Message Forums

hi guys we really dont seem to be having a good time at present boo hoo !  after what should have been a long bank hol away fri - mon we returned home satuarday aft. ( tryiing not to droan on ) !! so any ways yesterday eve ( tuesday ) we recieved a phone call from the caravan storage place . to say there had been some damage to caravans  / attepmted break ins and ours was one of them.... f.f.s its only been there since 2/4/11 ..... so we had to go over and assess the damage to see if / what had been stolen.. plently of door and frame damage roughly estimated at £1000 :-O .. so we were mortified that it has happend like u would be but there were alos 12 other caravans that had been damaged aswell, turns out it had happend the night before, an when the security guy had turned up the followin morning to open up is when he found it all. so the police were in all day yesterday, hence why we wernt notified  till yest eve... so after arguing with the owners saying they should be paying up they sayin its not there fault. they havnt caused the damage and people have to go though there own insurance. now i and along with a few of the others have said this is not right or fair.. if we carnt claim against them . then why do we pay storage fees???  so the question i ask is who should be paying up us or the owners? x

confused/distressed.com 

Quote: Originally posted by Hacksaw Bob on 04/5/2011

---

Surely if you have insurance you can make a claim and leave it the insurance company to try to recover their costs from whoever (if anyone) they consider to blame.

You should not need to worry about negotiating with the storage site owners if you've already paid for "peace of mind".

---

Firstly let me say how sorry I am that your new pride and joy has been damaged, I would be devastated.

This is a difficult one, you pay to store your caravan which should provide a level of security. However, this is only a precaution and your caravan is insured for such an event. You would have a claim ( I think) against the storage site if they have been negligent, such as leaving a gate open to allow theives access etc. At the end of the day, as someone has stated, your own insurance company needs to sort out your caravan and then work out whos to blame so that they can try to recover their costs from whoever it may be.

Im Sorry to hear about your van,but do you have legal cover on your car,caravan, or home insurance? do you belong to the CCor C&CC?if you have either they will be able to give you advice.just be sure you have a copy of the agreement with the site & double check whether they have signs denying responsibility (not that this impinges on your rights) when you talk to their legal advisers .

you could also have a word with the CaSSOA people  http://www.cassoa.co.uk/Caravan_Storage_Home.aspx

i have no idea on who should pay and who is responsible.

But if your vans insured let the insurance company do there work and sort your van out.

If a prosicution is made then the insurance company will pursue for there costs

Sorry to hear about your damage and I can understand your feelings. However, we often need to adopt a different state of mind to such incidences to the natural gut reaction you feel. Most secure site conditions include an obligaion on the caravan owner to insure and to go through their own insurers to recover any losses. You just need to get your mind around that concept. You can continue asking "why should I have to do that?" "I paid for secure storage and they didn't provide it so why should I pay, shouldn't they?" and never get your van repaired. Leave it too late to contact your insurers and you may find that they have a get out clause in the policy.

You can only claim against the storage company if it is in breach of contract or negligent. Negligence is not a casue of action you would want to take of choice because of the burden of proof you would have to discharge to prove your case. Its a tricky type of action in court. Breach of contract is a better course of action. Even then, your contract says that you will deal with the matter through your own insurers. So you have a double wammy there. First you have to proove that they were in breach of contract. Second you would have to satisfy the court that the insurance clause was an unfair contract term contary to the Unfair Contract Terms Act. Its just not worth the hassle and the long period of time it would take to get resolved.

Anyway, even if the storage company had the most sophisticated security systems in the world there is never any guarantee that no one will get in. What happens when you are burgled? You end up paying through your own insurance but surely the burglars should pay?. We don't wait to ask the burglers do we? 

Claim on your insurance...why else do you pay for it. Give the insurers all of the facts and they will take a view as to whether they can then claim against the storage company. If they think that they have a good case then they will make the claim and maybe, just maybe, the storage company will end up paying for the damage.

Take the easy option and let the insurers have the hassle. Thats what you pay your premiums for.

Phil

part of the contract on my storage is that I must have insurance for my caravan so  presumably all the storage charge is for ground rent and a locked gate to keep thesticky fingered crowd out

                                                 doug