Vendor's equipment torched my parked car and now I'm stuck holding the bag — any advice?

I went through something weirdly similar — a contractor working on a neighbor's property caused damage to my car and their insurer tried the same 'undetermined cause' move. What finally helped me was getting an independent fire investigator to write up their own assessment. It cost me some money upfront but it gave an attorney something concrete to work with. The fire marshal reports are often pretty bare-bones, so having a second opinion on origin and cause can change the whole picture.

Worked claims for years. When a liability carrier says 'cause undetermined,' what that often really means is 'we did the minimum investigation and closed it before it cost us anything.' They're banking on you not having the resources to fight it. If you can get any witness statements from the other affected residents or anyone who saw the equipment smoking before the fire, that's gold. Adjusters move fast when there's corroborating evidence they can't dismiss.

A few things worth knowing: first, you may be able to request the fire marshal's full report — not just the summary — through a public records request if it was a municipal fire department that responded. Sometimes the detailed notes say more than the official conclusion. Second, if the landscaping company is a contracted vendor for the condo complex, the condo's property management might also have some liability exposure depending on how the contract is written. That's another angle an attorney might find interesting.

Not legal advice, but the 'undetermined cause' finding doesn't automatically end your civil claim. In a negligence case you don't always need to prove exact cause — you sometimes just need to show the most plausible explanation points to their equipment. Circumstantial evidence can be enough. If several attorneys have passed, try ones who specifically handle property damage or subrogation cases — they think about these problems differently than typical PI firms. Worth a few more consultations.

Honestly? Get the other two residents who had their cars damaged involved. A claim with three complainants is harder to brush off than one. If you can all approach an attorney together or file complaints with your state's insurance commissioner together, that's a different conversation than one person chasing a closed claim.

Just want to make sure I'm understanding — was the landscaping crew actually on the property doing work at the time, or was this equipment just stored in the lot? That distinction might matter a lot for who's actually on the hook. Also, did the condo management acknowledge anything in writing after this happened?