Strimmer smashed Sunroof, who pays?

loobyloo2

On the phone to Tesco as I post.
They have told me twice today that I am covered for sunroof. Once as I enquired about renewal. Once when i asked about this claim.
Now they are saying I am not covered for it, only windscreen/windows. All the calls have been recorded by them.
I told them I was being missold insurance by them giving me wrong details. I have insisted that the glass is in fact a window in the roof, they are now in touch with the underwriters for a decision which shall be final! They will phone me back.
will never use Tesco again.
£850 is the excess I have to pay as it is an import.
Nissan Homy Elgrand, 3.2, 7 seater, 2 sunroofs. lovely car for 3 teenagers, 2 large dogs, kayaks on the roof at weekends, camping gear etc etc
Will not pay £850 excess and lose no claims, can get one shipped for £622 and £20 courier fee.
Will have to pursue the nursery owner, not a pleasant prospect.
worst thing is i am due to go off camping in this quite soon, ferries are booked etc, don't want to have to cancel.

Quentin

loobyloo2 wrote: »

Will have to pursue the nursery owner, not a pleasant prospect.

Before you spend anything on that pursuit, do get some advice yourself. In spite of some mixed opinions in this thread, you do need to prove negligence, and this will be hard to do as you have no cast iron proof the strimmer was even involved!

(Unless of course you intend a different course and will try a bit of bribery by offering to forget your "illegal worker" accusation against the owner's sister!)

Velcro_Hotdog

loobyloo2 wrote: »

Thanks Easy, I appriciate your advice. Was getting stressed there, nothing seems to be simple anymore.

Thats because you are making things complicated. Ring your insurance and get the sunroof sorted, then explain what happened. If the insurance company can prove that the object that broke the sunroof was due to the wonam cutting grass then they will take action.

How they will prove that the woman with a strimmer is at fault I have no idea. It would be very hard to prove I think

vaio

loobyloo2 wrote: »

...... i am due to go off camping in this quite soon, ferries are booked etc, don't want to have to cancel.

I’m sure a bit of DIY involving Perspex/thin plywood and some gaffer tape will get the car usable if it’s needed before the new roof turns up.

As for the negligence part, as others have said you have to prove that the strimmer caused the breakage on balance of probabilities. The mere fact that the strimmer was in use when the glass broke isn’t enough as windows have been known to break spontaneously. The fact that the strimmer shouldn’t have been in use as it was a council verge doesn’t matter either. Given that they rotate parallel to the ground and the moving bit is normally a bit of string I’m somewhat sceptical that a strimmer could launch something heavy enough to break a sun roof over any sort of height or distance. Was it a domestic one or industrial one with a steel blade?

Do you have the stone in question? If not I’d be tempted to have a really good look in the car and find [STRIKE]one[/STRIKE] it. With the stone in your hand and no one else in sight I’d say the balance of probabilities start to move in your direction.

Having said all that, the easiest, least hassle solution is as others have suggested, hand it all over to your insurance company (assuming they accept a sunroof is “glass” so you avoid the £850 excess).

thescouselander

I dont think this will be covered under the glass section of the insurance policy. Obviously not all insurance policies are the same but I just had a look at my old insurance policy and the new one (I have just renewed) and both policies specifically exclude fixed or movable glass roof panels from the glass cover section.

Quentin

vaio wrote: »

Do you have the stone in question? If not I’d be tempted to have a really good look in the car and find [STRIKE]one[/STRIKE] it. With the stone in your hand and no one else in sight I’d say the balance of probabilities start to move in your direction.

We also need to know about this strimmer - it sounds as though it could be a killer. The manufacturer will be interested in this if it gets out!

easy

Velcro_Hotdog wrote: »

Thats because you are making things complicated. Ring your insurance and get the sunroof sorted, then explain what happened. If the insurance company can prove that the object that broke the sunroof was due to the wonam cutting grass then they will take action.

Exactly.

Velcro_Hotdog wrote: »

How they will prove that the woman with a strimmer is at fault I have no idea. It would be very hard to prove I think

But insurance companies employ staff to do this, and as the police attended at the time, they will have the police report to work on.

Of course Tesco insurance will try to claim that this is not covered on the glass policy. Like you, they have just discovered how much it is actually going to cost to get fixed.

easy

loobyloo2 wrote: »

will never use Tesco again.
£850 is the excess I have to pay as it is an import.
Nissan Homy Elgrand, 3.2, 7 seater, 2 sunroofs. lovely car for 3 teenagers, 2 large dogs, kayaks on the roof at weekends, camping gear etc etc
Will not pay £850 excess and lose no claims, can get one shipped for £622 and £20 courier fee.
Will have to pursue the nursery owner, not a pleasant prospect.
worst thing is i am due to go off camping in this quite soon, ferries are booked etc, don't want to have to cancel.

You know, I really wish people would realise these things when they search for the cheapest car insurance, and elect to specify a high excess to get the premiums down. It's all fine and Dandy, until you actually need to make a claim. Then the cheap merchants will fight you all the way. They can offer cheap insurance because they baulk at paying out.

And why on earth didn't you have NCB protection?

Several people have asked if you opted for legal fees cover, but you haven't answered. I bet that means 'no'. Which is a shame because you would probably have a legal helpline number you could have rung for free advice on this, if you had the cover.

I still prefer to buy my insurance through a broker. No it isn't the cheapest, but when to comes to making a claim, a GOOD broker should help with the negotiations.

lisyloo

can get one shipped for £622 and £20 courier fee.

Presumably that doesn't include the fitting though?

Velcro_Hotdog

Ditto

You get what you pay for with insurance, I make sure I search around and use a broker due to the fact my car is far from standard and replacement parts have to come from other ford models not the model I have.