On June 24th I "moved in" to my new apartment. Several of my friends helped me move in and several different sized boxes were placed everywhere, including some on top of the stove. When I moved in I was kind of irked because there was no power, apparently it was my responsibility to call the power company and have them turn it on. Upon calling the power company I was greeted with a message that they were not open until the following Monday. Not wanting to stay in an apartment with no electricity or A/C in the middle of a hot June I decided I would travel 2 hours to stay with my grandfather in another city. Fast forward to the following Monday, I called the power company and asked when the soonest I could get power turned on in my apartment and they said the following day, they also asked that I turn the breakers in the apartment off and I agreed. This kind of bummed me out because it meant I'd have to travel to and from my grandfathers to go to university until then. The next day I make my way up to my apartment and wait around for several hours, trying to get furniture where I like it, unpacking a couple of the things. I remember specifically going to switch the breakers to what I thought was OFF. After waiting for several hours I call the power company and ask if they still plan to turn my power on that day and they say yes, it should be done before the end of the business day. I wait another hour before I leave as it's now around 4-4:30ish and I have to drive across the city to get to my class that starts at 5:30pm. Surprisingly I get there early and grab a bite to eat. Class starts and the professor is explaining the exam we'd take that day, about 15 minutes into the exam I start feeling my phone vibrate, because this is an exam I ignore it. It continues to vibrate, over and over it doesn't stop for a good 2 minutes.Thinking something might be wrong I ask my teacher if I could go outside the class and answer it because I feel like something might be wrong. She isn't happy about it but allows me to go outside the class. I see 4-5 missed calls and messages from my new apartment manager and 2 missed calls from my grandfather. I immediately call my apartment manager and ask what the deal is. "Honey, your apartment is on fire!" "What? For real?" "Yes, you need to get down here quick!" I immediately go back into my class, tell my professor that my apartment is on fire and I have to go. She just smiles at me at first then asks if I'm serious. I say yes, I have to go now. She covers her mouth in horror and everyone has stopped taking the test and they're all looking at me. As soon as I'm out the door I call my grandfather and assure him I'm ok. The next call is to my rental insurance company USAA. I talk to them via the Bluetooth connection in my car as I'm trying to get back to my apartment as soon as possible. The first thing I ask them is "Am I covered?" "Yes, you've been covered in the new apartment since the date you moved in on the 24th." Thank goodness. The claims adjuster then begins asking me a ton of details about the fire that I can't answer because I'm not there yet. I tell him I'll call him back asap when I see the damage. I'm freaking out, not sure if my apartment is completely destroyed or what's going on. I finally get to my apartment and observe a fire truck and what I assume are other fire department vehicles and to my horror there is water gushing everywhere, creating rivers in the ditches near the roads and small lakes in between the apartment complexes and I think "Oh my god my apartment is going to be soaked in water." I park a ways away and walk straight through the small lakes of water to get to where my apartment manager and a maintenance man are standing. I ask what happened. They tell me the fire department has said that for some reason one of the burners on the stove was on and when the power was switched on it caught some of my boxes on fire. The apartment manager said it's the power companies fault, it's their responsibility and standard operating procedure to physically go into the apartment to make sure the breakers are turned off, that they're supposed to go to the apartment manager if a tenant is not home to be let in to check the breakers. I tell her that I thought I'd turned the breakers off. She then told me it didn't matter if I had or not they the power company didn't follow proper procedure and the exact same thing happened a few years prior and the power company had to pay for it. I finally went and talked to the Fire Chief and he told me the same thing. He was upset with the power company and said that no matter what I did it was their fault for not coming into the apartment and making sure the breakers were turned off. After a while I was finally permitted to go into my apartment and to my astonishment there was no water anywhere, everything looked normal apart from the kitchen which had several holes in the walls, black melted plastic and several of my burned kitchen items plastic cups, silverware, a few liquor bottles, a few bags of food. Not much was destroyed outright HOWEVER the entire apartment smelled god awful and after leaving I had a difficult time breathing and got a terrible sinus headache. Burnt plastic ash had gotten over and on literally EVERYTHING in the apartment. All my clothes, bed, furniture, etc... fortunately almost 90% of all my belongings were still packed in boxes/dressers. Half of the breakers were on and half were off in my apartment when the fire department entered. I take several pictures, talk to the Red Cross chaplain who offers me a place to stay, talk with the fire department and my apartment managers for a bit and then inspect my apartment some more. Finally I grab some of my clothes, my iPad, and my phone charger and I leave. I call my insurance and let them know everything, post the pictures on their website, give the name and contact info of the fire department and the apartment complex. I decide to drive back to my grandfathers as I'm still sort of stunned all this happened. I wash my clothes there 3-4 times to get the smell out. Get a hold of my boss and let her know I'm not likely to be able to make it to work for a few days until I get this figured out, same with my professor. The next day, the 28th of June, 2017. I give a call to my rental insurance and start asking about what all it pays for. They say they can pay for a hotel stay until I get back in the apartment, realizing it might be a while, I accept so I can at least keep going to school and work. They also set up a time/date for a contractor to come out and evaluate my stuff, how much it'd cost to fix/replace. In between the time I called and the time the contractor came to evaluate my stuff I was able to get the fire report from the fire department. I talked to the fire chief again who reiterated it was the power companies fault and not my fault and that I shouldn't even have to pay a deductible to get my stuff fixed. After leaving the fire department I read the fire report and it was incredibly vague. Did not place blame on anyone, just established the fire departments narrative. I thought this was strange but whatever I've never been through this situation before. All of my stuff is covered for up to $10,000. The contractor evaluates it'd cost about $9500 to fix it all. I agree to let them fix everything. I've been living out of a couple of trash bags full of clothes in a hotel behind work since the 28-29th of June. Over the past few days I've talked to my insurance adjuster who says I'll have to pay $250 deductible to get my stuff fixed and they'll pay the rest. When I told him the fire chief said I shouldn't have to pay the insurance adjuster said I'd have to pay for now and when they got a hold of the power companies insurance company if they're able to recoup their costs then I should get my $250 back. After getting a rough date of when I can move back in and all my stuff will be fixed (July 24,2017) I started adding up all the things I'm out money for. My rent is $619/month so $619/30days is $20.63x27 days $557.10 I'm out of for rent, the $250 deductible, and a $50 energy bill from the energy company who for some reason despite the fire report saying otherwise, didn't turn off my power. Half of that bill is is a $28 hookup fee. The other power is apparently power used by my apartment complex maintenance to fix my apartment. As soon as I found out the power was still on and it was still in my name I immediately had it shut off. So all in all $557.10+$250+$50=$857.10. Armed with this number and after talking to my insurance adjuster I call the claims department of the power company that leads me to the power company insurance. They ask for all the same info as my insurance, they tell me to email photos and all info to an email address. I send dozens of images and info including all the costs of my insurance, the cost to fix my stuff, the cost of my hotel stay (26-27 days) my personal costs and what I'd personally like to be reimbursed. Coincidentally, a few hours after sending this email I get a call not from the power companies insurance, but from a sergeant at the fire department. She claimed she just wanted a statement from me about what went on that day as I'd left before she could get one. I asked her pretty directly if the reason she was calling is because I'd contacted the power companies insurance a few hours before and she evaded the question. I gave her my narrative, then asked her point blank if it was still the power companies fault. She then told me that she was going to rule it no ones fault. This pissed me off, how can the fire chief of the fire department tell me over and over it was the power companies fault, then the fire report points no fingers and now this Sergeant is telling me it's no ones fault? All in all I still have yet to hear anything from the power companies insurance. I've talked to a lawyer who advised that I keep all receipts and costs for everything and that it'd be best if I tried to work out the power company paying me and if they didn't it'd be much cheaper and less time consuming if I took them to small claims court. I've been studying and talking to multiple people about small claims court. I'm moving back into my apartment on the 24th, this coming Monday. I would just like to know what are my options here? Is going to small claims court viable? Where can I find the regulations regarding how the power company is supposed to hook up power so I can see if the power company actually did break regulation? Would it be ok to try and get a direct statement from the fire chief saying it was the power companies fault? I surmise he'd probably change his view and become evasive if I asked for a signed document from him saying it was the power companies fault, I'm rarely certain both the city power company and the fire department both work for the city and are likely going to try to cover each other. Any advice?
TL;DR My apartment caught fire before I could sleep a night in it. The fire department chief blamed the power company for not following regulations when they did not turn off the breakers however the actual fire report was vague and blamed no one. Fortunately I have rental insurance, that is paying for my repairs, however I am still out $857.10 for lost rent, rental insurance deductible, and power bill. Would it be in my best interest to go to small claims court if the power company refuses to reimburse me? Where can I find regulations regarding hooking up power in my state (Kentucky)? Would I be wasting my time trying to get a statement from the fire chief saying again, this time officially it was the power companies fault?
Submitted July 22, 2017 at 11:15AM by HStakes7 http://ift.tt/2tPFm8T
