Moving Day Woes

pcwep8

Hi All,
I was hoping to get some advice please. Ultimately in this scenario I've been at fault but I'm hoping to see if I can get any mitigation.
We had our moving day to our new home a couple of weeks ago and to try and do things a bit cheaper I hired a rental van instead of asking removal guys to do it (it would been half the price if things went to plan). We had our furniture in storage for 3 months as we broke the chain. The rental van was £100 for the day and £400 deposit. At the storage units there is a secure gate that is accessible by a code.
My inexperience driving a long van showed as when I was driving into the storage unit area I clipped the gate with the side of the van when turning. On realising that I did this I stopped and reversed back out but I caused a scrape to the side of the van, not a massive one and the van did have a fair bit of damage to it already, but big enough to notice. I didn't think any damage was done to the gate as there didn't appear to be any and it opened and closed as normal after I left.
On returning the van I told the renter about the damage to the side of the van, long story short they kept the £400 deposit and said he will look to get it repaired in the summer. I then got a phone call the following day from the storage units to say that I had done damage to the gate and they have to repair a sensor which I would be liable for. 
I know it's my own fault for trying to do things on the cheap, lesson learnt there. Has anyone else had a similar experience to this? I was insured by the van rental company for the rental period. Are the storage units able to claim on the van company insurance or would it come out of my pocket? I'm trying to sort this as cheaply as possible on what's been an expensive month already.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

ElizabethRose

Yes refer them to the insurers of the van, it's a very straight forward claim.

saajan_12

This isn't really one for the housing board, its the same situation for any vehicle hire / accident. 

AdrianC

pcwep8 said:

We had our moving day to our new home a couple of weeks ago and to try and do things a bit cheaper I hired a rental van instead of asking removal guys to do it (it would been half the price if things went to plan). We had our furniture in storage for 3 months as we broke the chain. The rental van was £100 for the day and £400 deposit. At the storage units there is a secure gate that is accessible by a code.
My inexperience driving a long van showed as when I was driving into the storage unit area I clipped the gate with the side of the van when turning. On realising that I did this I stopped and reversed back out but I caused a scrape to the side of the van, not a massive one and the van did have a fair bit of damage to it already, but big enough to notice. I didn't think any damage was done to the gate as there didn't appear to be any and it opened and closed as normal after I left.
On returning the van I told the renter about the damage to the side of the van, long story short they kept the £400 deposit and said he will look to get it repaired in the summer. I then got a phone call the following day from the storage units to say that I had done damage to the gate and they have to repair a sensor which I would be liable for. 
I know it's my own fault for trying to do things on the cheap, lesson learnt there. Has anyone else had a similar experience to this? I was insured by the van rental company for the rental period. Are the storage units able to claim on the van company insurance or would it come out of my pocket? I'm trying to sort this as cheaply as possible on what's been an expensive month already.

You hired a vehicle.
You damaged the vehicle, and damaged somebody else's property with the vehicle.
Yes, it all goes on the vehicle insurance. You pay the insurance excess.
That's it. That simple.

Yes, you need to be very careful when manoeuvring long vehicles in tight spaces - you need to watch both outside corners and the inside middle - and reversing on door mirrors can be a challenge to those who aren't used to it.

Irishpearce26

Check your terms on the vehicle hire as their insurance excess can be £1000+ so may be better to pay the damage yourself.

pcwep8

Thanks for the replies everyone. The excess is £500 so having paid the £400 already I was thinking it would be cheaper to put through the insurance.

Irishpearce26

Depends what cover they have for 3rd party damage. You may find that there is no cover for damage that you made to the gate. Check the T&Cs of what is covered. I had a similar issue with a rental, charged me big excess even though the damage was about £100 but wouldn't cover the damage to the property I bumped into. Thankfully it was a shop who said just cover the cost of paint so didn't cost much.

pinkteapot

I would just let the insurance deal with it - you've got enough going on if you've just moved house. 

If you end up having any more specific questions it's probably one for the insurance board.