"different fire" - got it

I'd agree that the landlords weren't necessarily the responsible party in the first case, but then, the judge made that clear for us. They are the first people in the chain of responsibility, and I'm sure the lawyer is just looking for who's got the money, hence bringing both the owners and builder into the case. The judge made the right call, if the case brought out who was responsible for the sub-par construction. I'm not sure automatically assuming the owners were innocent would be a logical assumption, but whatever.

And no, junkie, I'm not bitter. I'm not sure where you came to that conclusion. I just don't understand offensively cynical responses to tragedy. Would you feel bad if your carelessness burned down your family's house? Seems a natural response, to me. But then, I'm bitter, right? What would you expect to see on the news? A rational discussion of the facts, or an emotional replay of the mother in tears? They've got ads to sell, after all :/

 

first of all, i wouldn't be so careless to burn down a house, especially if my family is in it, and secondly, i would be responsible enough to have insurance to cover as much of the loss and damages as possible. and if, god forbid, i did so happen to burn down my house, i would take full responsibility for it, and would not be crying all over the news about how "unfortunate" i am. in fact, i wouldn't even agree to be interviewed on camera. and if all my kids' christmas gifts were burned in the fire, i would be responsible enough to have money put aside for a rainy day so that i can salvage whatever christmas i can for my kids.

as for the news part, i'd be 100x more interested in hearing the facts than the hear a crying mother seeking sympathy. in fact, seeing the crying mother would make me want to just change the channel. so when it comes to me, if a tv station wants me to tune in to watch their ads, they need to stick with the facts and pass on the crying mother.

 

Similar but different - One of my section 8 tenants who I just told this summer that she was overloading my electric system by running 5 window a/c units (gotta love free electric, free heat, free rent, free food)..... her sister who apparently lived in a trailer, just burned it down yesterday morning by overloading her electric system. Good shit!

No insurance. Supposedly no $ for insurance, but they can afford cell phones, cigarettes, pierced faces, tattoos,

What a great system we have. (i have gotten off the original topic here....sorry...).

 

Scot, what's to keep your tenant who is overloading the system from burning down the house and sueing you? Could her lawyer not argue that because you knew she was overloading the system, warned her about it, but did nothing to upgrade it, that you are responsible?

I've seen our court system work and I've seen it fail and I honestly don't know what might happen in a case like that. You are after all the rich "slum lord" or at least would be sold to the jury like that.

 

I would think the fact that I warned her would be enough, but who knows. This particular tenant has actually "seen the light" (well supposedly)..... she called last night and said her sister overloaded hers and remembered me telling her about that..... said she was going to get renters insurance....so hopefully she actually does that. Renters insurance is about $65 a year.

I am not sure how you would upgrade a 1940 house to handle 5 f'ing a/c units. I just hope when all of these places do burn down that no one gets hurt.

People who seem semi normal at move in can certainly act in wierd ways. Why pay for OIL for the furnace when you can just leave the gas oven on full blast with the door open.

 

how do you overload the system?? aren't there fuses and circuit breakers that prevent that from happening??

 

maybe that was a poor choice of words..... plugging an a/c unit or space heater into a thin extension cord..... the thin extension cord gets overheated and sets the place on fire.

from what I understand (which may be wrong), when you plug in a strong unit to one outlet like that, with older wiring, it overheats the wiring in the house as well, even though not enough to trip the breaker...??

what the hell do I know???

 

O ya... is Her-Ass one word or two?????

 

In her case it should be Hair ass...

 

i'd say, change out the circuit breakers and fuses in the old house for lower ampage. sure it'll be annoying as hell to constantly burn out fuses and trip circuit breakers, but it certainly beats burning the house down.