Your insurance should pay with Little if any problems and pursue your tenant for the damages.

Steve,I had a camped parked at a building I own.some of the tenants children set it afire.My insurance company denied my claim.About a year or so later the same children father started a fire in the unit.I used a public adjuster,he was good.took care of the fire in the unit,also reopened the old claim for the camper ,got me more than it was really worth.So check around with people you know..........charle.

Steve,

Will they weasel? ABSOLUTELY!!

The adjustor they send works for THEM. His/her job is to save the company money NOT to treat you right.

Example: our rental fire the ins offered $46k. I hired a public adjustor and the REAL total, based on the ins policy came to $96k. They comveniently left out things like boarding up the house, removing all the res’ water soaked furniture and house stuff, landscaping torn up by the firemen, the pieces of hardwood floor their adjustor cut out to prove accelerant on the floor, tarpong the roof, the melted/curled shingles from super heat on the rest of the house, loss of rents...

Also, your res’ renters ins should help you too.

Don't go w a public adjuster from the get go because the ins company will automatically gave their guard up. Let their person write up your fire. A public adjuster will do 2 things to get your business. They will review your policy and then review the adjusters claim. I had 5 adjusters show up at my 3 family fire last year. I gave 2 is them the time of day. The others tried to pressure me into signing asap. In the end the guy I liked advised me that his company couldn't get me more. My damage outstripped my ins valuation.

I had a tenant burn down two units of an 8 unit apartment property. First the insurance said, "Tenant claims landlord did not provide smoke detectors", so claim is denied!

After I explained to the Fire Department that all units are inspected every six months including the smoke detectors and back-up battery. I date each battery and put my initials on the battery. So the Fire Department and my insurance adjuster said, "We will inspect the other 6 units and see if your really install new battery's, date them and put your name on them". Sure enough all units still standing had working smoke detectors with battery's labeled with the install date and my initials. Tenants had removed the 9 volt back up battery from the smoke detector so their child could operate his toy remote controlled car. Tenant was too stupid to buy their own batteries.

Next as a contractor told my insurance company that I will accept $100,000 for the damages and do repairs myself. They said sure, less my deductible, offering me only $80,000. I told the no way.

Steve,

Kinda what Potatoes said, I hired the public adjuster after the ins co made their offer.

That way their fee was based on the difference they got for me rather than the entire claim.

BTW the ins co adjuster will tell you he gave you everything covered and really squeezed the company for more because part of his job is to get you to accept the initial offer.

Don't accept ANYTHING until you are super satisfied.

And grab a cup of coffee and sit down to read thru your policy. Knowledge is power and profit.

BRAD

One more vote for the public adjuster. We had a chimney fire in a property in Feb - insurance offered something like $20K, and the public adjuster negotiated it up to around $50K. I'm not sure how it works in Ohio but here in TX the state maintains a list of certified public adjusters; we just called down the list until we found someone we felt confident in.