House fire

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Hi all,

Has anyone here ever had any experience of recovering from a pretty nasty house fire?

Was awoken last night at 2:30am by banging on the door from a neighbour who lives down the street shouting that 'your house is on fire!', which didnt make sense until we looked past him to see the fire brigade - and turned around to see the entire garden ablaze.

Thankfully the Fire Brigade were called in time and we owe a LOT to this neighbour, as this could easily have been fatal, and long story short they got the fire out very quickly without any injury to anyone. We've been left with a completely burnt-out fence, the decking is a write off, as are the UPVC bi-fold doors that connect onto the decking. The roofing near the bi-fold doors also set alight, and (as mentioned earlier) was probably only minutes away from taking the entire house, and the plasterboard ceiling under the roof is wrecked due to the water used to douse the flames.

We're all pretty shook up about it, and very thankful that no one was hurt and the damage was pretty much contained.

So my questions -
1) Has anyone ever experienced this, and what was your.. story of going through insurance to get this all fixed?
2) Unbelievably, we are supposed to be exchanging on our house in 2 week time . This has obviously thrown a big spanner in the works and my missus is devastated about this, being so far along in the buying process she thinks this is going to cause us to collapse the chain. If you did experience this, how long did it take to get the insurance companies to 'do something'? We've currently got no fence, so the dog can wander, and we've also got big holes in our roof which i'm worried about water damage, etc.

Thanks for reading in advance - its cathartic just to write this to be honest!
 
That sucks dude. But a house is just money, and family is far more important and irreplaceable :).

I'd probably write off selling your house... As soon as buyers get wind they'll pull out I think?
 
Sorry to hear and glad everyone is OK,first call the insurance as they should sort all the concerns about the fence and holes in roof etc even if they do a temp fix, guess time on repair depends on if it needs checking structurally etc
 
I didn't mean to imply any doubt over the cause. Just interested and looking for clarification. You don't usually hear about houses burning from the outside in.
 
bremen1874 said:
I didn't mean to imply any doubt over the cause. Just interested and looking for clarification. You don't usually hear about houses burning from the outside in.
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No offence taken, dont worry :)

The fire brigade have no idea what caused it. The fire started between 1AM and 2AM, there was no BBQ, open flame, etc anywhere on our or next doors property. The only thing in the vicinity of where it started was next doors plastic shed, that backed onto the fence, which connects to our decking. The fire started somewhere in that region, caught the fence and decking and the entire thing went up in the flames and was making its way into the roof space in our kitchen extension roof when the firemen put it out. 10 minutes later i think the whole house, and potentially lives, would have been at risk (gulp!).

I've spoken with the insurers and i've got a loss adjuster out on Friday to spec it all up, and i've spoken with the buyer of our house and the people onwards in the chain and everyone has been extremely understanding and sympathetic. It sounds like the sale doesnt have to fall through, as there are numerous options we can take to resolve this quickly. The preferable one at the moment is we get the insurance company to fix the fence, roof and decking (as its a total write off) but 'pay out' for the UPVC bifold doors. The buyers then get given this cash to replace 'as they like', i.e. like for like, or just put the money to something different i.e. different colour, no bifolds, etc. They seem amiable to that suggestion which is good and means we arent waiting months for custom bi-fold doors to arrive.
 
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Was the neighbours shed damaged? Could have started in there, faulty electrics or something. Either way what a nightmare when so close to selling house.
 
My parents had a fire in their lounge - the log burner set fire to the carpet and sofa.
The fire was put out quickly, but 95% of the £65k claim was for soot & water damage.

Their insurer (LV) acted quite quickly, appointing a loss adjustor, but the claim still took the better part of 12 months to settle.
This was mainly due to the sheer amount of clothing that was damaged.

Hopefully, you insurers are decent and get you sorted quickly. Remember, you're looking for "reinstatement" - to be put back in the position you were in before the fire. This includes covering "consequential losses" such as any penalties you incur by breaking the chain.
 
My parents had a fire around 14yrs ago. My mum was in the garden and i wasupstairs in my room. I had my window open wide as it was roasting. I could smell smoke so assumed a neighbour was having a bbq, then a few minutes later noticed there was about 1ft of smoke at the ceiling of my room, so went downstairs to see flames coming from the boiler cupboard.

Ran outside to tell my mum who didn't believe me. So i pointed into the kitchen where flames had moved through to there. Then she realised the cat was inside so i ran back upstairs to get it. By which point the smoke was from chest height up to the ceiling.

Got back outside and waited for the fire brigade, tried aiming a hose through the kitchen window but that didn't do much.

In the end the actual fire damage was limited to the kitchen and hallway where the boiler cupboard was. However most of possessions were ruined by the smoke. Think it took around 8 months for it all to be resolved/repaired. Insurance company made us list everything along with a value and they paid out. I had a huge box of lego from being a kid which would've been worth a fortune yet was sat having been unused for years since i was 18 at that point. Ended up getting around a grand for it i think!
 
Yikes, scary timelines! I'm really hopeful ours wont be as bad, as the items damaged are:
* Fence
* Decking
* Roof of kitchen (one corner aspect only)
* UPVC Bi-fold doors
* Plasterboard ceiling in kitchen where water seeped in

So i'm hoping there isnt much 'itemisation' and feet dragging they can do, to be honest. A builder who lives nearby saw what has happened and really kindly came over and put some tarp over the hole in the roof to prevent it getting damaged any further, as according to Bradford and Bingley a hole in the roof 'isnt an emergency', believe it or not!
 
Jamesyboyjim said:
Really glad you're ok! I hope it wasn't some moron who flicked a cigarette or something!
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i was thinking cigarette too. especially since it happened at 1am/2am.

there is no way it was refracted light, etc.

basically one of your neighbours done it. or you have a kid/partner that smokes or does so secretly? they flicked it onto something like dry grass or paper/wood.


the other possibility is it was done on purpose.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
i was thinking cigarette too. especially since it happened at 1am/2am.

there is no way it was refracted light, etc.

basically one of your neighbours done it. or you have a kid/partner that smokes or does so secretly? they flicked it onto something like dry grass or paper/wood.


the other possibility is it was done on purpose.
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Horrible gut wrenching thoughts either way!
One of our neighbours had a house fire for this very reason. Her son was back from uni and staying over, he was secretly smoking, flicked the butt out the window not really thinking about how dry it was outside and before anyone noticed, the back of the house was already on fire!

Op, will it be investigated as to how it started?
 
Jamesyboyjim said:
Horrible gut wrenching thoughts either way!
One of our neighbours had a house fire for this very reason. Her son was back from uni and staying over, he was secretly smoking, flicked the butt out the window not really thinking about how dry it was outside and before anyone noticed, the back of the house was already on fire!

Op, will it be investigated as to how it started?
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i have one of those metal bin incenerators for like 15 quid from homebase.

i had been chopping up a lot of wood and sanding it. so had been putting all the sawdust and off bits in there. was having a bbq 3 weeks ago where a few people smoke so one decided to flick the fag into the incinerator. it went up pretty quickly due to the sawdust from the sander.
 
Jamesyboyjim said:
Really glad you're ok! I hope it wasn't some moron who flicked a cigarette or something!
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Was just about to say to the OP do any of the neighbours smoke, could have been a cigarette that wasn't put out and blown in the wind, with everything so dry then anything it touched would pretty much ignite.
 
Semple said:
Was just about to say to the OP do any of the neighbours smoke, could have been a cigarette that wasn't put out and blown in the wind, with everything so dry then anything it touched would pretty much ignite.
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people that smoke don't tend to care what they do with the butts tbh. it's as if they have the right to litter by smoking.

walk down any street in this country and it's littered in butts.

more £60 fines need to be getting handed out IMO.
 
Firstly, glad nobody was hurt or worse.

With regards to the loss adjuster, if the damage is "limited" to what youve said and nothing extra, I can imagine the claim going through very quickly. Keep the chain updated, weekly if needs be and hopefully you can get it all sorted with a minimal of fuss.

As above, the issue is when personal items get involved.
 
OP here, just wanted to give an update to provide some optimism for the week.

So timeline of events:
* 7th July: Fire.
* 8th July: Called our insurance company, 'a loss adjustor will call you back'.
* 9th July: Loss adjustor called, arranged an appointment for 13th July.
* 13th July: Loss adjustor came out, reviewed the damage (note: very cursory review, literally took a few pictures on a digital camera and then asked me more about my personal details, address, etc and that was it). She left and told me to get quotes, if they sounded about right they would pay out straight away.
* 16th July: Quote for bifold doors received.
* 14th July - 27th July: Hours and hours spent trying to get roofers, landscapers, glazers, etc to come and quote; decking and fencing people were the most difficult as a LOT of them are booked up around our area (Reading) until NOVEMBER!
* 24th July: Took a leap of faith and paid for bifold doors deposit, as got a verbal 'nod of approval' from loss adjustor that the quote was within reasonable numbers.
* 25th July: Inspection and measurements for bifold doors (on our property).
* 25th July: Quotes submitted to insurance, total of £10,000 worth of work to be claimed for.
* 30th July: Quote approved, cheque in the post.
* 3rd August: WE EXCHANGED!
* 4th & 5th August: Roof repaired.
* 6th-9th August: Decking and fence *being* repaired.
* 9th August: Bifold doors being replaced.
* 17th August: WE'RE MOVING HOUSE!

Back when the fire happened, I genuinely believed we'd still be moving because I think if i didn't I'd have been struggling mentally after putting so much effort in. Its been an absolute slog and I've made about 500 phone calls in the last month to various builders, contractors, insurance companies, estate agents, solicitors etc but the long and short is: within 4 weeks of the fire, all the work was booked in, the roof is already repaired, and we have exchanged. Hopefully this gives someone some feel-good that despite things being bleak, the best outcome is still possible! (and actually, dealing with the insurance companies was a lot easier than I thought it would be!).
 
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