Car in garage and interior destroyed by Rat (Advice Needed)

dannyjlloyd

Hi, were looking for some advice so hoping someone can help us out.

10 months ago my wife and I bought a 2011 Volkswagen Polo from our local garage as they were doing a good offer with regard to a years free insurance. We put a £500 deposit down and agreed the repayments of £211 a month over 3 years with a £4000 balloon payment at the end.

2 weeks ago I bumped the car and damaged the wing, bumper, headlamp, 2 side doors and the sill. We rang the Rac which was provided through the VW insurance and they collected the car within 30 minutes and it was taken back to the same Vw garage we purchased it from to be repaired.

After a week the insurance have agreed to repair the vehicle, so we went up there to collect my wife glasses from the car as she requires them and were left in the car. On entering the car to collect my wife's glasses we noticed a hole in the seat, on further inspection, it was obvious that some sort of Rat had been in the car since being at the garage and caused damage to all the seats and the boot lining, and as you can imagine the car was smelling pretty bad.

Once we realised we went straight to the office to inform them, they inspected the car and said they would need to get the insurance adjuster back out to have a look.

On leaving the garage my wife got upset about the whole thing as she is 2 months pregnant and we have a 13 month old little boy, she is now saying she does not want to get back in the car even thought the insurance have offered to replace the seats. I can understand her concern and we pay a lot of money for this car every month to ensure our little boy travels in a safe car. Out other concern is that our little boy has asthma which we obviously have concerns about putting him back in the car.

Does anyone know how we stand with regard to this? Can we demand that they replace the car / write it of etc?

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Sgt_Pepper_2

If they have got bv the electrics it maybe anyway.

dannyjlloyd

They have said they are going to change the seats and give it a valet. We would prefer not to have the car back as my wife is saying she is not going to get in it (she has a bit of a phobia with rats etc) but what standing do we have as the car is on finance and we can't afford to just let it go?

forgotmyname

I doubt they will offer a new car, New seats and a valet and you wont know anything happened.

And nothing to have concerns about, The car wont be any more of a danger to an asthma sufferer
than any other car.

Car factories are not exactly sterile enviroments.

CharlieBilly

I think the garage/insurance are being reasonable here and making amends

colino

I think the insurance adjuster might be your friend here. The company certainly won't want to pay out twice and the unknown gnawing on the electrics mixed with the corrosive rat pish might just make this a write off to them.

cruger

I can't imagine anyone being happy with that situation I wonder what the papers would make of that especially if they had photos of rat droppings and damage;).

Maybe you can come to some arrangement with a part exchange or money off the final bill for all the distess it's caused you and your wife. Best of luck.

avantra

Can anyone explain why rodents eat materials that has no nutritional value for them what's so ever?

TrickyWicky

A rat.. worst damage it could do is chew a few things up. How do you know its a rat and not a mouse though? - I'm really curious how you're so definate abou it.

Seriously, people are too eager to see mice and rats as bad. We've not had any problems with the plague here for centuries and mice are harmless. I have one living in the shed on top of my spare alloys living inside an old glove (I accidentally disturbed it once and it scared the **** out of me lol). I've no intention of worrying about it and its more than welcome to continue living there. In all of my years of having cats I've picked up hundreds of mice that have been brough in and even the odd rat. I'm still here to tell the tale.

I do however agree that they've not looked after the car properly. I had a similar incident a few years ago when ours was in at the workshop to be examined. I went up there to see it as I needed to check something and found that they'd left the thing unlocked. Rare car, open and unlocked yard, car completely unsecure. I was livid to say the least.

TrickyWicky

avantra wrote: »

Can anyone explain why rodents eat materials that has no nutritional value for them what's so ever?

Two reasons:
One they're scavengers - they will try anything to see if its anything that they can survive on
They also look for nesting material. They might chew it up but they can actually STORE these chewed materials inside a little area down in the neck like a hamster does. You may see them chewing but they're actually putting it into a little storage pouch to carry it away where it will be brought up and used as nesting.

mikey72

TrickyWicky wrote: »

A rat.. worst damage it could do is chew a few things up. How do you know its a rat and not a mouse though? - I'm really curious how you're so definate abou it.

Seriously, people are too eager to see mice and rats as bad. We've not had any problems with the plague here for centuries and mice are harmless. I have one living in the shed on top of my spare alloys living inside an old glove (I accidentally disturbed it once and it scared the **** out of me lol). I've no intention of worrying about it and its more than welcome to continue living there. In all of my years of having cats I've picked up hundreds of mice that have been brough in and even the odd rat. I'm still here to tell the tale.

I do however agree that they've not looked after the car properly. I had a similar incident a few years ago when ours was in at the workshop to be examined. I went up there to see it as I needed to check something and found that they'd left the thing unlocked. Rare car, open and unlocked yard, car completely unsecure. I was livid to say the least.

Weil's disease is unpleasant though.
And it can stay damp in the car for quite a while.