Question
What is the name of your state? Minnesota
Our family rents the space for a small store that is joined with another store. The other store started on fire and was completely gutted, our store however only sustained smoke damage. The fire is under arson investigation. We do not have insurance (will obviously be getting it now). Do we have rights to claim any of our unsalvagable items (such as clothing) under the building owners insurance? Is the owner under any obligations to provide fire safety equipment (i.e. smoke alarms/ fire extinguishers) if so, and there were none, should we do something about that as well? Any help would be appreciated! Thank you in advance!
Answer
No, no & no. I'm sorry.
Unless you had a lease that provided any of these protections, no.
Once civil authority has released the scene, you may recover your belongings without regard to the insurers investigation of the arson loss. Civil authority is Police, Fire Marshall, Fire Dept, etc..
Claimlaw