I'm literally crying, so sad to see this

[Carol]

haganap Paul I'm so pleased you accepted the settlement so you can look forward again I know it would have been fair to have the value but peace of mind and moving on are worth it. Looking forward to seeing what you and Nikki get for a replacement.

 

[Nanniemate]

haganap I have just had a thought with all these lovely people who agree that £600 is neither ere nor there in the great scheme of things I would like to suggest that they all send Us £600 we can split the difference you can buy all new bits and I can have a newer van

Good result all round worth a try ........

 

[namwaldog]

A couple of points Paul....

1. The premium you paid for your insurance should last you for a full twelve months. ie it is still in force, even though they have/will pay out. I was most surprised when we contacted Safeguard on buying our 'new' MH with the payout money, that they simply took the new vans details and entered them on the existing policy with a small supplement to pay for the higher value 'new' van. Just as if I had changed van mid policy.

2. You are now a cash buyer without trade-in. You should recoup your £600 many times.

3 As you have indicated, you will see a big rise in next years(and subsequent 4) renewals. This was the irksome bit to me as I, like you, wasn't at fault (flooded MH) but they look at it as.... If it's no-one elses fault, then it must be your fault.


Next year I will be able to answer"NO" to the any claims in the last five years question.

Good Luck onwards and upwards!

 

[Jon B]

Ok, so it's time for another update, read in conjunction with last weeks.

But, if you have ever been in my position with losses from insurers, they grind you down, I am convinced that the near 11 hours I have spent on hold is set to break you. It has led me to drink, literally, prevented me from sleeping and reignited my already fragile mental health issues. Therefore for the sake of £600 I felt I had no option. I was never in it to make money, I simply wanted back what I paid. In the interest of sanity I did what I did and hopefully in 4 days the money will be in my account and I can move on. You know they grind you down, they use tactics that I'm convinced could be construed in the Hague as crimes against humanity (humor btw they don't).

FWIW I'd have done exactly the same and accepted the offer...... keep telling yourself that thankfully no one was hurt and in the long run £600 is not a huge amount vs the £93.4K they are going to pay out. At the very least you can begin to move on now.

Hope things go smoothly for you from here on in

 

[Silver-Fox]

I actually got a quote for the new wheels including htis and it had only gone up 50 quid.

What’s htis

I must of missed it.

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[StephandJohn]

i'd have done the same . .Have a lovel;y time with your new van.

 

[Silver-Fox]

Something I’ve never understood is why a non fault claim gets penalised in the following years.

Apart from the obvious the insurers want to recoup loses.

 

[champers]

Oh Haggars what a nightmare for you both and stressful..bad enough what momentos you lost that cant be replaced ....we understand how you both must be feeling...you pay insurance for peace of mind ...not for them to short of accusing you and making you feel guilty...

As you say £600 pound short but why should you be

But a new time and your adventures will resume soon

Stay safe both
John n Kath xx

 

[gus-lopez]

Don't forget to cancel the policy and get a return of premium. Did they offer that? I assume not.

What policy? In a total loss the policy becomes void at the moment of claim paid.Always did.

ie it is still in force, even though they have/will pay out.

Not for a total loss. Always ended at the moment of being made a total loss. Can't believe they would have changed it?

 

[chaser]

The best advice I was ever given by an old time farmer, was ee lad the first loss is always the best loss.
Take the money and get rid of the stress, in a couple of months it will all be water under the bridge.

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[namwaldog]

Not for a total loss. Always ended at the moment of being made a total loss. Can't believe they would have changed it?

We were with Safeguard. (via Allianz)

Insurance renewed 1.10.2016.

MH written off 4.12.16.

Paid out 26?.1.2017.

New MH insured on same policy 16.2.2017.

Insurance renewed with claim recorded 1.10.2017.

Nobody was more surprised than me!!

 

[Silkcut1105]

well paul i agree with all the above comments ,but when you get your new wheels see if you can chip them an extra 600 quid off that would make you feel better ,if you dont get it dont worry mate, we will have a whip round for you ,

 

[haganap]

Something I’ve never understood is why a non fault claim gets penalised in the following years.

Apart from the obvious the insurers want to recoup loses.

yep me too.

We were with Safeguard. (via Allianz)

Insurance renewed 1.10.2016.

MH written off 4.12.16.

Paid out 26?.1.2017.

New MH insured on same policy 16.2.2017.

Insurance renewed with claim recorded 1.10.2017.

Nobody was more surprised than me!!

I will check it out when I get paid.

 

[Manic]

Very wise to take the offer, nobody need all that hassle for £600.
We got caught my the personal possessions thing when we had our van broke int, 2 iPads ,2 Kindles, Nintendo game console but all of these came under the max of £500 for electronic stuff.
Onwards and up, look forward to your replacement van.

 

[haganap]

Very wise to take the offer, nobody need all that hassle for £600.
We got caught my the personal possessions thing when we had our van broke int, 2 iPads ,2 Kindles, Nintendo game console but all of these came under the max of £500 for electronic stuff.
Onwards and up, look forward to your replacement van.

yes that is a point well made. WE had the same. Electronics and audio only get £500 not sure if the house hold insurance will cover but thats what you get.

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[Steve and Denise]

We had a claim non fault for £800 and they took the first £250 off for my excess

 

[Shrimp]

Well done haganap it seems like you’re losing £600 but not when you think of the stress and by the time you find you’re in love with your replacement van all will be forgiven!

 

[nicholsong]

Wow, that's a really good question. What many of us don't know is we are with "brokers" not insurers. My broker will be /was more than useless. Simply put, they just gave me a claim number and sent me to the underwriters and washed their hands.

Your underwriters hold the key not your broker. The underwriter have been really good in fairness, other than the unbelievable call times for which I will be complaining separately. The problem has been with the underwriters outsourced departments, they have been quite useless but mainly because they have no idea what a motorhome is, looks like or how many wheels it has. A car would be a simple process.

If I wanted to hold on, a funster had given me some really good advice, I would have and no doubt they may have paid a "little bit more" but as I said they broke me when many probably wouldn't have been broken and had the time effort and inclination to deal with it. Don't want to sound brash but the total of my waiting time and what I earn would have been covered by me working instead.

No man can wait 2.5 hours on hold listening to "on hold music" it's a weapon of torture.

Paul

Had I known about your call waiting times I would have advised you to try to find their 'from overseas' number. All organisations seem to answer those quickly, after the usual recordings, at least that is what I find with my UK bank, HMRC and DHSS. They cannot check that I am actually calling from o'seas as I often use Skype, which does not reveal the number to them.

Also I find that in some cases, e.g. HMRC the quality of the 'officer' is higher, e.g. I had some heavy repair bills for my house rented out and wanted to reduce my tax payments on account. I only phoned to ask about how to apply. The lady dealt with it on the phone in 5 minutes and I paid nothing this January. Why cannot all organisations be like that?

Geoff

 

[gus-lopez]

We had a claim non fault for £800 and they took the first £250 off for my excess

That's why the brokers here tell you to leave it to them. Never tell them anything until you have run it past thr broker.What a UK "broker " is supposed to do.

 

[Terry]

yes that is a point well made. WE had the same. Electronics and audio only get £500 not sure if the house hold insurance will cover but thats what you get.

Hi Paul you will have some kind of All Risks built into your house contents policy but you may have added to to the amount covered. IE jewelry etc while away,these are lumped into all risks so that adds to all risks total.
Speak to your house ins and see what is the amount covered - bet your house ins are a lot more sympathetic than the van insurance

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[G-RMPS]

Well done!

A few months ago a friend bent my aeroplane. After a protracted engineering assessment I was offered £60,000 (the agreed hull value) to write-it off, or £54,000 settlement and I get to keep the salvage. The latter suited me and, apparently as a consequence, my insurance record "just" shows a claim that was settled, and not a "constructive total loss" - and the insurance continues until the expiry date, rather than immediately.

Aircraft are so difficult to value, it is normal to contract for an agreed insured value. I think expensive (hence limited data on values) motorhomes should be insured on the same basis. You still have the issue that someone has to determine whether it is a write-off but, once agreed, there's no hassle over the money paid out.

I look forward to hearing what you have on order

 

[paddymcc]

I also would have worried like mad and not slept well if I were in your shoes Paul but I'm equally sure I would have settled as you did. It's easy for me to say as others have done, let it go, but I do hope you can move forward. All the best.

 

[lorger]

Glad to hear you’re getting sorted out, hope the new van when it comes give you years of enjoyment.

 

[Grianan]

You made the right decision. This has been so stressful for you - the £600 is a small price yo pay yo put this sorry episode behind you and to sleep peacefully at night again.
I’m excited to see your new wheels and photos from your future adventures. Bon voyage !

 

[DavidG58]

Pleased for you both, as others have said check out your home insurance for personal losses and move on

I did wonder if the £600 was your excess?

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[bobandjanie]

You did the right thing Paul, many years ago we had a car written off, the woman driving the other car we knew and the car she was driving belonging to Aviva insurance who she worked for, she admitted it was her fault and said don't worry they will soon sort it out.
After all the stupid offers, and me telling them to find me one, because they were rare and in nice condition, the phone calls were getting down to No keep storing it, I had already got Janie another car we made an agreement and I kept the car .......... but by the time it was repaired and back on the road was 6 months.

So £600 definitely a result. Bob.

 

[pappajohn]

Ok, so it's time for another update, read in conjunction with last weeks.



Well, no phone call was forthcoming so on Friday morning I rang the underwriters myself. This involved a 2.5 hour wait on hold to eventually get through and discuss it with someone that was obviously a robot but an effective type of one. I went through the claim with him and asked what was happening to my contents claim. He informed me that I was insured up to a value of 3k on my policy, took my details and then paid the money in to my account, total losses, at least 6.5k, lesson learnt, don't leave your expensive leather jackets, ski jackets and HOKA trainers in the motorhome.

I thanked him and said the problem I have is the COPART arm of your company who are telling me that the claim is to much and they need the underwriter to indemnify it. said he will do that right away and email them and to call them later. I called COPART later to be told "No one has emailed us, we spoke to someone from your underwriters but he needs to send over the correct code for us to pay out.". I asked if they could ring him back and get that and they said they would. No reply late on Friday or Saturday so come Monday afternoon I thought I had better try again. I rang COPART and asked if they had authority from my underwriters to discuss the claim amount. The answer I got back was shocking "No sir we have rejected your claim and sent it back to the underwriters as it's too expensive". I stayed calm but wandered exactly what this meant. All in all, it was just another lie on their part. I never really understood what this actually meant. Therefore I rang my underwriters again and after 2 hours of being on hold through numerous streams of endless pointless music and watching myself go from "you are number 7 in the que to next" I found myself speaking to the nice robot who was the one I spoke with on Friday.

He informed me that the reason that my claim with copart had been kicked out is because the most they would offer me for the vehicle was £93400 and I was insisting on £94000. He informed me that if I wanted £94000 of which I had paid he would have to put it back to the "underwriters engineers" who would essentially begin the process again. I informed him I felt this was really unfair and that I was actually being forced to take this payout under duress as I simply could not cope any longer and the 5 hours of being on hold over the past couple of calls had left me a broken man. I said all I want to do is be able to sleep at night without the constant agro and chasing of getting the money paid so I could safely move on to my next van. He said if I accepted the 93400 he would put it for payment today but because of the amount , it might be that it has to go in front of the Ops manager to sign off but there is no reason why they wouldn't.

At this point, many of you might think I would be mad to accept. Essentially the van cost me £600 for 1 weekend away, they can give no justification as to why they differ in the value paid to the value 3 days later.
But, if you have ever been in my position with losses from insurers, they grind you down, I am convinced that the near 11 hours I have spent on hold is set to break you. It has led me to drink, literally, prevented me from sleeping and reignited my already fragile mental health issues. Therefore for the sake of £600 I felt I had no option. I was never in it to make money, I simply wanted back what I paid. In the interest of sanity I did what I did and hopefully in 4 days the money will be in my account and I can move on. You know they grind you down, they use tactics that I'm convinced could be construed in the Hague as crimes against humanity (humor btw they don't).

In the end you are left with this great big fear, the fear that someone in an office far away is going to say "nah, not paying that" despite everything being ok, you run the risk, they start by making you question if you put a match to it yourself whilst you were sleepwalking over night to making sure it was effectively maintained. They throw all sorts of doubt in your head, they play with your mind. You then look at the posts on here "I hope your insurance play ball, I hope they pay out" etc etc and it strikes more fear in to you until you are firmly forced to say, it's £600, deal with it... So I have done.

And finally, the thing of all that gets my goat, is not once, not once through this 3.5 week process have they ever once rang me. I have rang them on every occasion for an update.

But hopefully this is now the end, new van by the end of the month and the process of making sure I can enjoy getting on the road again.

keep the faith.

With a different insurer of course Paul.

 

[Beacons]

So pleased that you can move on now and will soon get to enjoy your new van
Best wishes to you all .Jan & Mike .

 

[Johnnygooner]

Dreadful event....Every moho owners nightmare.. So glad you are both ok, that is ALL that matters at the end of the day....
Good luck to you through all of this.

John

 

[Minxy]

Don't forget to cancel the policy and get a return of premium. Did they offer that? I assume not.

If a claim is made on a policy there is no entitlement to a refund if the policy is cancelled at some point, that's always the case when I read the T&Cs on policies, this is my current MH policy:

​

If any claim has been made in the current period of insurance, you must pay the full annual premium and you will not be entitled to any refund.​

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