Awful removal men

Hoploz

May I suggest that you speak to the new owner and see what they think ought to happen? I can't understand why you are being awkward about this, it was your piano and your removal men which caused damage. You need to be friendly about this and help get it sorted out in the easiest and smoothest way possible. I would be livid if I had been the buyer and my seller had done this. You have some smoothing over to do. You cannot shirk it. Sort it out together!

jjlandlord

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

It is OP's hassle, as they were the ones that hired this dud firm of removers.

Not so in law.

Hoploz

I also suggest your removal company might not have appropriate insurance cover, as you do not mention this, and you say they offered to sort it out directly with the buyer. Did you actually bother getting a reliable firm with good insurance cover, or did you just pick some random bod who said they would be cheap? This is the consequence. It's your fault. Not the buyer's fault for letting them in. What would you have done if they had not let them in? I suppose it would be ok to say no and you would have happily left the rest of your stuff in the house, would it?

It is your problem, sort it out.

DaftyDuck

I have seen no sign that the removal men aren't going to get all this sorted, and by the simplest route - dealing with the owner of the house they damaged.

Yes, it might be "nice" if the OP, as original owner, were to keep an eye on things, but the floor belonged to the new owner, the removal men were admitted by the new owner, the floor was damaged by them, and they remain, under law, responsible for their damage.

All this posturing of charging for time and the like, it's just a waste of energy and heartbeats. Even if a contract applied, you wouldn't be able to "charge" anyone a penny, if the matter was tended to in a reasonable time.

Most removal firms have fairly expert repair and renovation contacts (which I, luckily, have never had recourse to), as damage, breakages do happen in the course of the job. These removal men have even volunteered

because the removal men told us they would sort it out directly with the new owners

.

Frankly, there's no reason not to believe them. There's certainly no basis for the new owner to present the old owner with a bill, morally or legally.

davidmcn

Hoploz wrote: »

I also suggest your removal company might not have appropriate insurance cover, as you do not mention this

All this talk of insurance seems a red herring - I suspect this scratched floor is worth less than whatever the excess is on the removers' insurance.

lmm23

Thanks for the helpful responses. It seems to me the company owe liability to the new owners in law. Morally (if, in fact, the law doesn't deal in morals and I'm just being "awkward"), it is something I'm inclined to sort out; but having to pay a fortune when the owners could claim it directly seems odd to me. Quite what would be moral in law about forcing a third-party to pay isn't clear. I exercised no bad faith in hiring this seemingly reputable firm, and didn't force them to bring a small van so they'd have to return to the house. This is a simple legal point. If need be, if only the new owners could claim, I'd be more than happy covering the costs behind the scenes. I wouldn't leave the new owners out of pocket; I've already done the groundwork sourcing more tiles, etc., and spoken to the new owners. I agree this doesn't seem to me an issue of a contract - which is just as well if the law is there to protect all parties. I'll contact the owners tonight to ask if they've been contacted.

Hoploz

Well your latest post is a relief! Sounds like you have actually helped in this mess rather than just washing your hands of it which your initial post suggested. I'm sure the new owners are thankful. It is a stressful enough time without having to sort out additional unexpected problems

[Deleted User]

Did you get the piano okay? If so you were lucky, if I found one in my new house I'd have hacked it up for firewood.

lmm23

DELETED USER wrote:

Did you get the piano okay? If so you were lucky, if I found one in my new house I'd have hacked it up for firewood.

:wall: Perish the thought. Do me a favour: if you ever find a piano in your house, let me know and we can do a swap for some twigs.

pinkteapot

To all those saying that the new owners have no contract with the removers, this is completely irrelevant because the new owners will be claiming from the removers' public liability insurance, which anyone can claim from.

That's the whole point of public liability insurance. My brother's a plumber and has PL insurance. Suppose he was taking an old bathtub out of a house he was working on, and scratched a neighbour's car with it. Neighbour would claim from him direct, not via the person who had employed him!