Policy note
Fire and smoke in a terraced house
Fire is more than flame. Smoke, soot and the water used to put a fire out are damage the same section deals with.
What follows is the ordinary position at Noorderdijk. The policy schedule and the conditions document together are what a claim is assessed against, and where this note and those documents differ, those documents are the ones that count.
A terraced house shares two walls, so damage that starts next door can finish here. The conditions treat a party wall as part of the building it stands in.
02
What the policy covers here
- Damage from flame, heat, smoke and soot.
- Damage done putting the fire out, water and forced entry included.
- Scorching from an appliance, a candle or a heater.
- Clearing and disposing of what burned.
03
What it does not cover here
- Scorching from something meant to be hot, such as an iron set down on a worktop.
- Damage in a building where a chimney was not swept as the conditions ask.
- Heat without fire, such as a radiator marking a floor.
The fire service writes a report on anything it attends, and that report answers most of what a claim about a fire has to establish.