QUESTION

Property damage to my 18 wheeler

Asked on Jul 24th, 2023 on Property Damage - Texas
More details to this question:
Purchased from an individual moved to storage yard. Was having work done on the APU system and in cab ac. Vehicle was parked at the site for a week waiting for work to be done. Had not registered yet, waiting on title from previous owner. Had not been able to get insurance for that reason. A licensed mechanic worked on it beginning May 30th. The day afterwards I received a call from the Mechanic stating that he would be finished by June 1st. On the morning of the 1st I received a phone call from the storage company to the effect that my truck had caught fire and burned to the ground. The mechanic has been unresponsive to date.
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1 ANSWER

Commercial Litigation Attorney serving Frisco, TX at Reid Dennis & Frick, PC
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Without knowing what caused the fire, it is going to be very difficult to identify someone who may be legally responsible for any damage.  The fire might have been caused by the negligence of the mechanic; but then again, it might not have.  It might have been caused by a defective condition of the 18 wheeler.  It might have been caused by vandals.  It might have been caused by some dangerous condition at the storage yard.  It might have been caused by a third party visiting the storage yard where it was parked.  One bad thing about fires is they often--but not always--destroy whatever evidence may exist as to what caused the fire in the first.A business owner, like the mechanic, is not an insurer of your property.  That's why you should have gotten an insurance policy before taking possession of the 18 wheeler.  Ordinarily, a buyer would do this with his insurance agent at the seller's place of business.  You must have insurance in force to complete the registration of your new 18 wheeler.Most insurance companies offer a grave period from one week to one month if you replace a covered vehicle with a newly purchased vehicle.  But more than one month has passed since the fire, so that's unlikely to help you in this scenario.Before wasting the money to hire an attorney, you need to conduct a thorough investigation into what caused the fire that caused your truck to burn down.  A decent fire investigator can cost $15,00-25,000, but there is no guarantee that one will be able to determine the cause, especially this long after the fire occurred.
Answered on Jul 24th, 2023 at 1:17 PM

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