Hi - I was unfortunate to come home early from a holiday yesterday as my next door neighbour had called me to to tell me my house was on fire. Kitchen and room above ceiling destroyed and severe smoke damage through out the rest of the house. I have a 500 system 555/552/500 and Kudos 606 with superlumina and uniti core in the lounge next to the kitchen where the main fire was . I can only assume my kit is damaged having not being able to assess the kit as i cant stay at the property due to the smoke damage. I have decent insurance so would i expect a new replacement or some sort of repair ? We did take my sons PS5 to his nanas where we are staying and whilst it works it stinks the room out with an acrid smoke smell. Any advice appreciated
Sorry to hear this.
If you haven’t already you should speak to your insurance company.
Hi and thanks . I’m about to see them in the next day or 2 , just interested for advice pre chat of any similar experiences
So sorry to hear of your awful news.
Did the fire engulf the room where the hi-fi was, or was it just smoke?
If not I’d be hopeful unless there’s water damage from attempts to extinguish the fire affecting the kit that it’s maybe all ok apart from smokey smells?
Good luck, and I guess the insurace specifics are all down to policy details.
I’m no expect but assuming heat wasn’t too high, I would have thought some sort of debris (e.g. carbon) would be all around the circuit boards, but I would have thought they might just need to be cleaned professionally with something like IPA. As they are under insurance, it might be they pay for them to go back to Naim for that - assuming they would do that. I’d probably drop an email Ito Naim support with photos and description of what happened and get their view.
Update: Hm the more I think about it, I’d say it’s an insurance job for the lot. Also there is no way you would ever get that smoke damage out of the speaker foams and cones.
If your insurer doesn’t initially agree to replace the items, they may want to use their appointed agents to assess, and possibly repair damaged components. At this point, you should absolutely refuse to allow anyone other than Naim service dept to open the boxes for assessment. If they object, contact Naim. I’m pretty sure that if they explain the complexities of opening and working on 500 series equipment they should be able to deter a third party from getting involved.
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Sorry to hear of this, OBHK.
In July 2020 our house was badly flooded with over a half a metre of rainwater.
Never having ever made a claim on our home and contents policy, we were apprehensive to say the least, in contacting our insurers to make a claim. From day one to fifteen months later after our house had been completely restored and we were handed back the keys, they and their appointed contractors were absolutely brilliant.
My wife and I lost a lot of irreplaceable ‘stuff’; me my LPs, original issues going back to the 60s, her, her unique cookery book collection. At the end of the day, though, upsetting though it was, it was just ‘stuff’.
As has been mentioned, your personal circumstances and situation will be governed by your insurance policy. In our case, most items were scrapped, deemed unrepairable or not replaceable, and we were financially compensated by independent loss adjusters, other items were professionally cleaned (crockery etc).
Good luck, I wish you well.
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What an awful experience. You have my sympathy and best wishes for a satisfactory outcome.
I have no direct experience of my own to draw on but a friend claimed for damage to speakers due to a burst pipe.
I would say two things. Firstly it is going to depend on what the cause of the fire was. Secondly, if your insurance covers your kit then get your dealer to inspect and evaluate it and to declare whether it is repairable or not. This will be regarded as an expert opinion and will carry weight with the insurance company. Of course you will be spending a good deal of money with your dealer to replace all your kit. If you follow my drift. Best of luck.
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We currently have a couple renting next door after their house had a fire. Even electrical items away from the source were written-off by smoke damage.
Initially the insurers were helpful, then loss adjusters got involved asking for receipts…….most were lost in the fire! They have been trying to-track down some via credit card online statements.
Best of luck🤞🏽
Sorry to hear of your misfortune. As others have advised, the first thing to do here is to let your house and contents insurers know about it.
As for smoke damage, anything that’s difficult or impossible to replace can often be recovered by undergoing ozone cleaning, which will remove the odour of smoke. Something worth looking into and discussing with the loss adjuster.
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When I was working in the IT industry, we were contacted by a specialist who handed cleaning of fire damaged equipment for the insurance industry. This was in order to test an item. Their process involved washing the item in a mild solvent and then drying. Surprisingly low tech. The item we were tasked with looking at was old and obsolete and did fail a few months later. So it was very difficult to conclude whether it was the age, fire damage or cleaning process that led to its final failure.
I would be pushing for new.
Sorry to hear about this, certainly not a nice thing to come home to, out of interest do you know what the cause was?
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OBHK what a horrible thing to happen. I have no direct experience however, I do recall from my past in Belfast during ‘The Troubles’ shops would occasionally suffer smoke damage from fire bombs and the like. I presume the insurers wrote the entire contents off as there would sometimes be fire sales with electrical goods sold for next to nothing and no guarantee. Hopefully your insurers will take a similar approach as any damage may only express itself long after the event. Cleaner for all parties to just right it off and start afresh. Hope this gets sorted promptly for you and your family.
Peter
We had a house fire nearly 20 years ago, Loewe Aconda tv caught fire. The insurance company loss adjuster came to assess the damage and instructed a salvafe/cleaning company called Munters. Because of the hi-fi value I put them in contact with the dealer that the Naim equipment came from. The view was that it would all be written off because even if it could be repaired or no damage was seen, there was no way to tell what the heat may have done to components, and that they may fail down the line. Books, LPs and Cds were all sent off for cleaning and smoke removal.
All walls were stripped and they used a special cleaner to remove the smoke smell.
Overall it took five months, all of the front windows were replaced, carpets, curtains, furniture, it went on and on.
Maintaining a good relationship with the loss adjustor was key, plus digging through for receipts and evidence.
I feel for you, best of luck. Hopefully you will come out of the other end in a better place.