Fire damage - can & should I bill the tenant?

[Marc Ramsay]

I got the phone call yesterday that every landlord dreads "there's been a fire!'.

A tenant left something on the stove and went to check on her child in the bath, and a fire started on the stove. The mother and child got out just fine, but the kitchen cabinets are a write-off, and there is smoke damage throughout the unit. The kicker is we only completed the rehab on this unit a couple of months ago and the tenant just moved in.

I'm waiting for a quote back from my contractor to repair the damage, but so far it sounds like it will be less than my deductible ($5K). The tenant was not insured.

Not having dealt with this before, I don't know if I can, or should, bill the tenant some for the damages. I am not concerned about losing the tenant as I have no problems getting tenants for this building, but it would be nice to recover some of the costs if possible considering this was the fault of the tenant.

This was just the icing on the cake of a very bad week for my investments....

[Thomas B.]

I don't know that you would want a water based fire suppression system in a kitchen. Grease fires and water don't mix well and if the tenant is in the area when it goes off they could be injured. Then come the lawyers! Just my 2 cents.