Rat in car! Written car off?!?

wezznco

Hey all,

Coming to you all for some advice on a strange situation. I started up my car a week ago and smoke came from the bonnet, opened it up to a 'farmyard' smell, and in my engine container I found a family of rats!!

We went to the shop to buy some rat poison and when we came back the babies were the only things left..9 or so of them. Poured a small amount of poison on them, and then found a parent rat in a nearby drain, poured poison in there and checked a couple days ago to find the rat dead down the drain (council are coming to clean up), and the babies gone from under the bonnet..

Right, now here's where I need your help..
Phoned AA (as I have roadside insurance) they came and towed the car to a garage, received a phone call explaining the damage done is so severe that it's not worth fixing! I asked if the rats likely did the damage and he said "that's possible".

I'm with Admiral Car Insurance fully comp, so I phoned them today.. and they told me that they were not liable for damage made by rats!?!?

How true is that? And what approach should I take to claim for the damage done?

Thanks in advance for your help on my mad story!:eek:

Sam

dunstonh

It looks like they are classing it as mechanical failure rather than an insurable event.

wezznco

Thanks dunstonh, so who do you think is liable? Falls in quite a grey area.

The main thing is, the car was playing up the week before it stopped working.. and the mechanic only thinks it's possible the rat did the actual damage. Are there any loop holes in the situation?

Thanks again,

Sam

Quentin

Admiral only cover damage done in an accident.

If the car was playing up, then that problem was mechanical, and again wouldn't be covered by car insurance.

wezznco

OK, so is anyone liable?

The council? etc?

I live in Westminster.

Sam

dogbot

Well you can't sue the rats! No, why on earth would the council be liable?! Unless you could prove they had been negligent - i.e. had failed to control a known rat problem - but the whole of london has rats, there would have had to have been a real infestation that had been brought to their attention I would have thought.

Not everything is someone else's fault, or in deed anyone's fault - some things just happen. Would you try to sue someone if you got a wasps nest in the roof?

I do actualy think there is an argument that this isn't mechanical failure - there is an external force operating. Some, though not all policies do exclude damage by vermine or damage by a gradualy operating cause which would exclude this damage. If not - worth a complaint to see if they will cover it!

The problem is if it isn't certain that the rats cause the damage - without that then you are stuck since the damage is mechanical in nature.

Equaliser123

wezznco wrote: »

OK, so is anyone liable?

The council? etc?

I live in Westminster.

Sam

Why would the council be liable?

I'm afraid if your insurers won't cover, then there is little else you can do.

riigs10

if i were you i would get a second opinion on the car,

a main dealer will see it and have £ signs in there eyes. new parts from dealers are very expensive.

take it to a garage thats not ford, vauxhall etc but still one you feel comfortable with and ask them,

second hand parts could save you allot of money!

wezznco

Thanks for the advice, the reason I assumed it's different than a nest etc, is that the car was parked in our resident parking. But it was just a long-shot.

The car's a Rover, so parts are mostly discontinued (I guess..).

Not much else I can do?

Sam

riigs10

although rovers are discontinued parts are easy to get, many people just scrap rovers if theres a problem, making allot of parts available from scrap yards

worth a few calls atleast.

out of interest do you know the 'damage' and what car is it? ie rover ****