Home Insurance Claim Questions - Fire and Theft

I had a recent residential house fire and filed a claim with my insurance. The structure is fully standing (primarily damage to exterior and garage attic) but smoke and soot throughout so it's been vacant and I'm living across town. A few days after the fire, a theft occurred while unoccupied and a few items went missing. Insurance is wanting to treat this as two separate events on two different days, thus two claims, two deductibles, and two adjusters even.

Is this typical? In my mind it seems plausible they are related as 'mitigation and boarding of the property' are noted in the policy and actions that were taken immediately following the fire. FWIW, the fire department was forced to destroy a garage door as well as the primary front entrance to the home. The garage door opening was boarded up but the primary door deadbolt was blown out and only the handle lock remained and takes very little to force entry.

If they are processed as two claims, I would likely cancel the theft claim as soon as possible and eat the losses as they are about equal to the additional deductible and to keep the demerits down on the insurance record.

Thoughts? Location is in Minnesota and I've never made a claim before so trying to figure out he ins and outs best I can.

 

Yes, because
Two different causes of loss
Two different dates of loss

Notes: should have boarded up that door
Whatever was stolen was, by your description, damaged any way by smoke. How badly damaged I can't tell from here.
Where is the level of the hot smoke line in the area of the stolen items?

Not picking on you about the door, it's just a reminder to others that people somehow think your damaged house is free and open.

I've been standing in a living room with the homeowner after a fire when someone walked in and started looking around.
I confronted the intruder and he seemed upset that I was dressing him down.

Also, if the stolen items weren't smoke damaged, why wasn't a restoration company packing out your Contents a few days after the fire?

I never was licensed in MN, so I can't speak to that

Yes, drop the theft claim and ask if the items can't be included in the fire claim.

What items were in a vacant house?

33 years in the biz

 

@omatter34 was awesome and held my hand,,,
Start shopping for an independent adjuster in MN if he can't do it, that 15% will be peanuts a year from now... GL

 

Yep, @omatter34

 

Thanks for the reply. A little more info to answer your questions...

We were about 90 minutes away when the fire occurred. My wife was already getting calls from an 'ambulance chaser' that he was going to meet us at the property. He implied that he volunteered with the fire departments and received word of the 911 call. We got to the house, fire was out but the 'chaser' met us and had a contract ready to go that would take care of things from start to finish. Pushy, of course. We chopped out the demolition, and restoration work and agreed to have them only do the following billable work:
 Home damage mitigation: board-up and electrical inspection
 Emergency clothing: two bags of clothing receiving immediate smoke and soot cleaning with delivery (These items have been
promptly received at the property)
 Ozone and air scrubbers (two large and two small units have been set up and run on the property for roughly 36 hours total).
Items have been consolidated to the lower level of the property and can be arranged for pick-up from the property.
 Prep for walkthrough with adjuster

Those items seemed worthwhile and more time sensitive without agreeing to anything further. It's clear now they fell short on properly boarding up the home but I don't see any reasonable way to hold them liable towards the theft.

We have since signed with a more appropriate contractor and they have fulfilled the packout which happened AFTER the theft unfortunately. Prior to the theft we had removed anything of real value, sensitive documents, firearms so it was mainly minor electronics, and insignificant jewelry that they got away with.

 

Your terminology is incorrect
Independent adjusters work for insurance companies
Public adjusters work for the homeowner.

 

CM,

Sounds like you did everything correctly.

The reason I asked about the hot smoke line is that contents above/near a hot smoke line are considered a loss.

So, no sense is making a claim for something already damaged that is then stolen.

I'd review that board up work order for disclaimers. They should have boarded up the front door, or at least put a hasp and pad lock on it. Threaten them with a bad review n google and yelp.

Did The fire adjuster inspect the house before the theft?

 

@Big T is on point with everything he is saying. Public Adjusters and Independant/Carrier adjusters may have differing opinions on certain aspects of what a carrier is responsible for, how coverages apply, etc but I don't disagree with anything he's said here.

When did the loss occur?

- It would absolutely be 2 claims. No one is going to win the argument to make them 1.
- It was already addressed above to some extent, but do you have pictures of the stolen stuff after the fire, but before it was taken? If so, was it damaged by fire or soot? If yes to both of those, you should easily be able to get paid for them on the initial fire claim.
-If you can't get the stolen items covered under the fire claim. I wouldn't hesitate to file a 3rd party liability claim against the mitigation company for their negligence. I handle 3rd party claims all of the time and this would be an easy win. Keep in mind though, that you can't go after them if you are going to go after the fire claim for the items. Double indemnification (dipping) isn't allowed, so you would need to decide who to go after or try your homeowners claim 1st and then 3rd party if homeowners won't pay.
- Lastly, is the mitigation company still involved? Have they provided you a written estimate? If not, make sure you get this from them ASAP. Most of those companies will hold you accountable for anything the insurance company doesn't agree too, so best to get in front of that sooner than later.