So sorry for you

What a miserable state of affairs, that could probably have been avoided if those with custody had assumed their responsibilities

I would have thought your insurers would fight on your behalf; so that's something I need to think about with our van

Thank you for sharing it, as it has opened my eyes

Truly hope you get a fair and early resolution to this situation, and wish you many years of happy motorhoming, with all the things that make it personal to you

May this event soon become just a distant memory of a minor frustration

Best wishes

Otto

 

So sorry to hear of your loss - let's hope your solicitor is on the ball when it comes to recovering your losses.
Don't let this put you off though - get back on the road as soon as you can.

 

Terribly sorry to hear of your circumstances - hope things work out.
It may be worth contacting Burstner UK with the serial number / chassis number of your vehicle so that it can be circulated among the dealers. You never know someone may just need to order parts for it or try to trade it. A long shot but worth a phone call or e-mail.

Bookworm

 

What a sad story.

You should be reimbursed as to the position you were in prior to the theft.
The garage is responsibe for vehicles left with them otherwise no one would ever take their vehicles in for service or repair.
We are chasing a claim for £560 through a solicitor.
After 14 months and no result.I feel like shooting him.

Best of luck

Dave p

 

Extremely sorry to hear about your loss. However, what is the point of insurance companies if they take the attitude that this type of loss is nothing to do with them. They should compensate you and then take the matter up with the garage, or at least deal with the garage on your behalf.

Hope you get a satisfactory outcome.

Dave

 

That is just terrible, I really do feel for you and hope you get full settlement without any argument and in double-quick time.

As you so rightly say, we hand over responsibility every time we leave a vehicle at a garage yet I've certaingly never bothered to check how secure (or not) the arrangements are going to be.

I also agree that one of the worst aspects is to lose the little bits and pieces that you've accumulated over the years. When our caravan was stolen eight years ago it contained a log of all the places we'd visited and sites we'd stayed on over the previous 20-odd years. I still miss it.

Wishing you well.

 

What a lesson for us all.
really sorry to hear this, have you tried asking Citizen's Bureau for advice?
Lala

 

Although we took every care, our van has gone - and with it our way of life and peace of mind.

I'm very sorry about the theft of your vehicle. However it may be too easy to get overly depresessed about this...the garage is responsible to put you in the position you were in prior to this episode (end of story) so to say you've lost your way of life is a little OTT. Also in terms of peace of mind, the motorhome went when it wasn't in your custody, so it shouldn't e.g. destroy your confidence in security when its replacement is at the CASSOA site.

The one area I fear you may lose out on is the contents of the van. Certainly every place I've ever had our's into for either hab or chassis services has made me sign a disclaimer that I've removed any contents of value. Leaving that to one side, although 2 weeks is not much time on processing a theft claim, you should keep the pressure on the garage. For example, does either your van policy or home policy have legal assistance cover? It may be worth consulting that to see what can be done to chivvy them along.

Paul

 

Oh how dreadful and I can well understand how distressing this must be for you!

Are you in communication with the garage's insurers yourself or is the garage dealing with them on your behalf? If they are it might be a good idea to talk with the claims dept yourself and see if you can speed things up a bit and who knows, your call may be taken by a sympathetic advisor who responds helpfully when they find they are talking to the actual victim of the claim?

I truly hope you get compensated for your loss soon and when you start to feel really down about it, just remind yourself that as distressing as all this is, it's not the end of the world and there are far worse crimes and tragedies that you and your family could have been the victims of! That usually helps me to keep things in perspective if ever I go through a crisis of any kind!

All the best

Sue

 

Gosh ... that is very sad ... Don't give up, pursue the garage and I think that the Citizen's Advice Bureau would be a good idea ... also don't drop it with the insurers ... there is a body that overseas insurers perhaps take it up with them? Does anyone know their name?

Good luck and you'll soon be on the road again and collecting new and exciting memories

AJ

 

.... We have to pursue a claim for compensation against the garage. The garage has kept us informed of the progress of their claim with their insurers, ......

What's that got to do with anything :?:
Your claim is against the garage, not their insurers and their insurers have no contractural connection with you so don't fall for that one :!:
There is no justification in them holding out for their insurer's response so hit the garage with everything you can muster 8)

 

How awful for you - I hope everything gets sorted quickly.

However, do consider if your life-style is really being disrupted - could you hire a vehicle and bill the company for the expense? When my car was written off, I actually got more for replacement hire than I got for the car! Mind you, I seem to recall you were expected to replace the vehicle within a reasonably short period, even if you didn't have any money. I held out for 6 months - I would certainly be looking for a replacement and getting it ordered, unless you will take an "off the peg" van. Getting current costs and time-frames all makes your claim easier to justify.

I would certainly be looking for total replacement of all items, compenstaion for lack of use / hire charges for holidays/weekends away plus possibly stress.

Good luck - Gordon

 

Our insurers won't cover us for the theft because the garage had care and control of the vehicle. We have to pursue a claim for compensation against the garage. The garage has kept us informed of the progress of their claim with their insurers, but they haven't settled yet and meanwhile we've received no interim compensation of any sort. We also have no idea how much they will eventually offer.

.

Interesting 'get out' not heard of that one, we insist that any van on a contract sale is kept insured by the owner as our policy only covers vans for sale that are our property. Must look further into that!

Most garages have disclaimer that says not covered unless loss/damage caused by their negligence.

Personally I think you do have a claim on your insurers and they should claim against the garage, you paid the premiums and how they recover their money is their problem, not yours.

As to payout, do not be fobbed off by Glass's Guide Trade Value which is what most insurance companies try and offer. You cannot buy at trade values and also why should you have all the trouble and expense in finding a replacement without reimbursement.

You should also have a claim for loss of use, try insisting on a replacement hire van, that will get them moving at £800 a week!

Peter

 

Hi Peter

Just to clarify the situation, are you saying that if we bring our Motorhome into your workshops for service work and it is stolen, or some youths break in and smash it up, your insurance will not cover it and it would be up to me to try to claim from my own insurance and resulting in loss of no claims?

regards

Jerry

 

Unless the law has changed since I last had to check on this (it was many years ago) it may not be as simple as people think and I'll be very interested to see the outcome.

At one time the garage would not have been responsible if it had taken every reasonable precaution to safeguard your property. It's up to you to make sure that your motor-home is insured and it could be argued that leaving your car with a dealer is not very different from leaving it on a council car park.

If it is stolen from a council car park, for which you've paid a fee to use, I can assure you that you'd have no chance of getting the council to fork out for a new one.

Let's assume that a dealer's premises are burned down in an arson attack and 'vans belonging to several individuals are destroyed. I suspect that the dealer will not be held responsible and will only be calling on his insurer to redress him for his own property.

This may well hinge on how responsible the dealer has been in securing the 'van. If he's gone to great lengths to keep it secure but the thieves for instance simply smashed down a wall and drove it away, it could be argued that he should not be liable.

I insure my motor-home and whether it's stolen from my drive, from a private car park, from a camp site or from a dealers then my insurance should be responsible for its loss.

As I said, I await this outcome with great interest!

 

Also sorry about your loss.

Like Peter (Johns Cross) I am very dubious about your insurers refusing the claim.

You need to go back to basics. You were insured for Theft so why are insurers refuting the claim?

I do not want to second-guess your Solicitor, but was a formal claim put to your insurers in writing, if so it would have been dealt with by the Claims and/or Legal Depts.

If it was just a telephone conversation, was it with a broker or with the Underwriters named in the policy, and if the latter, was it with a claims manager or just anyone who answers the sales line? In my experience brokers, and some insurers' staff, are very good at sales but not necessarily at dealing with claims.

If there was a reply in writing, on what basis did the reply deny liability?

A principle of insurance law is that if an insurer wishes to deny a claim based on an exemption the onus is on the insurer to prove that the exemption applies.

However, if there is no basis for their denial, they will have to pay you and then claim against the garage and its insurers for paying you, known as Subrogation. This costs them money so maybe they are trying to avoid this by encouraging you ( I could use other phrases here, but.....) to take the action against the garage at your expense, all of which might not be recoverable

My apologies to your solicitor if he has already covered this ground.

PM if you wish.

Geoff

 

I am really sorry to hear of your problems - it is one of those things you don't expect

Who are you insured with?

Carol

 

Hi Peter

Just to clarify the situation, are you saying that if we bring our Motorhome into your workshops for service work and it is stolen, or some youths break in and smash it up, your insurance will not cover it and it would be up to me to try to claim from my own insurance and resulting in loss of no claims?

regards

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

As far as I am aware according to the disclaimers boldly displayed so it can be seen, yes but that its common to all garages throughout the UK. It is doubtfull if it would apply to vans locked up in the workshop.

It has yet to be tested as we have never had an occurrence, all the tea leaves we get are the ones that steal catalytic converters off the vans on the forecourt!

I doubt if you would lose your no claims discount as it would not have been your fault.

Peter

 

Thank you to everyone who has replied. Most have said exactly what we have said ourselves. We know that the claim is against the garage but we wanted to be kept in the loop regarding what their insurers said. However, we did make a formal claim against the garage straight away, in writing.

Our insurer is Comfort, and we've had a phone call from a director there who has offered assistance - but no cover, pointing out the exclusion clause in the insurance (who ever reads the small print?). In some ways you can understand this - if someone at the garage damages your vehicle, you'd expect the garage's insurance to cover it, but we'd say this is THEFT pure & simple, regardless of where it was stolen from, and not through any negligence on our part. So as we've paid Comfort to insure us against theft, we should have cover. Our solicitor has already indicated that this may be one way to go if we don't get an adequate response soon.

As to the comment re our loss of "way of life", it may have sounded melodramatic but one of us is very ill and this is the only way we get any relief from the situation - but obviously nobody knew that. Regular hospital treatments and travel insurance/flying do not mix! We have said ourselves that worse things could happen, and nobody has died - but we do feel shocked and bereft.

Thanks anyway to everybody for your observations and sympathetic responses - we will keep you up to date.

 

Hi Peter

Thanks for replying, I just assumed that if I gave My Motorhome or car into the care of a garage they would have insurance to cover any incidents

I suspect that the no claims would be affected as it is a no claims discount not a non fault discount.

I have seen signs up in garages stating that all personal belongings should be removed from your car, I just thought that was so they could not be blamed for items that went missing, I have not seen signs saying that your vehicle is not covered by our(the garages) insurance, I'll have to look closer.

Alidel, just out of interest who is your insurance with? (just read last post, must have gone on whilst typing this one).

regards

Jerry

 

After reading this I have just reread my Safeguard policy and it says that they will not cover the motorhome if it is used by anyone not on the certificate of insurance or used for a purpose not permitted by the certificate of insurance.

except if

1. it is being used without my permission ( ie stolen)

2. if it is being used by a motor trader for servicing or repair.


I hope from that that I am covered. I have always assumed I was.

Derek

PS the last time I had to leave it at a garage I drove passed at closing time to ensure that they had put it inside the workshop for the night and not just left it outside.

 

except if
1. it is being used without my permission ( ie stolen)
2. if it is being used by a motor trader for servicing or repair.

Disclaimers apart, if we drive a customers van on the road, we would be covered on our Trade Policy I believe.

Peter

 

After reading this I have just reread my Safeguard policy and it says that they will not cover the motorhome if it is used by anyone not on the certificate of insurance or used for a purpose not permitted by the certificate of insurance.

except if

1. it is being used without my permission ( ie stolen)

2. if it is being used by a motor trader for servicing or repair.

I hope from that that I am covered. I have always assumed I was.

Derek

PS the last time I had to leave it at a garage I drove passed at closing time to ensure that they had put it inside the workshop for the night and not just left it outside.

i have a traders policy if i have a incident my policy pays out if the vehicle is uninsured, if insured the owners insurance is liable. as far as im aware this is standard. if i drive vehicle on road and have accident my insurance pays out,

 

Comfort told us that when our van was at the dealers it wasn't covered by their insurance. The dealers told us it wasn't covered by them either as it wasn't in to them for repairs just waiting to be picked up by Swift for repairs.
They did have it securely in a locked compound so we just had to trust to luck. Wasn't a comfortable feeling though.

Also - just check how long you can be away from your van and leave it on a campsite. Comfort say you can only be away for 36 hours which makes it difficult for us as we like to leave it to stay in a hotel in major cities if there isn't a campsite within easy reach.

 

Steph, thanks for that info as we too are with Comfort and I didn't have a clue we wouldn't be covered whilst our MH was at our dealers for any reason!!!! I will make some enquiries now and see how we can, or indeed if we can, ensure we are covered at all times!

Thanks again.

Sue