Fire

We've had a fire in our own home. Qld. Fire, police, ergon and ambulance all attended. Garage gutted and hallway badly damaged. Smoke through the rest of the house. Took about 6 months to get everything cleaned/thrown or repaired. Night of fire I thought, not much damage. Firies thought at least $50k. Ended up over $150k. And endless phone calls to get items replaced or paid out. Insurance companies will cut every corner and its up to you to push to get what you're insured for. And yes the insurance company would only pay to clean and repaint the walls down to a foot off the floor as that's where the smoke damaged ended. Painter just shook his head and quoted them to paint to the floor. Good luck.

 

Thank you for sharing!
They sent an assessor to have a look. The fire only damaged the roof so thankfully there's no smoke/soot damage.
I pray it won't take 6 months as I didn't have a lease in writing they would refuse to pay loss of rent.

 

Insurance got back to me and say that there was business activity in my house then it's not covered. My tenants was subleasing the rooms and there was 5 unrelated people in total in my home. I did not know such a rule exist

Please learn from my lessons and make sure you read up on rooming house.

 

Is that for the rent part or the total cover insurance ..
This could also have turned turn into a bigger mess if someone was killed within that property with health and safety violations and manslaughter charges then the paying tenants will try and take you into the legal system..

 

At the moment I'm not sure. They only confirmed with me the identities of the people in my home and inform me that boarding house is not covered. They have yet provided me a written refusal.

Yes it could turn in a worse mess, all because we didn't know. Check your IPs, make sure all the tenants in there are named on the lease if they are not related.

 

Sorry to hear about that its tragic news

One thing you will need to consider is the tax implications on the insurance proceeds

 

But you rented privately to a family member and did not check that they were subletting? Or you knew and didnt stop them?

this is where using a pm would probably have prevented the extra people in the first place.

if you dont know the rules, rely on someone who does.

 

This would have been in the PDS and be terms of the contract you entered with the insurer. Read it very carefully

 

They said it's okay, the occupancy issues. I had a grandfathered cover that didn't specify boarding house.

I learn a lot from this. Thank you everyone for sharing and your support.