Family Tragedy: Hanrieders’ Lottery Shop Burned, Insurance Dispute, and Community Support

As of: December 25, 2023, 2:33 p.m

By: Volker Ufertinger

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Christmas also means relaxing a little. There is hardly anyone who needs this as urgently as the Hanrieder family. Their lottery store burned down in May. And that was just the beginning.

Gauting/Gilching – The tree has been up for a few days. Hannes Hanrieder, his wife Katrin and their children Lucy and Lenny are extremely looking forward to Christmas, especially to the nativity play in which their daughter takes part. Yes, there are even gifts, thanks to grandma’s generosity. The parents themselves can’t give their children big gifts this year, for one simple reason: they have nothing left, just the house – and that too is at risk of seizure. “This is my silverware, I only sell it in the greatest emergency,” says Hannes Hanrieder (38). They hope that this emergency will not occur.

On May 2nd, a devastating fire destroyed the Hanrieder family’s lottery and stationery shop on Bahnhofstrasse. Hannes and Katrin Hanrieder with their children Lucy and Lenny in their home in Gilching. © Jaksch/Göppel

The family has had a real year of epidemics behind them. In May, the lottery shop on Bahnhofstrasse in Gauting burned down; Hannes Hanrieder was barely able to escape the flames with his son, who was just a few weeks old. The shop was his everything. “I worked there for 21 years and met my wife and my best friends there,” he says. Little of it remained. It was clear: it was going to be a tough time, one way or another.

Merry Christmas, even if times are hard: Hannes and Katrin Hanrieder with their children Lucy and Lenny in their home in Gilching. © Andrea Jaksch

Dispute with the insurance company: Family hopes for 178,000 euros in compensation

At first he thought: It’s good that I have insurance. But he was wrong. The real drama only began afterwards. The LVM insurance company from Münster (which does not want to comment on the case due to the upcoming court proceedings) does not pay, even though, according to the police, the cause was clearly a defective refrigerator. It’s about 178,000 euros that the family would be entitled to. “Today I wish I had never taken out insurance,” says the retail salesman. “Then it would have been clear from the start that I had to pull myself out of the mess.”

On May 2nd, a devastating fire destroyed the Hanrieder family’s lottery and stationery shop on Bahnhofstrasse. The cause is believed to be a defective refrigerator. © Tamara Göppel

The Hanrieders have now almost gotten used to the many letters from various debt collection agencies that keep arriving. Seizures are also an option. All the goods that were burned back then, from cigarettes to newspapers to office supplies, will have to be paid for at some point. “It’s normal that they want their money, I completely understand,” says Hanrieder. “But we don’t have it.” The reserves are gone, only Hanrieder’s mother helps out as much as she can. Before he goes to prison, he would his Lotto-Sell the concession or the house. “But it’s costing me my future.”

Instead of being a help in an emergency, insurance is a burden for the family

So the family, which lives in Gilching and has deep roots in Gauting, is trapped. On the one hand, they simply no longer have any money, have to deal with debt collection agencies, and even have to rely on the pediatrician’s courtesy. On the other hand, it makes little sense to take up other work. Because: They have to report everything they earn to the insurance company. And they couldn’t make a living because everything would be seized straight away. The third party to laugh would be the insurance company.

Cornered on purpose? Insurance cancels family legal protection

The Hanrieders are convinced that the insurance company is deliberately pushing them into a corner. They experience the clerk as arrogant when they contact them – if they reach him at all, he often lets himself be denied or is sick, they say. The latest trick: The insurance company has retroactively canceled the Hanrieders’ legal protection insurance, which they claim – presumably so that the couple cannot pay their lawyer, who represents them in the dispute with the insurance company.

This is my silverware and I only sell it in the greatest emergency.

“We are sure that they are not allowed to do that, but we have to deal with it first,” says Hannes Hanrieder. The family’s lawyer, Ralf Beck, definitely wants to continue. “He hasn’t experienced anything like that before. And he has already experienced a lot.” The fact is that the insurance company only wants to pay a fraction, 45,000 euros. “That’s half of the half we’re entitled to,” says Hanrieder. And that is out of the question for him.

(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Starnberg newsletter.)

Fundraisers are intended to help the family

What comforts and uplifts him is the support from the community, which continues to be great. There have already been a few fundraisers from the Junge Union and friends. A former customer recently wrote him an email saying that she wished the family a Merry Christmas and that she sincerely hopes that everything turns out well. “When you read something like that, you know that you can’t have done everything wrong in the last few years.”

The renovation work in the house on Bahnhofstrasse is scheduled to be completed in January. The 38-year-old says he would like nothing better than to start operations there again. But to do this he would not only have to pay off the old debts, but also invest. “A miracle would have to happen for that to happen.” But at Christmas you can believe in miracles.

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2023-12-25 13:56:06
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