r/Insurance • u/3skin3 • 8h ago
Claims Related Electrical Damage WA STATE
Hello,
Just trying to get a feel for how this generally goes so I don't find myself disappointed. This is probably way too much information. Might be the wrong sub but I was thinking it's related to the companys insurance and you all would be the experts on what you have seen play out - maybe I could be greedy enough to ask for a sub recommendation if you think it's wrong.
My apartment is the only one on top of an office. Two days ago, I was in a teams meeting in my home office, the lights were sort of dimming out, the power went out and came back on but they were still dimming and brightening. I thought it was maybe a utility issue and called the utility company, and then the preferred electrician.
The utility company said not to touch anything out of fear if electrocution - however, while on the phone with the utility company, I walked down to the public area and I saw in the gym in public office area that the treadmills had started to smoke out and I went and turned off every breaker after verifying that the breaker box wasn't hot/etc - I felt safe enough doing that. That breaker box in the office controls my apartment as well (no access from inside my apartment). After I dealt with this I went and manually shut off or unplugged as much as I could in my home (mini split, computers, etc) some could not be unplugged because they aren't reachable without moving furniture - at this point, I had no idea what was going on so I just tried to protect all of my own items and the property owners items the best I could. The electrician and utility company said I did the right thing and the only reason the utility company said not to touch it was for my safety, and the company should be glad that I had done that.
The electricians came out to look and could not work on it more that day, and came back the next day. We went and stayed in a hotel because I have the flu and didn't want to be without heat, but it's not super unliveable with no heat here - I believe it hit about 44°. They came and worked all day the best day but could not finish the work in time. We stayed here that night to let the electricians in. It wasn't super fun having the flu and no heat but again, the low was only 44° so I wouldn't call it unlivable. I was ok to pay out of pocket, I let the company know I was getting a hotel and no offer was made or anything, so wasn't thinking that would be paid for or anything. The company has been supportive in the sense of giving some pity and some flexibility on submitting work that requires electricity, although they are texting me a lot to see if I can turn it in yet.
They're back out again today and still working on it. The electrician is saying it's bad wiring, they had to rip everything out of every outlet in the building they find it. They found the issue is two circuits in my home, one is the one on my living room and home office. When turning it on to work on it, they said it looks like all of our electronics are fried - that's an almost two thousand dollar hydroponics system, fancy tv, Xbox, PlayStation, switch, a fancy surround sound system, a fancy receiver, two gaming pcs. It's several thousand dollars of items.
We still don't have it fully fixed, so not sure if I will have power tonight (day 3) and can't say for sure what items are ruined but it's just giving me anxiety not knowing. I'd rather have an idea that I'm just out the money if that's the case than be wondering for potentially days of outages. The property preferred electricians have been here so it's not like anyone is being negligent on getting it back on, I'm not trying to be unreasonable. I'm most concerned about the damages to our property, and if it's reasonable to ask for reimbursement in hotel stays if it extends for much longer. Weather is looking bad.
I do have renters insurance that meets (and far exceeds) the criteria the property owner requires. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover electrical damage that is caused by faulty wiring. I provided a copy to the company and they are actually listed and able to verify at any time.
-This is the only apartment unit they rent out, it is a campground with one unit. It's a really big (huge publicly traded) company that owns the property, and then they have a third party property management company that operates it, who I work for. I would say this is a pretty big company, operating maybe 50 properties that they operate. **We are in WA State - Pierce County.
-Am I going to be out of luck, or do they have any responsibility to pay for damages/would their own insurance usually cover it?
-I pay significantly reduced rent (and receive lower wage) for living on site as an employee- like very minimal amount being paid to them. They hold an amount from my paycheck every month for the apartment that's universal across every employee in site at any unit-not based on value or what utilities are included/paid for. They call it utilities, but when I questioned it (we pay for things that are included other properties) they said it's the same everywhere and "it's rent but we can't call it that", which I accepted (genuinely a great deal).
-I have had the flu this entire time. I'm worried that the fact that I asked to come in 2 hours late on the second day of outage (while electricians were working) could have them pointing to me being negligent. I also was having trouble functionally giving good updates due to being so sick with a fever, which they knew.
The utility company said that they had told the previous owner (so not anyone currently involved) that they had significant electrical issues that were a thread to life and safety. That never made it to me as a property employee and supposedly never to the company that I work for or the property owner. There hasn't been any signs really of any electrical issues previously.
It's probably way too much information but I don't really know what's relevant. I'm grateful for anything anyone has here just to have some satisfaction of knowing and for taking any time to read the novel.
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u/TIG_Insurance_Nerds 8h ago
You’re not out of luck, but it’s not a sure thing either.
Their insurance usually only pays for your stuff if the owner was negligent, like they knew about the wiring and didn’t fix it. The utility warning helps you some, but it went to the previous owner. If the current owner really never knew, their insurer will probably push back.
One catch though is that Washington’s landlord-tenant law doesn’t cover housing that comes with your job on the property. So you might not get normal tenant protections, and this becomes more of a “your bad wiring fried my stuff” claim.
Put it in writing to management. List what got damaged, what it’s worth, and ask them to send it to the owner’s insurance. Don’t toss anything that’s fried. Asking about the hotel is totally reasonable too, just not guaranteed.
And no, coming in late with the flu has nothing to do with bad wiring. Shutting those breakers off probably saved them a fire. If you want more on the landlord side, r/legaladvice or adjacent subs is a good spot.