Legal advice needed!!!

Okay so I went to the store one night to get stuff to make dinner my mom was on her way home from work at the time and I was trying to do something nice for my mom now this is where my story starts I come home and walk in the kitchen set everything down and grab what I needed to get started I grabbed a big dish and set it on the stove then I grabbed a pot to boil water and then proceeded to turn on the burners our stove is old and electric it hadn’t been replaced since the late 80’s the front burners were notorious for sparking up in the igniter underneath the stove i tried not to think anything of it and sprayed the cooking spray in the glass dish i grabbed the pot and turned around to put some water in it as i went to put water in it i turned around to check the stove and about a half a sec later it went up in flames i panicked i grabbed the mini fire extinguishers to put out the fire as quick as possible as i went to grab the fire extinguishers i didn’t notice the plastic latch to unhook to item off the wall and it snapped from force and hit me and lacerated my eye brow i was still able to to think on my feet though mildly delirious i put the flames out on the stove but noticed the ventilation fan and the pipes above were still on fire by that time i opened up the house and the cops and fire department were outside ready to assist………now the thing is that my landlord is trying to sue for the damages to the apartment a new stove was installed and a new ventilation fan everything else like cabinets and walls needed to be sanded and repainted yet they are still charging us for the bill of $2300-$2400 dollars and I believe it is incredibly unfair any help would be greatly appreciated I’m scared and can not afford to pay for something that was started because of a spark under the stove the fire department labeled it as a grease fire because of the cooking spray and there was a large amount of grease deposit under the stove and the ventilation fan sorry for my bad English I need some advice

Answer #1

OK, I need to be rather blunt here:

You need to get face to face legal advice from someone who is legally competent, and properly qualified, to give you some sort of help in mitigating your responsibility for this unfortunate accident.

Forget about weaving any convoluted irrelevances about “….. doing something nice for ….. “ your Mom;

I am sorry to say that (as far as I am concerned), it would seem equally plausible that you:

messed up by coming home after a night out; decided to make yourself some supper; failed to take necessary precautions (and possibly fell asleep in a drunken stupor);

….. and thus left unsupervised cooking equipment turned full on, until it almost burned the building down (with you in it), save for the timely intervention of the Police and Fire Services.

You need to stick to the facts as they can be established beyond doubt.
Those facts MAY include:

that the cooker was excessively old, to the point of dangerous obsolescence, and THAT ALONE caused the dangerous and costly fire.

If the Landlord was responsible for that cooker’s maintenance and/or routine replacement before it became a potential fire hazard, then the Landlord MAY be legally responsible for the entire costs of replacements and refurbishment.

A lot will depend on the terms and conditions of your Tenant’s Agreement, and local legislation regarding (something along the lines of) a “Rental of Residential Property Act”,

which should state explicitly what the Landlord’s obligations are regarding maintenance of (potentially dangerous) equipment such as Electric & Gas Cookers.

PLEASE take proper legal advice as soon as possible, and good luck in sorting this unfortunate incident out.

Answer #2

All of what Estragon said. If you can’t afford a lawyer, there may be a Legal Aid or a Legal Assistance office in your town that can give you free or pro-rated help. Good Luck.

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