Inspections at the condo

Today, Bethany and I met a few people at the condo for some inspections.  We had about 10 different people in/out of the house while we were there.

You can see them building a temporary roof over the damaged sections:

While speaking to someone from the insurance company, they mixed up our file with someone from the middle section.  The call started with “You’re definitely going to be out of your house longer than the 9 months coverage in your policy”.  It was quickly obvious that they were talking about someone else but that is a scary situation to be in.

Insurance tips:
Have renter’s insurance (or homeowner’s if you are in a condo)!  I didn’t carry homeowner’s insurance for the first couple years I was there (I thought about it only in the context of my stuff – if I lost the little bit of stuff I had, it was no problem).  Replacing cabinets, appliances, carpet/flooring, etc would be a nightmare with no insurance.  The landlord or condo association’s policy isn’t intended to provide for your needs.

Look at the duration of “Additional Living Expenses” coverage you have – we are fortunate to have 9 months when we will only need a couple weeks at most (baring something crazy!).  Had we lived in the middle of the building (or the fire not been brought under control), the insurance company would have put us up somewhere for 9 months, then waved goodbye.  We’ll be talking with our insurance people to increase this coverage on our policy for the future.

 

Our downstairs neighbor has some pretty significant water damage.  We have some moisture in the bottom of the wall right inside the door (from the door up to the left edge of the console table).  When they put their moisture probe in the wall, you could hear it was wet.  You can’t even see anything in the picture (to demonstrate how lucky we are)!

 

The kids room didn’t have any kind of smoke smell at all.  We sniffed the drawers, curtains, bedding, furniture, and carpet.  Our room and the hallway had spots that smelled smoky – fortunately the closet had no trace of smoke smell that we could detect.  The cabinets all smelled like smoke when you opened them and the couch cushions and pillows smelled like smoke when you sat on them.

The fridge had food that had gone bad and the washer had wet clothes since Saturday night.  Both smelled foul!

Moving forward:

They got the water back on for about 15 minutes while we were there but it was shut off again before we left.  Our best guess is that they’ll get the water straightened out over the next day or two.  From there, the plumbing has to be inspected and then the building inspector has to sign off.  At that point, inspection-wise, the building is livable again.  We can’t move in until the moisture in the walls is addressed and the contractors finish any work they’ll need to do in our place.

When we left today, the contractor was putting together paperwork for the association.  They said they would start on the repair work as soon as the papers were signed off on.  There are 8 units (four on the left and four in our group on the right) that may need some kind of work (the 12 in the center are a completely different story).  If they fix ours first, we might be back in sooner than if they get ours last.  I hope to get more information from them on Monday.

The insurance company has extended our stay at the hotel through noon on Wednesday.  We don’t expect to be out of here by then, but it lets us get information on Monday and discuss it with them.

We’ll have one more inspection trip through the house with the personal property person from the adjuster’s office.  This will be the person we’ll work with on smells and messes.  Hopefully we’ll be able to get that done on Monday or Tuesday.

Lastly, we' were told that we can enter the house to get things as needed, provided we coordinate with the management company ahead of time (who has someone onsite almost all day).  That will be a relief!

 

I’m off to retrieve laundry!  Thanks for keeping up with our saga.