A dopey holidaymaker who 'smoked in bed' while boozing sent a property investor's rental flat up in flames - causing £12,000-worth of damage. Ryan Luke's company offers short-stay rentals and he had let the two-bedroom flat in Durham to a young male when the accident happened in October.
The man is believed to have sent the mattress he was lay on up in flames by smoking a cigarette and drinking in bed, which soon set the property alight. Ryan says he was holidaying in Miami at the time of the accident when we received a call from his team to inform him about the extensive damage, which had 'fried' all of the electrics in the property.
The 38-year-old has now shared shocking photos of the scorched flat, including a disintegrated mattress, charred walls and melted carpet, as his company embarks on the renovation process. Ryan, from Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, said: "There was a youth in the property and whatever happened the mattress was set alight in his room and obviously it just got out of control and the property burned.
"We don't know the ins and outs but we can only assume he was maybe smoking on his bed or something like that and obviously the mattress has gone up. Alcohol was involved as well and whenever alcohol is involved that's when you get the problems.
"The fire brigade were there pretty quick from what I was told but the smoke damage was quite bad and the wiring throughout the property is all fried. I've had a couple of bad tenants that have left properties in pretty bad states but I've never had such major fire damage.
"Fire is a scary thing so I would never want it in any of my properties because it's obviously increasing the chances of someone getting seriously hurt. It will probably be about a £12,000 refurb. We need to get authorisation from the company that they're going to pay for it before we start the work."
The property investor owns, rents and manages around 375 houses and flats across England and Dubai and is looking to expand his business globally. The CEO and founder of Luke Stays runs many of his rental properties like 'mini hotels' on short-term leases with guests - often booked through third party companies as was the case in this instance - rather than having long-term tenants.
The damage from the fire means that the property now needs rewiring, new plasterboards, re-decorating and new carpets. Thankfully the kitchen and bathroom units survived the fire and just need the smoke residue cleaning off them, otherwise the refurb cost would be higher.
Ryan's team are now in the process of pursuing the cost of the renovation from the third-party company that booked the guest in before getting started on the work. Ryan said: "For me it's all about just making sure that everyone's alright, making sure there were no fatalities because obviously I wouldn't want that in any of my properties.
"But obviously once I've got to the bottom of that it's like 'who's paying for it, how quickly can we get it turned around and live again?' because at the end of the day it is a business. [I also thought] 'have we got any future guests due in that we need to make aware that they might not be able to stay?' - in this case we didn't because he was booked in for quite a while.
"Our guest isn't the person in the property in this case, it's [the third party company] who have a representative that we speak to. So they have to then relocate or decide what they want to do with that person because that's not our problem.
"The damage is hopefully getting reimbursed by them. Failure of them to pay it goes onto the building's insurance to get it all sorted. My team are pretty good, they know how to react and handle these things."
