MICHIGAN
Hello,
I had a kitchen fire on October 20th 2005 and need to know what my rights are with my Homeowners Insurance. I have "Replacement Value[/B]" on my insurance. The fire started on top of stove, burned cabinets, but not all the way through. I had plastic bowls on counter next to stove that had misc items in them and all of it melted/burned. I'm very Thankful I caught the fire when I did. I was able to throw a lot of water on it and put it out. I didn't need to call fire dept. Even though I was able to get the fire out myself, there was a lot of smoke damage. I had soot webs on my kitchen/dining room ceiling and even some upstaires. Our staires are open stairs, so smoke/soot traveled all the way up there. Fortunately, we didn't have our furnace on yet, but did turn it on the following day. The cleaning company came in the following day which was Friday to start cleaning. They didn't return until Monday & were done by Wednesday. The first night, I had to stay upstaires with my dog & cat and my husband and kids went to hotel.
The cleaning company never told me not to use any of my electronics, so of course I did. They only cleaned the outside of my tv, dvd player,stereo, computer, fridge, dishwasher, etc. I know that the smoke & soot had to get into these electronics, but they never took them to be cleaned. Just yesterday my DVD player (only 1 yr old) stopped working. Other electronics have been acting up too, but so far still running. I asked my insurance adjuster about all of them and he said they all could be cleaned. My concern is that the cleaning should have happened right away and afraid the damage has already been done. What do I do when my adjuster says they can be cleaned, even though it's been over 3 months since the fire?? This is all so overwhelming. Will my electronics be okay if they are cleaned now or has the damage already been done?
The lady from the restoration/cleaning company said my soot contained oil like particulates from the plastic that burned.
If anyone can help me, I would really appreciate it. If you need more information, please let me know.
Thank you
Sincerely,
ClassieM
Hello,
I had a kitchen fire on October 20th 2005 and need to know what my rights are with my Homeowners Insurance. I have "Replacement Value[/B]" on my insurance. The fire started on top of stove, burned cabinets, but not all the way through. I had plastic bowls on counter next to stove that had misc items in them and all of it melted/burned. I'm very Thankful I caught the fire when I did. I was able to throw a lot of water on it and put it out. I didn't need to call fire dept. Even though I was able to get the fire out myself, there was a lot of smoke damage. I had soot webs on my kitchen/dining room ceiling and even some upstaires. Our staires are open stairs, so smoke/soot traveled all the way up there. Fortunately, we didn't have our furnace on yet, but did turn it on the following day. The cleaning company came in the following day which was Friday to start cleaning. They didn't return until Monday & were done by Wednesday. The first night, I had to stay upstaires with my dog & cat and my husband and kids went to hotel.
The cleaning company never told me not to use any of my electronics, so of course I did. They only cleaned the outside of my tv, dvd player,stereo, computer, fridge, dishwasher, etc. I know that the smoke & soot had to get into these electronics, but they never took them to be cleaned. Just yesterday my DVD player (only 1 yr old) stopped working. Other electronics have been acting up too, but so far still running. I asked my insurance adjuster about all of them and he said they all could be cleaned. My concern is that the cleaning should have happened right away and afraid the damage has already been done. What do I do when my adjuster says they can be cleaned, even though it's been over 3 months since the fire?? This is all so overwhelming. Will my electronics be okay if they are cleaned now or has the damage already been done?
The lady from the restoration/cleaning company said my soot contained oil like particulates from the plastic that burned.
If anyone can help me, I would really appreciate it. If you need more information, please let me know.
Thank you
Sincerely,
ClassieM
