Removal company refusing to pay out

Quentin

You say this disaster happened in February.


You surely need much more urgent action than you seem to be taking.


Discuss this with a solicitor - they usually will give you a free first consultation!

HiltonFarm

We only received the decision from the Insurance company yesterday. We have been chasing daily since we submitted the claim

Geoff1963

I'd check if your home insurance covers it :
If it does, they would pay out quickly, then they'd probably ( with your help ) go after the removals company. Take care with any No Claims issues.
If it specifically doesn't, then that is evidence that the industry-standard is for the removals company to be "in loco parentis" ; like when your children go on a school trip.

eddddy

Geoff1963 wrote: »

I'd check if your home insurance covers it :
If it does, they would pay out quickly, then they'd probably ( with your help ) go after the removals company. Take care with any No Claims issues.
If it specifically doesn't, then that is evidence that the industry-standard is for the removals company to be "in loco parentis" ; like when your children go on a school trip.

'In loco parentis' is a Latin term meaning 'in place of the parent' - and isn't relevant in any way here.

Any claim against the removal company would be based on 'breach of contract' or 'negligence'.


The breach of contract angle is mentioned in post #19

Negligence is "a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances."

Geoff1963

'In loco parentis' is a Latin term meaning 'in place of the parent' - and isn't relevant in any way here.

I was drawing an analogy with the removals company having responsibility for the welfare of the OP's possessions ; in the same way as a teacher has responsibility for the welfare of the OP's children.

In terms of text messages being "in writing", this might apply :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_proferentem
It would be for the removals company to state that a text wasn't good enough. The removals company were asking for more details well after 7 days ; so the text was enough to start that, the 8-day email was just the first set of "more details".