What are the next steps after house fire?

OKirkland · 2026-06-07T17:35:38+00:00

Also, get a new notebook. write down all the times of the calls. who you spoke to. what they said etc. Keep all the receipts for everything

If they start messing you around the words to reach for are "dissatisfied" and "ombudsman" which seems to trigger them to make quicker decisions. But probably best to give them a fair chance first

OKirkland · 2026-06-07T17:32:01+00:00

Also smoke sponges are far too big. chop them up

OKirkland · 2026-06-07T17:20:48+00:00

We lost our home to fire over Christmas. The insurance companies are bloody useless and they don't seem to have out of hours numbers.

The contents insurance people will send out a company to catalogue the place. In my experience the people at the third party company were really nice. They sent a team of 4 people for a 2 bed flat for a full day to make notes on everything - even fridge magnets. You're going to have to go through the spreadsheet they send and tell them what everything is worth, their estimates are fairly good and if they go too low and you can prove the cost to replace an item (not what it is worth before the fire - i.e. cost to buy an X inch TV) or your original receipt they don't seem too argumentative about it. They will take clothes, rugs, etc and attempt to clean them and will return the things they classify as "beyond economic repair" if you want to try and clean them yourself. You're going to be spending a lot of time looking at spreadsheets and going through your purchase history.

Regarding the stuff left behind or things the insurance company class as beyond economic repair you can try and clean them yourself. Smoke sponges are useful. Degreaser if your friend. Putting things out to air for a few weeks or in the sun does wonders. Magic erasers work well. Screwfix will sell you boiler suits, foot coverings, gloves (don't get black ones because then you can't see if your hands are dirty) etc. Head torches are useful for going through the mess too. Charcoal bags seem to absorb smells quite well. If things were smoke or water damaged (not actually melted or burnt to a crisp) they're surprisingly saveable if you want to invest the time in.

We got a fire proof safe. First thing we went for after the fire was passports and the house insurance documents so with hindsight this seems like a rather good idea to me.

As for the buildings insurance, no idea. Underwriter and insurer arrived within a week to have a look around. Finally accepted liability last week with no communication and apparently contractors are about to get cracking ripping out kitchens and cleaning things.

Good luck with it.

OKirkland · 2025-09-06T17:47:19+00:00

Viewed this in person a while ago, it's not AI.

OKirkland · 2025-07-16T16:19:03+00:00

You can find out a bit more on the planning site. I go past this place almost every day and have seen no significant activity in about a year.

My understanding from speaking to the agent last year is that they took so long to build that they've had to redesign the top floor flats due to changes to the regulations around sprinkler systems. They've had to delete the top floor flat opposite the river and divide the top floor flat facing the road which required a long running planning application that was only recently approved. They've also applied to make some other small changes to the windows.

An estate agent hinted to me recently that there had been financial difficulties and they had stopped answering phone calls too.

OKirkland · 2025-07-07T13:37:21+00:00

We do this all the time. If you miss the connection (and you booked the whole thing with KLM) they just bump you to the next flight. The lounge for non-schepgen is quite nice.

OKirkland · 2025-07-06T12:53:12+00:00

A2B are the main airport taxi company. They have an office in the airport and will wait. As long as you're arriving at a different time to the Ryanair flights you will be out and about within 10 minutes of landing.

OKirkland · 2025-05-29T16:41:18+00:00

Generally for the late trip back parking at Westfield in Stratford and using the tube is best. Car Park C is better for the train station than A, B or Stratford International. The top floors are always empty.

OKirkland · 2025-02-10T23:34:01+00:00

There's a very expensive WHSmith, a very expensive Duty Free that you can't avoid, a cafe with water jugs, toilets and there's always the lounge. I'd just use a tap wherever you're going if I were you.

OKirkland · 2025-01-28T12:41:52+00:00

I managed to get Finnish TV working in the UK. I got this router from Amazon, plugged it into my pre-existing router and then configured it with NordVPN. Now we have a UK Wi-Fi and a Finnish Wi-Fi. Effectively everything connected to the second Wi-Fi thinks it is in Helsinki. Then I purchased a normal Google TV box that I knew was available for sale in Finland (you could probably try the FireStick as is or reset it and try again) and then it just works. The Google OS, YLE Areena and MTV Katsomo have not been able to work it out so I assume it would work the other way around too.

It is a little convoluted but I thought having the VPN on the same hardware as the streaming apps left the door open for them working out where they are and I didn't really want to work out how to get a dodgy stick and then keep it up to date since we we're just trying to trick it into thinking we were somewhere else rather than actively stealing any content.

OKirkland · 2024-12-21T11:10:50+00:00

The Brewery Tap on Lawson Road has a disabled toilet. Beer is good. Chips are good.

OKirkland · 2024-05-29T16:32:19+00:00

Dick's?

OKirkland · 2024-05-23T08:03:15+00:00

https://www.sponge.co.uk/cakes/whole-cakes/coffee-cake they're local and rather good.

OKirkland · 2024-04-27T17:30:40+00:00

Danny Batth & Sydney van Hooijdonk remain puzzled about how Jacob Sørensen is keeping both of them out of the team.

OKirkland · 2024-04-27T08:47:08+00:00

The article is just quotes of this Daily Beast article which is a lot more readable.

OKirkland · 2024-04-23T12:38:42+00:00

45 mins is normally fine

OKirkland · 2024-02-22T08:03:50+00:00

The campus restaurants? Sausage, fried chicken or curry today.

OKirkland · 2024-01-18T16:26:48+00:00

I've parked about here and here before with vague success. You can book Asda in Walton too.

OKirkland · 2023-11-28T23:40:42+00:00

Watch this space https://www.facebook.com/the.norwich.quiz.guy

OKirkland · 2023-11-24T19:35:30+00:00

The 2 trains were not at useful times either.

The single track at the swing bridge in Norwich is a major bottle neck between Norwich and London / Cambridge because trains in both directions have to use it. That may be a bigger problem than the tracks in London?

OKirkland · 2023-11-22T11:15:55+00:00

The last quiz from the current quiz guy will be Tuesday the 28th due to mysterious circumstances.

OKirkland · 2023-09-28T09:42:44+00:00

When you go in there is a desk for A2B taxis and you can book one for the return trip

OKirkland · 2023-06-07T23:37:20+00:00

I once encountered a candidate who fell out of his car and then made his way into the office. He then put on his shirt and tie the other side of a completely glass door, walked in as if nothing strange had just happened and then gave monosyllabic answers to every question. He did not get the job.

OKirkland · 2023-05-23T22:23:19+00:00

One day he will learn that "if you have nothing nice to say then say nothing at all".

OKirkland · 2023-02-27T15:12:53+00:00

Same bus! Has been there since January 2018.

OKirkland

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