Ottawa family still living in trailer 6 months after house fire

CTV Ottawa: Insurance runaround after fire Vars family living in a trailer six months after fire destroyed their home. Joanne Schnurr reports.

Their house was gutted by fire nearly six months ago, but an Ottawa family is still waiting to move back home. The Nezans, their 9 year old son and dog have been living in a trailer on their property since then, waiting for the insurance company to rebuild. And winter is fast approaching.

It is a cozy inside their trailer and the Nezans know they're lucky to have it.  Still, six months of living in a recreational vehicle is taking a toll.

"I’m getting tired, sorry,” says a very emotional Carole Nezan outside the burned out shell of their Vars home, “It’s taking a toll on us, especially with the cold weather coming.  It’s hard.”

April 2nd of this year, Carole was alone in their house with the dog when the smoke alarms went off.  She managed to escape, called 911 and her husband.

"We lost everything in the house,” says husband Yves Nezan, “(we were left with) nothing much more than the clothes on our backs

“Winter’s coming fast, I hope they start work soon,” says Nezan, as he goes through the burned-out house with his wife and son Mathieu.

The house was gutted.  They had nothing, but at least they had coverage through TD Insurance.

“We agreed to stay in our trailer for the summer period, never thinking for a second that it would take over six months but at this point they don't even have an estimate for rebuilding our home,” says Yves Nezan.

The Nezans have hired a third party, National Fire Adjustment, to help negotiate. The two sides are far apart in what they estimate the loss to be.

TD Insurance sent this response by email:

“Following the fire on April 2nd of this year an adjustor from TD Insurance was assigned to the case and an independent adjustor from Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc. Ottawa visited the property within 24 hours. A cheque was issued to the customers to assist with contents replacement. At that time, the customers decided to stay on their property, in their own recreational vehicle while collecting funds for temporary accommodations from TD Insurance.

The customers hired a third-party to represent them in this process, before any assessments or settlement offers had been made. As a result all communication between TD Insurance and the customer must go through the third-party, per the customer's request.

The independent adjustor has since revisited the property to assess the damage. TD Insurance has made offers for repairs to the home and contents replacement and been in touch with the customer's third-partyadjustor about once a week since the date of loss. Processing of this claim was not delayed by claims from other areas. Because there is disagreement all parties have agreed to enter into an assessment process which is due to begin shortly. In the meantime, TD Insurance will continue to make payments for temporary accommodation to the customers,” Huma Pabani, with TD Bank Group Corporate and Public Affairs.

The Nezans, however, see things differently.

“There doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel,” says Yves Nezan.  “The cold weather is now here, we're living in a trailer for the last 6 months.  Things are not looking up, the insurance isn't cooperating with us.”

TD Insurance says that appraisal process will start soon but the Nezans say the insurance company is refusing to even set a date for that to happen.