Wedding dress destroyed in laundrette fire

Alderbank

Their T&Cs say

In the unlikely event of loss or damage, we will compensate up to a maximum of £30 per item.

Amywhitey

DullGreyGuy said:

Amywhitey said:

Surely this can’t be correct? The owner has stated in her messages that goods are left at customers own risk, but this was never communicated to me verbally or non verbally at the time of my visit.

Do you know what the cause of the fire was?
If she is insured or not is irrelevant, there is no legal requirement for them to have any insurance other than Employers Liability.

As per the link above, they had a duty to take reasonable care of your goods irrespective of the signage/message but you cannot hold them liable if some local scrot decided to set fire to the place for kicks... fault in their machinary/electrics then maybe

Unfortunately they have not disclosed the reason for the fire, but an employee of the business they also own next door,  believe it was caused by all the static etc through the heat off the machines. This has yet to be confirmed by the owner as she is no longer relying to my messages

Amywhitey

pinkshoes said:

Amywhitey said:

Hi. New to the forum. I took my wedding dress to our local laundrette for cleaning, between June and September 2022, no date on receipt. Cleaning was to be paid for on collection of dress. I was told there would be a wait for the dress to be cleaned as they had quite a back-log, which was fine. 

On 13th December the laundrette posted on Facebook to advise there had been a fire. I private messaged the owner and said she would be in touch regarding the state of the dress and they were waiting for their insurance to come back.

No word, so I private messaged the owner again on 22nd Feb and she advised there is nothing she can go regarding compensation for my dress as her insurance doesnt cover customers items. 

Surely this can’t be correct? The owner has stated in her messages that goods are left at customers own risk, but this was never communicated to me verbally or non verbally at the time of my visit.

"Goods left at a customer's own risk" would be an unfair T&C. They legally have a duty of care for your item. How else are you meant to get your item dry cleaned without leaving it?!?

They should have insurance against fire. 

You will need to decide what the dress is worth. I'm assuming you have already had the wedding? Were you getting it dry cleaned to store it or sell it? You will need to establish the value of a second hand wedding dress and claim this amount. I think typically it's around 30% to 50% depending on the original quality, and designer dresses can fetch a slightly higher amount. 

You cannot claim for sentimental loss.

You will need to do some digging into the business and find out who owns it, then potentially send a letter before action to the owner giving them 28 days to pay out for the dress. 

Going on the date of the fire and Google, is this a laundrette in Dorset?

Thank you for your advise and yes it has been worn, wedding was in April. And no not Dorest

DullGreyGuy

km1500 said:

Probably because they expect customers to have their own contents insurance with 'personal possessions out-and-about' cover to protect their possessions against loss, damage, destruction etc whilst out of the house.

More likely cost saving and/or thinking their T&Cs covered them and/or didnt understand that the PL section excludes third party items under the businesses care/control