My tenant set the kitchen on fire!!!! Help Please......

[Sean McKee]

Hello BP!

A tenant set the kitchen on fire. I don't have the full details, but he claims he left and came back and the apartment was ablaze. The fire department was able to put the fire out. No one was hurt.

The tenant says it was an electrical fire.... However, he admits there was an air fryer on the stove, but he says he left nothing on. We had our contractor take a look. We observed no burning on the inside of the wall, the GFCI was tripped(all other electric in the unit is working), and what looked like burning on the inside of the air fryer. We were able to also examine the wiring behind the wall, and it's all fine and not burnt (no rewire required). We are fairly confident it was the air fryer caused it.

The real issue is it's our word against his. Based on the fact he is not asking to be relocated or ask for money, we think he knows it as well. I don't have any police or fire reports. I've submitted FOIAs to try and get them.

We have already agreed mutually to terminate the lease and he's almost out. However, part of me does not want to let this go. The damages will probably range between 5 to 7k, which I can cover. I'm not going through insurance. The dollar amount in damages is not that high relatively speaking given it was fire and I know it's hard to collect from tenants. I'm leaning towards a collection agency. What would you do? Let it go and call it a cost of business or pursue collection actions?

[Kenneth Garrett]

@Sean McKee

I’m not sure you can say 100% the tenant is at fault. Tenants bring lamps and all sorts of electrical devices into the unit. Pinpointing exactly what caused it is difficult and how is the tenant at fault or is it a manufacturer defect.

I had a tenant cause $150K to a building. Our insurance covered it. In retrospect , we should have maintained the tenant have renters insurance. That would have saved a lot of cost on our end. Now I make sure each tenant has and keeps their renters insurance current. If not, they are in violation of their lease.

I would file with my insurance company. They will investigate and if there is fault they will go after the tenant, if possible. Not sure what the reality of going after the tenant is. They would need assets or a judgement against them. Usually, when it comes to fires, the smoke damage does more than the actual fire.

Best of Luck.