[ecmst12]

If you are VERY lucky, your LL will not try to sue YOU for the damage to his building. GET INSURANCE NOW!

 

[aabbcc]

You may be looking at this the wrong way. The Fire Chief's statement could be interpreted as; the tenant overloaded the circuits or tried to pull too many amps. In this case, the tenant could be held liable or at least be considered contributory to the fire. The Landlord's insurance company may decide go after you for the cost of damages.

You should be more worried about being sued than the value of your possessions. Renter's insurance would have helped in this scenario too, as it usually includes liability coverage.

 

[FarmerJ]

AA is correct , many times tenants dont even think about it and just plug in and use what ever it is they want. I have known many Renters who ran window A/C units or electric heaters or other big power using appliances on wiring that still met a older code, They didnt give a damn, the fuses or the breakers would run burning hot right on the edge of tripping. The ones I mention learned by having to replace fuses or from multiple breaker resets just how much they could run and still would run every thing they could right on up to the edge of the breaker /fuse blowing. The over heating could damage the wiring and over time the damaged wiring can cause fires. So yes IF the fire depts report is viewed that way a tenant should not be surprised if they are sued.

 

[Rosa_L1969]

apartment fire

Thanks for the comment on "life lesson" I guess that's what I will have to do.. as for the comments on my plugging in anything I want? Well, the LL had visited the apartment several times checking out the buckets under the roof and other weird problems and saw that I had a computer, a tv, dvd and a fan plugged into my living room. He never mentioned that it was a problem. If he had, do you think I would have put my family in danger? that's ridiculous.
Anyway, this site has been very helpful, thanks to all.
R

 

[Alaska landlord]

According to Rosa, its the LL's fault she overloaded the circuits.
I don't know any tenant that listens to a LL's warning not to overload the circuits.

 

[las365]

It sounds to me as if the LL and the tenant may have been equally unaware of the danger of overloading the electrical system in this apartment. They are lucky no one was killed.