Help! Apt manager freaking out about electric setup, legal issues

TallDan said:

Then I suspect that if you are a landlord or property manager, you have a bad problem with insomnia. The bottom line is that there are million things that tenants do on a regular basis that you would not approve of, and you have no means of doing anything about. The least of your worries should be a homebrewer with a heatstick.

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And who do you think the insurance company will go after if something did happen and it was found to be the fault of that DIY heatstick, etc?

Nobody has mentioned there are a lot of people that think drinking is a sin. Making alcohol must be evil based on this revisionist history. Beware Baptists and Mormans.

I make sure my apartment managers know what I’m doing. Drop a hint in conversation, bring ‘em a beer if they seem interested. I have a seven photo essay detailing kitchen brewing. It is in a little photo album with captions. It saves a lot of stupid questions.

mattd2 said:

And who do you think the insurance company will go after if something did happen and it was found to be the fault of that DIY heatstick, etc?

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As discussed, unless you did something in malice, they wouldn't "go after" you, and it would be very difficult for them to prove if they decided to try. Accidents happen, which is why you have insurance. It doesn't matter if the cause of the loss was an accident with self-made homebrewing equipment, a candle or knocking a curling iron into the toilet. Don't believe me? Call your homeowners or renters insurance agent. I have had discussions similar to this with both my renters insurance agent and my homeowners insurance agent, and they're different agents in different states.

That said, if something bad does happen, you can expect that your insurance premiums to be pretty high in the future, so it's not an excuse to be stupid.

Don't forget negligence,TD. That makes it wide open territory for shysters.

Wynne, you forgot to add Moe. Alcohol is a decapitating offense like most everything is.

My wife and I got screwed out of tens of thousands of dollars by her insurance company. Our attorney basically said that they have lawyers on staff, fighting you for years doesn't really cost them anything, and they'll wear you down as long as they can before settling, they're earning interest on that money in the meanwhile. He was willing to wait it out with us and take them to court, stating that their horrid behavior sometimes made the jury mad an would give us a huge settlement. On the other hand, it wasn't worth our stress or time dealing with these snakes trying to screw us.

Your agent (read: salesperson) will NEVER relate this truth to you.

Experienced business owners have similar experiences, and will often do anything reasonable / legal to avoid dealing with the insurance sleazes.

Cyclman said:

My wife and I got screwed out of tens of thousands of dollars by her insurance company. Our attorney basically said that they have lawyers on staff, fighting you for years doesn't really cost them anything, and they'll wear you down as long as they can before settling, they're earning interest on that money in the meanwhile. He was willing to wait it out with us and take them to court, stating that their horrid behavior sometimes made the jury mad an would give us a huge settlement. On the other hand, it wasn't worth our stress or time dealing with these snakes trying to screw us.

Your agent (read: salesperson) will NEVER relate this truth to you.

Experienced business owners have similar experiences, and will often do anything reasonable / legal to avoid dealing with the insurance sleazes.

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My claims adjuster gave me the same vibe. She kept probing, and when I gave her even the smallest sliver of doubt, I had an arson investigator in my living room. During his search, it became apparent this guy was on a whole 'nother level. He knew exactly what he was looking for on behalf of his customer, and got a little frustrated when he couldn't find it.

Insurance claims are big money, so they'll fight tooth and nail to get out of paying. What I could have repaired for $3k in 2 weeks turned into a $35k fiasco that spanned 10 weeks. I offered several times to do it myself for $5k, but they refused adamantly.

Here. Read this: http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xbcr/justice/InsuranceTactics.pdf

Landlords and apartment managers understand this and are rightly reluctant to do anything that may involve a claim, especially if it would have a chance of being denied.



OP, glad to hear your situation is faring better than expected. Please keep us posted.