Just bought a house that was involved in a fire

[Ryan Le]

So I went and looked at a vacant house 3 months ago. It wasn’t involved in any fire then. I liked the house and proceeded to work with the seller to buy it. Due to liens issues, it took 3 months before we resolve all the problems. Upon clearance of title, I bought it and closed on it last week without revisiting the house. Well, after it was bought, I visited the house and learned that the house got caught in a fire a month prior. The seller didn’t even know about it since it was vacant.

I learned that the underlying lender did purchase homeowner insurance. Now I just want to know if I or the Seller could place a claim against this insurance policy. Can someone help shed some light into this matter? What should I do at this point? Any paperwork the seller could sign to allow me the ability to negotiate with the insurance company?

Thank you for your help and guidance