House uninhabitable due to fire at neighbor's house - Who bears the costs?

Your brother should inquire at the city or church. In our community, there is an apartment for emergencies and the church congregation has an emergency fund with a few euros.

Two or three years ago, an electrical device caught fire in a house here. The expert determined what needs to be disposed of, cleaned, treated with ozone, or renovated.
Maybe it won’t be that bad and most of it can be quickly taken care of.

As long as no people have been harmed, it is just annoying.

Hi,

the kid torches the place, but the duty of supervision was not violated? Interesting

That can definitely happen. Children under 7 years old have almost complete free rein, and at the same time, legally from ages 4-5 you no longer have to keep children under constant supervision and are allowed to take your eyes off them for a few minutes. If they then run away from the garden and scratch the neighbor’s car with a stone or set fire to the garden shed with a found lighter, it can well be that the injured party ends up empty-handed at least legally...

Best regards,
Andreas

Such a thing can definitely happen. Children under 7 years have almost complete freedom to do as they please, and at the same time, legally from 4-5 years old you no longer have to watch the children constantly

That's how I know it too, the law!

Hi,

Your brother should inquire at the city or church. In our community, there is an apartment for emergencies and the church congregation has an emergency fund with a few euros.

Two or three years ago, an electrical appliance caught fire in a house here. The appraiser determined what needed to be disposed of, cleaned, treated with ozone, or renovated.
Maybe it won't be that bad and most of it can be quickly removed.

As long as no one was hurt, it's just annoying

The idea is not bad at all, thanks. Currently, the four of them are living in the guest room of friends, which obviously can’t be permanent. And they would like to stay in Heidelberg so they can handle the whole appraiser and insurance battle locally and also so that child 1 can continue going to kindergarten. That way, at least he has some normality. Otherwise, we would have taken them in yesterday already.

One can only agree with your last sentence... they got out unharmed, it could have ended very differently. That’s all that matters!

Best regards,

Andreas

Here, the liability insurance of the person responsible or the homeowner applies. Every homeowner should have this, after all. It may be that your brother's own insurance makes an advance payment and later recovers the money from the person responsible or their insurance. He can easily find this out with a call to his insurance company. Everything can be found out in 30 seconds using a search engine.

The child sets the place on fire, but the duty of supervision was not violated? Interesting

Sure, it can happen very quickly:
You go to the bathroom, meanwhile the child runs to the stove and plays with the knobs. After your trip to the bathroom, you call the child to you to go outside as planned. It can be that simple.

This case here is of course completely different and very tragic. I also think that with a few phone calls, at least from an insurance perspective, a good overview can be obtained. They will tell you who is usually responsible. After that, you have to see what to do next.