He called to say he was going to be burning some brush in his backyard. He said everything was so green it wouldn’t be a big deal. I gave him permission, expecting he’d take proper percautions and and actually stay out there watching it.
Apparently he goes inside for just a minute, and the whole thing balloons out of control into our yard. Fortunately, before I even had a chance to call them, the other neighbors were already over with hoses, spraying everything down, and eventually got the fire put out a few yards away from the home. But it still melted the siding on that side of our house.
We’ve checked and made sure everything is out. The neighbor has promised to pay damages if our insurance won’t cover it, and I’m tempted to not even try mine.
I wouldn’t use my house insurance for this. it will be a hit against you when premiums are figured. The insurance company will want an official report too, so they can take the neighbor to court.
Why on earth would he go inside, even if just for a minute? It’s a fire, for crying out loud. Especially if it could cause damage to my neighbor’s property, I’d be doubly sure to keep an eye on this thing at all times from start to finish.
The neighbour started a fire that escaped his yard. The neighbour has to contact his insurance and cover the damage to the OP’s house. If his insurance doesn’t cover damage caused by him that is not on his property (though the fire started there), then he is still responsible. The OP should not have to try to have his insurance cover the damage unless the neighbour doesn’t pay up – and then the OP’s insurance company will go after neighbour.
EDIT: The OP should report it to his insurance company, but his neighbour shouldn’t expect the OP’s insurance company to pay for damage he caused.
Neighbor contacts his insurance company and they pay the damages under the liability portion of his (neighbor’s) Home owner’s policy.
BigT contacts his insurance company, and files a claim. His company pays and then subrogates against the neighbor to recover the money.
Or his company may contact the other company and they agree to pay, kind of a combo of option 1 and 2.
ETA: If the neighbor does not have insurance that covers BigT’s loss, #2 will be the way it is handled.
When he said he’d pay for it, he specifically said “If insurance won’t cover it, I’ll sell some of my stuff. I’ll make this right. It was my fault, and I’m an idiot.” I assumed he meant ours, but I guess could have meant his. Plus, he didn’t say it directly to me so I may have the quote still a bit off.
Thanks guys for helping me clear up how it would work, though. Technically, I don’t own the house, and so the people who do are taking care of it. I’ve mentioned what you guys have said to them.
I’m very grateful for the neighbor on the other side of me who has about 10 garden hoses hooked together so she can reach all the stuff around her. Her hose reached the fire easily, and got in under control before the fire department had a chance to get here.
I actually do this on occassion when I barbecue. Just yesterday had some hot dogs on the grill, stepped inside to use the little Doper’s room when the phone rang (was a call I was expecting). Took longer than I thought and when I returned to the barbecue there was quite the conflagration in there (even after I turned it off!) You never know how high the fat content is of hot dogs until you’ve seen a dozen or so of them ablaze! Quite the sight, satisfied the immature pyromaniac male in me (but pissed off my wife, who just got back from the store that was closing in 5 mins)
This is a nightmare of mine. Our shared-wall neighbors are total idiots. There are two or three smokers living there, and two completely unsupervised feral children. If that wasn’t incendiary enough, whenever they do home improvements, they call in some out-of-work brother in law who brings in old power tools which look like they short out regularly.
We have good insurance, and just recently took a picture of everything valuable in the house and stored the pix on our respective networks at work.