Property Law #2: Tenancy Law - fire insurance

One of our client's tenanted factory has recently got burnt down, and he isn't covered by fire insurance! He suspected it was an act of arson by someone he knew, and he asked me for advice.

First thing i told him, go to a lawyer for professional advice. To my best knowledge, this is what he can do:

(1) Report police and let the police the investigate the cause of fire
(2) Cancel the existing tenancy, and full refund the deposits collected as the building has already become unfit for occupancy
(3) Fork up own money to repair/rebuild the factory building
(4) Should the police found any evidence of arson and suspect, you may then sought legal advice on the possibility of lodging a civil suit against the offender asking for compensation. Can you get back the compensation from that suspect? More often not, nobody can give you a definite answer.

All property are made compulsory to renew fire insurance by the financial consitution if your property is still charged to the bank. Problems occurs when the owners has finished pay up the owning and the property become free of any encumbrances, many owners from then on forget to renew their fire insurance on a yearly basis.

Did you find the above tedious especially when it comes to getting compensation? Yes, they are very tedious, so, PLEASE ALWAYS PURCHASE AND RENEW YOUR FIRE INSURANCE AGAINST YOUR BUILDING EVERY YEAR!