My apartment was destroyed by fire how much do i sue for?

I was not at home and some people were working on removing lead from by apt ,major construction,basically the landlord hired a contractor and the fire report i got said that and electrically saw started the whole thing,these guys ran after the fire was started an left my apt burning for however long till my neighbor called 911 ,now trying to reach the landlord is futile i keep getting messages that they will call me back i have no insurance and i lost everything what do i do?PLEASE HELP

tortuga coincidently they are illegals immigrants the contractor didn't have any proof or documentation for the workers who were on the job ,they were founded to be inexperienced

Your lack of renter insurance has nothing to do with who is at fault, and it certainly isn't YOUR fault.

You can sue the contractor, each supervisor and employee (John Doe #1, #2...), the landlord (for negligent hiring and supervision), the manufacturer and distributor of any defective product that caused the electrical fire, anyone who tried to repair the defective product before it caused the fire, the fire alarm company, the sprinkler installer, the building maintenance people who should have installed and maintained alarms and sprinklers (if required), the electrician who failed to provide adequate overcurrent or arc protection in your apartment, and anyone else whose negligence caused your damages or increased the amount of damage to your property.

Hopefully one or more of these defendants will have insurance that will cover your loss and the case will settle quickly.

If you had had your own insurance, the insurance company would have calculated its risk based upon the value of your stuff, set your premium accordingly and would pay your claim and then decide which people to sue on your behalf.

I gave a thumbs up to DLK for the best answer concerning renter's insurance. You can try to find a lawyer and sue, but I doubt you'll have much luck finding a competent lawyer who will take it. An apartment catching fire is NOT the liability of the landlord or owner. That's the reason why renter's insurance is available (and not terribly expensive). If your possessions weren't important enough for you to take steps to protect them, then why would they be any more important to a landlord?

So, to win a lawsuit, you would have to prove in court that the landlord, or his contractors, were blatantly negligent by actions that certainly would be known to cause a fire. Plugging in a defective electric saw is not considered negligence. I wish there was a gentler way to say that you're out of luck, but that's essentially the gist of it.

All the people saying you're out of luck because you didn't have renter's insurance don't know what they're talking about. In this particular case, if you had insurance, the insurance company would have taken the various people at fault to court for you and recovered whatever they could to cover your losses. Instead, you need to do it yourself. Sue the contractor and the landlord for not following their duty of care. You almost certainly need a lawyer for this.

If you don't have renter's insurance your SOL on your personal property. As a tenant, you don't have any rights regarding who the landlord can hire for contracting work. The only case you would have would be to sue your landlord, however, the contractors would have to be on certified, illegals, etc..... If your landlord hired a legit contracting firm, you have nada. You might have to chalk up to "live and learn". Renters insurance is very inexpensive, especially compared to auto insurance. Sorry.

Weeeeell, this is why most lease agreements state that you need to carry renter's insurance. It's only a couple hundred dollars a year and covers things like this. I remember when we had a fire at my house, our renter's insurance paid for us to rent another house while repairs were being done. You need to contact a lawyer and find out whether you have a case or not. Chances are, you won't end up suing the landlord, you'll end up suing the contractor who screwed up. This is why all contractors are required to have insurance. Let's just hope that the landlord didn't hire illegal Mexicans to do the labor... then again, if they did, then it swings back around and you CAN sue the landlord after all.

The most you could possible have a claim for is the value of the contents (NOT replacement cost) plus the cost of temporary housing until the landlord can provide substitute housing. As others have stated, without renters insurance, you probably won't get anything for the contents. Most leases specifically require you to insure contents, the rest strongly recommend it.

wow, what a huge problem

You are supposed to have renters insurance, it only costs about $100 a year, why you didnt spend the cash..i dont know. That is supposed to protect you.

You may not get anything at all, but you deffinitly want to contact a lawyer and see if they were at fault.

Depending on the value of your items, you might be able to sue to get your items back, if they were at fault, gather up your evidence and get ready to go to court.

YOu didn't need renters insurance..don't listen to half of these ppl on here... You need to call a lawyer and try your best to figure out what you had , what was ruined in the fire and what it was worth ... make a list ..if the fire was your fault then you would need renters insurance ..but since it wasnt you have nothign to worry about ... sue them and get what you deserve.

The first response you are gonna get when you DO get a hold on someone is "did you have renters insurance?" No, you didnt. So if you are gonna try to sue someone, you are gonna have to prove neglect on thier part. Whatever happens, this is not going to be settled any time soon so I wouldnt count on any money to help you with your current expenses.
Good luck.

Yeah like he said, you don't have renter's insurance so you're pretty much screwed.

Sucks, but it's the way it is. On the flip side, renter's insurance is surprisingly cheap (at least where I am), so definitely look into that next time around.

Hope you get something back, gluck. ;(

Actually it is your fault for not having renters insurance. I am very sorry for your loss, and sometimes these hard lessons will make you think more responsibly in the future. If you rent, always get renters insurance, it is actually cheap compared to memories you may loose.

You can't really sue them for much... Maybe a little bit because they ran and didn't call 911, but it's your fault that u didnt have insurance.

sue for what you think your entitled to, maybe what your apt. is worth, your belongings and maybe something else

Sue for the contents and any costs of temporary housing until you get settled. That's all you're entitled to recover for

You are out of luck. No insurance, no claim. Visit your local goodwill store.

If you didn't have renters insurance, than you're out of luck. Sorry.

Get a lawyer but since you have no insurance it might be a hard case to get your money back...=(

u have no insurance?????? first, make sure to get insurance next time. consult a lawyer about ur odds of winning the lawsuit.

sue for a million bucks