After the fire, or burst pipe, or dog bite, renter's insurance softens the blow

LACONIA — Jill Parliman was asleep on the night of Sunday, May 30, when fire broke out in another apartment in the building at 180 Union Avenue where she had been renting.

“When I woke up I couldn’t see anything, the floor under my feet was very hot,” she said. Parliman, a single mother, said the scene was “just chaos.” She was panicking, trying to get her daughter to flee the building while also searching for their cat, and trying to navigate the apartment in the darkness.

“It’s horrifying, even if you don’t see the flames, because you don’t know what you’ll see when you turn the corner,” Parliman said. “And what happens after is worse… Ever since then, it’s been hell.”

Parliman said she makes more than enough money to afford rent, but can’t find a property that will take her. The Red Cross gave her $500 to pay for emergency housing, but that doesn’t help her find an available unit. For weeks, she and her daughter have been staying in a car or a tent.

“I’ve worked really hard my whole life, and I’m homeless. It’s been very tough, picking up the pieces.”

It’s a heartbreaking story, but one that Laconia Fire Chief Kirk Beattie said he has heard too many times.

“We had a very busy April and May. We had a lot of fires, multiple fires in rental units, multi-family apartment buildings. We find very few people, less than 10% of the people we see, have some form of rental insurance,” Beattie said. During that two-month period, nearly 50 people were displaced in Laconia. While most people think about the safety risk associated with a fire, most people don’t realize how devastating it can be even if no one gets hurt.

“We run into this a lot where we have displaced tenants, they are looking for a place to stay, they need to replace their stuff, it’s very stressful on the occupants,” Beattie said.

About half of the fires in Laconia occur in multi-family structures, Beattie said. Even if the fire is contained to a small part of the building – that was the case in the 180 Union Avenue fire – it often renders the rest of the building uninhabitable.

In Parliman’s case, she said her insurance provider incorrectly dropped her rental insurance during a recent coverage upgrade, and that she is seeking relief through probate court. The fire never reached her unit, but the smoke did and she lost more than half of her belongings due to smoke damage. That which she salvaged from her apartment is in storage until she can find a place to stay.

Beattie said that many people assume that the property owner’s insurance will cover them, but it won’t. Some also assume that the Red Cross will take care of them, but that organization is usually only able to provide help for two or three nights.

It doesn’t take a fire, either, to cause a renter’s nightmare. A plumbing catastrophe can have a similar effect.

“We run into a lot of water issues,” said Beattie. It can be an overflowing bathtub in a top-floor apartment, or a pipe that bursts in the winter. “People end up losing all of their stuff, or people have nowhere to stay.”

Randy Eifert, executive vice president at Melcher and Prescott, said renter’s insurance is rarely purchased, yet is surprisingly affordable for the coverage it provides.

“The cost is really low, only a few hundred bucks a year, as low as $10 to $15 per month, maybe $20 per month. It’s good to have, not just for fires,” said Eifert. For example, his daughter lost her luggage during an overseas trip, and her rental policy paid to replace all of it. “It doesn’t just cover your claim when you’re in your apartment, it covers you worldwide… And property is only one of the things. It also covers liability. If someone gets injured inside the apartment, if there’s a dog that nips somebody, it covers that.”

Parliman said she is still traumatized by the fire, nearly two months later.

“I drive by there on my way to work every day. I wish I could find another way – I don’t ever want to look at it again,” Parliman said.