A Grayslake family whose home was destroyed in a house fire faced a mountain of expenses to rebuild in wake of the disaster, including bills for a solar panel system that was destroyed in the blaze.
Last Christmas, Cassius Lyandisha's family home went up in flames after an oven inside malfunctioned while his daughter was home alone baking Christmas cookies.
“By the time we got here, everything was gone, like almost gone,” Lyandisha said. Lyandisha has lived in the home with his wife and two children for the past two years.
A neighbor assisted Lyandisha's daughter out of the burning home during the fire, but the family's two cats did not survive the blaze.
“This was the sun room and we also had a second kitchen here,” Lyandisha said, referring to the charred remnants of the additions and renovations he had made to the home prior to the fire.
Lyandisha knew rebuilding the home as it was would be expensive, which included a pool, boat, second kitchen and other additions.
Local
“It was extremely, you know, stressful. [I] increased my blood pressure medication,” Lyandisha said.
Among the home's additions lost in the fire was a solar panel system worth $81,000 that had been installed just weeks before the fire.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.
The system failed its most recent county inspection however, so it was not operational or insured.
Despite the panels being unsalvageable from the fire, Lyandisha received a bill for the system just days after the blaze.
"There's no way we can keep paying all this kind of money on something that was never completed," Lyandisha told NBC 5 Responds.
The company that sold Lyandisha the solar panels, Titan, had gone out of business and was unable to help.
Lyandisha attempted to explain his predicament to Goodleap, the financing company behind the solar panels, to no avail.
"That's when now they started, like, hitting my credit history," Lyandisha said.
Lyandisha then reached out to NBC 5 Responds for help after getting nowhere with Goodleap in wake of the fire.
NBC 5 Responds contacted Goodleap for a statement, with the company saying they were "very sympathetic to these terrible and unique circumstances," adding that they decided to fully cancel the contract and forgive the loan's balance in full.
"We've taken steps to ensure the homeowner's credit is fully cleared. We know these are tough times and we're glad we could help," Goodleap's statement said.
The news came as a relief for Lyandisha, though due to his homeowners' insurance not being updated when he made renovations in the home, rebuilding his house at this location is unfortunately not an option.
"The insurance gave us like $459,000. The cost to rebuild the house was $930,000," Lyandisha said.
The family has since purchased another home that will require extensive renovation. Lyandisha said the right insurance coverage is top of mind at the new property.
Chris Schafer, a senior editor with Insurify, said Lyandisha's case can serve as a cautionary tale for other homeowners.
“If you're planning a really expensive home addition or home renovation, you're changing the value that it would take to rebuild your home. So that's where it's really important to look at your home insurance and update your dwelling coverage to match this new value that you're adding to your home through a home renovation,” Schafer said.
Even if you haven’t made any updates to your home in years, Schafer said that taking another look at your home insurance policy could actually save you money.
“It is something that you do need to come back to periodically to make sure it still matches your needs. There could be instances where maybe you don't need as much dwelling coverage as you used to have. Maybe you're overinsured and you can take some of that coverage off and save some money,” Schafer said.
