Caravan hit by third party, I accept repair, then get water ingress? Diminished value??

[mixyphil]

Hihis

I wonder if any of the readers have successfuly pursued a third parties insurance company for uninsured losses/dminished value following the repair of their caravan.

In Aug 10, a TP hit the side of my 12m old Elddis Avante 624, the result, a new lower side panel. I was told that I had to accept the repair, this was how insurance works. I accepted this but specified that if I was not entirley satisfied on return of my van that i wanted and indemnity to cover teh difference between trade/px value and that of a replacement so that I could change my van. This was put in writing prior to the work being carried out.

Jan 11 - Van finally repaired and returned and was assured all was 100%.

Feb 11 - First trip out and water ingress, resulting in damp to the repaired side. Damage has been covered by the repairer warranty.

Now, my van has had a new side fitted (over the top of the old one...) and then sustained water ingress. In my opinion it is now worth less as a direct resulf of the accident and I am pursuing the TP's insurance via my legal expenses claim facility.

Any one had any success with this before? I would love to here from you or take your advice.

Thanks

 

[TD42]

I do not know how your van is constructed BUT on my Bailey the top panel lips under the lower panel in order to create a waterproof seal & if the bottom panel is damaged then it cannot be removed /replaced with out damaging the upper panel & compromising the water proof seal. I had to have both top & bottom panels replaced when the lower panel was damaged + the extra weight of replacement panels detracts from your payload
In my case it was a self inflicted accident so I have had to accept the repair
difficult to describe but you should be able to see if yours is constructed the same way. The top panel overlaps the bottom ,both panels have a U formed on the edge so that one locks into the other
If they only replaced the bottom panel they have not done the job properly.Unless the repaires are very very good its possible to see that the panels have been replaced & its been known for the panels to bubble in places if the addesive has not been applied properly. I realy do not know where you could go from here with the insurance co ,but yes it could possibly affect the resale value. I hope this info is of some help

TD

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello mixyphil,

I'm sorry to read of your problems.

Effectively when a repair is made and paid for by an insurance company, you have every right to expect the repair to be of merchantable quality. If the repair is not satisfactory, then you must complain back to the insurers who are obliged to sort it out as they contracted the repair.

Do remember that most insurance does not normally provide for any improvement to be made, in other words if your caravan is 12M old, it is not new, so any repair is only required to reinstate the caravan to the condition it was in before the insured incident, they are not required to repair it to 'as new' condition.

Insurance is always a difficult one to offer accurate advice on, because it is tied up with the terms and conditions that are explicitly supplied with the policy. These can be very specific to policy and must not be considered as the general rule.

Insurance is a contract, and that requires that all parties agree to abide by the terms and conditions. I have to assume that there was no new for old element in your insurance package, so your suggestion about resale values on the repaired caravan would be a variation. Unless the insurance company formally agreed (in writing) to your variation then they are not bound to it.

You may be able to pursue the other party in the incident for consequential losses, but you would need to seek professional advice about that.

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Mixiphil
Were the repairs dealt with by your own caravan insurers or the third party insurers?
Diminution in market value can be a valid head of claim against a third party providing you can prove it with demonstrable evidence from say two well respected caravan dealers or even the manufacturer.
However imo the repairs are clearly not of a good standard and perhaps need redoing from scratch?
Remember your claim is against the third party who is merely represented by his insurers. So in a Court , you can only sue the TP not the Insurer.
I'm pleased you have sought an Indemnity from your Legal Expenses Insurers who wil no doubt offer you whatever help is needed to succeed. If they feel the chances are poor they will tell you .

Have you spoken to Elddis technical boffins and asked how they would do the repair??
Please let us know how you get on.

 

[prjohns]

mixyphil " I was told that I had to accept the repair, this was how insurance works."

This is not stictly true, you must be happy with the repair offered if not you can refuse. Before you can do this you need to get your own detailed estimates so that you can compare what the insurance company is offering,that would strengthen your hand against the insurance company. Remember that the insurance company will only rapair to previous condition so you will need evidence of the caravans condition at time of accident. The more info you have the better your chances of getting the repair done correctly.

Also the insurance companys tend to have fixed contracts with various companies to do repairs. So the cheaper that company can do a repair the more profits they can make. So bearing this in mind you can demand/request your own repairer especialy when specialised work is required.

This advice may not help you now but hopefully will help others.