A short story about an exploding townhouse - advice appreciated ...

Hi all ...

I'm looking for advice/tips/anything you think could help with my little situation ...

I own an investment property at Southport on the Gold Coast - a townhouse in a complex of ten ... and a week or two ago the adjoining townhouse exploded.

Yes, I'm serious. A 9kg gas cylinder in the upstairs bedroom leaked throughout the townhouse then something set it off and BOOM!!

It blew off roof tiles, blew out the garage door etc ... here's a charming little news article about it, pictures included. As you look at the first picture, my townhouse is the one (barely visible) on the left:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...on-on-gold-coast/story-e6freoof-1226585160794

My townhouse, being connected, has also been damaged - blown out windows, all architraves knocked loose, walls now moving, tiles blown off the bathroom wall, and where that didn't happen, the grout was blown out. I could go on, but I won't ...

I'm going down on Saturday to look around, document, list issues ... now, obviously, this sort of thing doesn't happen everyday, and I've certainly never had an insurance claim of this magnitude on my hands ... I would really appreciate any tips anyone might have on what to look out for, what to include in my claim - you name it. If you're not sure it's relevant, or think it's obvious - include it anyway.

I'm still a tad shellshocked and I don't know what I don't know, so I thought I'd appeal to the best property information source I know ...

Thanks all - your help will be greatly appreciated!!
 
Contact your insurance company.

Make sure you are there when the assessor visits, then you can discuss the issues directly.

If the unit is uninhabitable (and it sounds as if it would be) then the tenant can break the lease. Your landlord insurance should cover the subsequent loss of rent.
Marg
 
Thanks for the advice!!

Thank you Marg. Hadn't even thought about that (not sure why, it's so OBVIOUS!). Tenants haven't moved it, but I think there's a cultural issue there, and they aren't understanding their rights - going to try and clear it up with them today.

Greenmedallion - nope, no clandestine drug lab! There's one particular tenant in the complex who likes to start stories ... I suspect that's where the 'kitchen' story came from. The cops have debunked that, and I think she's responsible for the new attempted suicide story. Nasty piece of work ... and the last thing the poor guy will need when he gets out of hospital (50% burns - ouch!!) ...

Ed - can you believe it? Just wish it had happened someplace else ... It must have been leaking for ages to cause such a large explosion - of course the gas canister itself survived the explosion ... perhaps it had emptied by then?

Thanks for the advice guys ... considering I only have two investment properties, I really don't think I should be sitting on three insurance claims at the moment ... (the other one has hail damage, cracked roof tiles, internal leaks, busted patio cover, really, not even worth mentioning in comparison) :D

If I get through these claims in one piece, I think I'll buy some more investment properties!!
 
Good luck with the repairs, hard to forecast a risk like that!

I don't quite know what it is about Southport but even for the Gold Coast there seems to be.. and putting it as nicely as I can, elevated tenant risk. I've inspected a number of strata properties there recently and what I saw in terms of tenants living was as bad as anything I've seen.

I think it's quite an interesting prospect at the moment, so hope you get some excellent capital growth to compensate.
 
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