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Tenant rights after a fire

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  • 26-01-2014 12:09am
    #1
    carolinecarrie
    Registered Users Posts: 1 ✭


    Hi all..just looking for some help..Very traumatic experience following a house fire caused by a faulty dishwasher. Whole house went up in flames and 7 tenants nearly died as only one alarm went off..lucky one of us is a light sleeper so got everyone up just in time..He also came back for me as I was fast asleep...The house is completely unlivable..fire and smoke damage, water is off, electric is off...

    Anyways there are 7 people now homeless on Dublin...This happened at 4 in the morning..Our landlord didn't rock up until 5 that evening when it was dark and proceeded to attempt to blame us for the fire and look for sympathy over his damaged house and the loss of his mortgage... This got short thrift but I'm wondering does anyone have any experience with this..What will his insurance cover? Should he be rehousing us until It's repaired?

    Thanks


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    #2
    Moonbeam
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,953 Mod ✭✭✭✭Moonbeam


    Sorry to hear about your experience,it sounds really traumatic.
    His Insurance will cover re-building the house,he might have been a bit shaken by the incident too.
    Did you have contents insurance?
    There are fire safety requirements for a rented house - http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/Housing/FileDownLoad,19428,en.pdf .

    I maybe wrong but although the landlord has no responsibility to rehouse you I think that your local authority may have a duty to rehome you or help you to provide adequate housing.


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    #3
    Grolschevik
    Registered Users Posts: 3,472 ✭✭✭Grolschevik


    Interested in this, actually. Near me, a block of maybe 16 apartments was evacuated for a couple of months after a fire in the vicinity of the electricity and gas meters, in the lobby.

    A fair few owner occupiers, but also no doubt a fair few tenants. What are the logistics when something like that happens?


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    #4
    odds_on
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,869 ✭✭✭odds_on


    carolinecarrie wrote: »
    Hi all..just looking for some help..Very traumatic experience following a house fire caused by a faulty dishwasher. Whole house went up in flames and 7 tenants nearly died as only one alarm went off..lucky one of us is a light sleeper so got everyone up just in time..He also came back for me as I was fast asleep...The house is completely unlivable..fire and smoke damage, water is off, electric is off...

    Anyways there are 7 people now homeless on Dublin...This happened at 4 in the morning..Our landlord didn't rock up until 5 that evening when it was dark and proceeded to attempt to blame us for the fire and look for sympathy over his damaged house and the loss of his mortgage... This got short thrift but I'm wondering does anyone have any experience with this..What will his insurance cover? Should he be rehousing us until It's repaired?

    Thanks
    What does your lease say?

    Some leases have a clause that if the property becomes uninhabitable due to fire or flooding or other unforeseen circumstances then the landlord shall return any rent in a pro rata basis and if the problem was not the cause of the of a tenant's failure to fulfil his obligations, then the deposit is returned.


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    #5
    djimi
    Registered Users Posts: 13,238 ✭✭✭✭djimi


    odds_on wrote: »
    What does your lease say?

    Some leases have a clause that if the property becomes uninhabitable due to fire or flooding or other unforeseen circumstances then the landlord shall return any rent in a pro rata basis and if the problem was not the cause of the of a tenant's failure to fulfil his obligations, then the deposit is returned.

    I would have thought that that would go without saying? On what grounds could a landlord keep rent/deposit when the property becomes uninhabitable through no fault of the tenant?


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    #6
    wmpdd3
    Registered Users Posts: 9,624 ✭✭✭wmpdd3


    When the landlord said loss of mortgage, did he say the bank didn't know he was renting the house out?


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    #7
    dinnyirwin
    Registered Users Posts: 206 ✭✭dinnyirwin


    You should get your deposit and any rent paid in advance from the date you had to move out.
    Its unlikely that your contents are covered unless you took out your own contents insurance. Unfortunately you found out the hard way about insurance being a necessary evil for most things


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    #8
    Ray Palmer
    Registered Users Posts: 8,364 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    carolinecarrie wrote: »
    Hi all..just looking for some help..Very traumatic experience following a house fire caused by a faulty dishwasher. Whole house went up in flames and 7 tenants nearly died as only one alarm went off..lucky one of us is a light sleeper so got everyone up just in time..He also came back for me as I was fast asleep...The house is completely unlivable..fire and smoke damage, water is off, electric is off...

    Anyways there are 7 people now homeless on Dublin...This happened at 4 in the morning..Our landlord didn't rock up until 5 that evening when it was dark and proceeded to attempt to blame us for the fire and look for sympathy over his damaged house and the loss of his mortgage... This got short thrift but I'm wondering does anyone have any experience with this..What will his insurance cover? Should he be rehousing us until It's repaired?

    Thanks


    When did this happen? It normally takes quite a while for any report to say a faulty appliance was to blame. They may say the fire started there but to actually say an appliance was in fault and the cause is a very definite statement.

    Insurance by law has to be taken out by if you have something to lose. A LL loses nothing when your personal possessions are destroyed so can't get such insurance.

    Doesn't need to rehouse you he has lost a lot too and this would just be extra money he would lose. I feel sorry for everybody concerned but sometimes everybody loses and taking your own insurance out is your own responsibility.


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    #9
    Pawwed Rig
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 22,317 CMod ✭✭✭✭Pawwed Rig


    carolinecarrie wrote: »
    Whole house went up in flames and 7 tenants nearly died as only one alarm went off..lucky one of us is a light sleeper so got everyone up just in time..He also came back for me as I was fast asleep

    Curious as to why only 1 alarm went off. We test ours pretty regulalry (usually unintentionally) but would be aware what is working or not.

    That said I was chatting to my tenant once who casually mentioned that she disconnected all the smoke alarms as the batteries were wasted which annoyed me no end.

    Just thankfully you all got out ok OP and noone was hurt or killed. Anything else is just stuff.


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    #10
    Ray Palmer
    Registered Users Posts: 8,364 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    Pawwed Rig wrote: »

    That said I was chatting to my tenant once who casually mentioned that she disconnected all the smoke alarms as the batteries were wasted which annoyed me no end.

    .

    I went into one of my rentals to see the smoke alarms had obviously been smashed off the ceiling. The tenant gave out that they were going off so he knocked them off the ceiling. He wanted me to fix the holes in the ceiling he created when doing this :eek:


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