Home Contents, wear and tear deductions.

coach1man

Hi.
Our complete household goods went into storage in Feb. 2011 when we sold the house. In Dec. 2012 our goods were delivered to our new house, having been in storage for nearly two years. We found several items had been damaged either during removal or during storage, including a fridgefreezer, a carved wood bed frame and a carved wooden chest.
We submitted a claim to the removers insurance company (the policy was for indemnity cover) for £1300. They replied with an offer of £460 which we refused. They have since upped their offer to £610 but they seem to have deducted - and this is this crazy bit - 33% from the fridge freezer which was two years old prior to storage and 50% from the bed frame and chest which were less than one year old at the time of storage.
I've phoned the FSA, the Financial Ombudsman, C.A.B. and the Association of British Insurers and no-one can tell me if there is an industry standard for deductions for wear and tear.
We are reluctant to accept the offer but we need something firm on which to base our case for an increase. Can anyone help, please?

payless

indemnity cover, so wear and tear

33% off for a 4 year old ( at point of claim) fridge/freezer doesnot sound OTT

coach1man

I agree that the fridgefreezer offer is about right, payless. What concerns me is the 50% off the wooden items which are less than a year old.

rs65

coach1man wrote: »

I agree that the fridgefreezer offer is about right, payless. What concerns me is the 50% off the wooden items which are less than a year old.

They are now 3 years old so the insurers are basically saying they have a life expectancy of 6 years.

You need to establish how long you would expect them to last. If 10 years the deduction would be 3/10.

coach1man

Hi rs65.
They've actually accepted that I shouldn't have any deduction for the time the goods were in storage, ie, under the care of their client, the removal company. Otherwise I'd be penalised for damage done by someone I was paying to look after the stuff. And the insurance cover was provided by the remover.
I hope that makes sense.
In any case, I'd would have thought a wooden linen chest would last longer than an electrical item as it isn't prone to breaking down ?

rs65

coach1man wrote: »

Hi rs65.
They've actually accepted that I shouldn't have any deduction for the time the goods were in storage

So they are saying the fridgefreezer has a life expectancy of 6 years and a bed and chest of 2 years?

I think they are being a bit mean on the fridge too.

You will know the quality of the bed and chest better than anyone on here but wooden furniture - has to be 10 years. If you said 1/10 then a 10% deduction.

(I have a chest of drawers that is 80 years old and an ikea table which might not see easter)

dacouch

coach1man wrote: »

Hi rs65.
They've actually accepted that I shouldn't have any deduction for the time the goods were in storage, ie, under the care of their client, the removal company. Otherwise I'd be penalised for damage done by someone I was paying to look after the stuff. And the insurance cover was provided by the remover.
I hope that makes sense.
In any case, I'd would have thought a wooden linen chest would last longer than an electrical item as it isn't prone to breaking down ?

That's lucky as whether they had damaged the items or not, the items would still have been two years older.

coach1man

What I suppose I'm after really is an idea of how much they can deduct per year from electrical goods and wood (not flat pack) furniture.

rs65

coach1man wrote: »

What I suppose I'm after really is an idea of how much they can deduct per year from electrical goods and wood (not flat pack) furniture.

As I've said, it depends on the quality.

coach1man

Thanks rs65. The chest was just short of £300 as was the bed frame. They are solid timber ( oak chest and pine bed frame) I would expect them both the last for possibly a lifetime. Hard to put it in years but I'd expect maybe forty plus years minimum.

InsideInsurance

coach1man wrote: »

In any case, I'd would have thought a wooden linen chest would last longer than an electrical item as it isn't prone to breaking down ?

On an indemnity basis you are simply given the value of the items "as they were" rather than any form of "new for old".

In theory one way to ball park the items value is to look on eBay to see how much secondhand items similar to yours are selling for.

The reality is that not everything has a linear value reduction. Somethings like electronics do tend to go down in a straight forward manor until they hit a floor and then stay there until the day they break down. Other items tend to go off a cliff the day they're bought and then fluctuations are much more about style -v- fashion rather than age.