My brother is schizophrenic. He is 26 years old.
Yesterday, he said he lit a fire to "delete" his room after demons told him to do so. He was hallucinating, snapped out of it at the sight of the flames, and fled in fear. I was home when I heard him yell "There's about to be a fire, get out now!" My father was home too and we tried putting out the flames with an extinguisher but it was too big. I called 911 and firemen arrived quickly. They let us know later that my brother used a gasoline can in his room to start the fire. The fire was contained to only one room, but our house has terrible smoke smells and soot all over. His room is destroyed, the carpet is burned badly and it reeks like gasoline on the entire floor upstairs.
We are looking into our insurance company with AAA and several cleaning companies have knocked on our door to let us know they could help and they work with insurances. Each time, they say insurance does not cover arson. We have full dwelling coverage with AAA home insurance, but I see online that AAA does not cover arson. But we did not deliberately start this fire. My brother did it and he is in jail right now.
Has anyone had anything like this? I called the police department and they said they could not provide me with a police report since I was not directly involved in the crime. My brother cannot get one either until it is his court date.
I am so lost on what to do. My parents are the policy holders, and they are terrible with technology so I have to be the one to research, communicate, and more. I am 23. I really need help with trying to sort everything.
My Brother Set My House On Fire
byu/Disastrous-Thanks531 inInsurance
Posted by Disastrous-Thanks531
2 Comments
Another issue here is that your brother is likely considered an insured under the policy and intentional acts are often excluded from coverage. This would likely be considered an intentional act. One thing you can do is call the customer service department and ask for them to send you the actual policy language and you can review it. Stay on the line with them until you get it emailed as they often times will send you just the declarations page. The actual policy should be 25-30+ pages.
I am sorry this happened, especially because it is not likely to be covered, but at least you can review the policy to make sure. Your insurance should also send out a letter quoting the policy language that outlines why it will not be covered.
Those cleaning companies don’t have a clue as to what your policy provides. Did the policy holder commit arson? As you said, no. Was your brother in a state of mind that he could commit arson? Probably not. If a 5 year old struck a match and caught the house on fire, same thing… they don’t have the mental capacity to knowingly commit arson. Same thing with intention act. Your carrier might disagree but I’d say I am correct.