A fire broke out on my building confined to the 3F but causing extensive smoke and soot damage, thank the gods my smoke alarms worked and no one was hurt! The first immediate call was from my 1st f tenants screaming at me. I live long distance. The second call, within the hour was from Chris Persky who was on the pavement talking to my tenants and calming them down: he explained to me who he was and what he could do for me. I had no idea what an adjuster did, I somehow trusted him over the phone mostly because of how he was dealing w. the tenants in real time there. On the 3rd day after he began working for me, I signed a contract with him. I am truly glad he was there, I feel very lucky he was! The ensuing ordeal to bring my place back to livable condition (3 apartments +store) took about a year and a half. The insurance company was horrid but Chris stuck with it every step of the way to get my max. I am going to outline here the entire process for the benefit of anyone who might end up having a fire like mine, steep learning curve and how could a single building owner like me know all these things? it's my only property and at the time I was living long distance.
My 1st F tenants were always extremely difficult, asking for give backs and improvements, mean and nasty, abusive to workers I sent it. Nightmare! Their floor, was untouched by the fire but from the get go, I could see their brains working on trying to get the most $ they could from me and making trouble which they did big time. For them, I would need a lawyer and 8 months loss of rent and misery to evict them. Chris, bless his soul, "got them" from the word go, was a perfect gentlemen with them, explaining what their rights were and giving them help and advice. They tried their hardest extort things from us. Chris became my emotional support during my dealings while they tried every devious trick in the book to make things hard for me: I had sympathy for them, but they wore it totally out! Chris had the place cleaned for them top to bottom but they complained it was not a good job and so we had it cleaned again, yet they were difficult allowing access.
Red Cross dealt with anyone with housing issues; my 2F tenant had apartment insurance and therefore got housing. They had to leave all the personal effects which were under lock down in my place. Chris helped them with all their concerns and I felt so relieved to have him do this. He dealt with ALL their concerns. These tenant issues alone? were worth his fee.
Chris called in a demo company. This was a bit confusing for me, I somehow thought that this group was sent by the insurance company to keep the cost down. That was not the case: it was a company known to Chris that then, I hired to do the work. The only bad thing about this company was that they should have tested for asbestos because it later showed up in the hallway plaster but they got the job within 2 weeks.
My 1f tenants decided they did not want to re-occupy the space which they had put major $ into (store and apartment combo) and sought to cause chaos with me, lobbing 5 different Violations against me, some absurd (mailbox not attached to wall). They were also very very nasty to me and to Chris but he never "cracked" and always reported to me the dialogues he had with them.
Then, asbestos was found in the hallway: this is something no building owner wants to hear; this set back my renovation by about 3 months. The city steps in and drives the process. Chris got the insurance company to pay out money for the remediation; did not fully cover it btw, but honestly? I did not expect I would get anything for that. (PS Big Apple remediation were fantastic! see my review of them)
During this entire process, Chris was ALWAYS responsive! most often answering me within minutes. I can't tell you how important this was to me and kept me calm and like there was really someone there to help.
There was some tension over the fact that the insurance company wanted only to pay to "put things back as they were" and not, for instance, pay for updating the electrical which may have been damaged by the fire. They wanted me to simply "clean" the soot, prime and repaint. I ended up doing substantial upgrades to the space that made it safer. Chris understood this and we worked to get my max payout.
The other thing was that the process dragged on forever for many reasons, Seneca Insurance (don't use them!) was the worst on getting me my money and this DELAYED my renovation by months and months! my contractor of course would not work without money so I lost more months of rent that was necessary. Chris did get me the max of rental loss which if I had fully understood my insurance company is not a full payout but a % on the total. (make sure you understand this part of your insurance policy). In closing? Chris and Anton where GREAT available 24/7 as stated by others and that was truly amazing! You would be lucky to have Chris on your job. read more