My tenant set fire to the bathroom

[Andrew P.]

Hello everyone, This is the first time anything like this has happened to us. Our management company quoted about 1k in damages. We do have insurance and clauses in the lease the tenant needs to pay for damages. What typical happens now, do you have the tenant slowly pay it off? Do you do an insurance claim or have the renter try to claim it on their insurance? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Deanna McCormick]

I'd let them know that although the bathroom finishes were older they were still in suitable condition for use and if it hadn't been damaged you probably would only have painted when they moved. I'd make sure they cover cost of replacement for cabinets, sheet rock, labor, cleaning. Anything that needed to be done to cover smoke and fire damage.

You can let them know your not charging full price for maybe  painting.. but honestly I'd make them cover anything you had to do to get it back to like condition. If you upgrade cabinets or fixtures I'd maybe give them a break on that but, still it would not have had to be replaced if they only moved.  We had to prorate carpet, and appliances on fire damaged units but other than that tenants were charged for restoration. 

Sounds like you want to be fair, just remember if the building had gone  up you'd be in a different ball game.

Any addendum on restricting candles,,, might be a good idea.