Lost Safe Custody Box

lostbox

Hello, a major UK bank has told me they have lost my safe custody box. The box contained a number of valuable items.

They are completely clueless and have no idea on when it went missing. Last known whereabouts was over 5 years ago. All they can tell me is they have lost the complete box.

What can i do? the bank aren't taking responsibility and telling me i should have had insurance.

Surely they have a duty of care, what about my consumer rights. Can I take them to court for negligence?

If Martin is out there I could do with your help!

Thank you

mgdavid

did you pay a rental fee for this box?
what did the Ts & Cs or contract say about responsibility etc?

lostbox

Yes I did pay a rental fee. The terms state the bank has no responsibility or liability to the loss of these items. They cant find their receipt of the box and I didn't sign my copy.

They told me, that they have never lost a box. and the terms refer to the content and there was nothing to worry about when I took the service.

These clowns lost my complete locked box.

Armorica

Never believe a bank that tells you they've never lost a box! It might be true for a branch, but it happens...

The terms are bound to exclude liability; unfortunately you signed a contract that accepted that. (Even if you didn't sign a bit of paper, you left your property in their care, paid the rent - so probably implied consent - the fact you didn't sign a bit of paper is unlikely to help much)

You could, however, change tack and ask for a refund of five year of rental As they clearly haven't been looking after the box...they should not have been charging you rent. A combined of that, a written complaint, with escalation to the ombudsman when you are not happy with the response ought to get you some form of compensation/action.

There is also a chance you could get them for misselling. Particularly if they didn't inform you of the risks at the start or advise you to take out insurance.

You could also speak to your home insurance provider in case it was covered that way.

You should read through the following to increase your confidence in dealing with them

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/71/71-safe-deposit-box.html
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/30/30-box.htm

lostbox

Fully understand. The cases refer to missing items. In my case they lost the complete box.

Armorica

lostbox wrote: »

Fully understand. The cases refer to missing items. In my case they lost the complete box.

The principles are broadly the same i.e. they should keep records of the box. And one of the cases refer to an entire box missing.

agrinnall

lostbox wrote: »

If Martin is out there I could do with your help!

I think you'll find that Martin is indeed out there, but he's likely to be rolling around in the £87 million he made from selling MSE :rotfl:.

Biggles

agrinnall wrote: »

I think you'll find that Martin is indeed out there, but he's likely to be rolling around in the £87 million he made from selling MSE

I hope he didn't put it in a box!

grumbler

lostbox wrote: »

The terms state the bank has no responsibility or liability to the loss of these items.

I am no expert, but IMO "loss of the items" and "loss of the box" are absolutely different things.
It's understandable that they aren't responsible for the items as they have no control over the content of the box. However, they have full control over the box and have to be responsible for losing it. The only question is the amount.
And it's the bank that has to insure the boxes, not the customers.