Negligence by Removals company

max5445

Just had all my furniture delivered to me from storage by a removal company. Nearly every furniture item was damaged in some way or other.  The items were jammed into storage containers with lack of protection which caused most of the damage.  Removals company have said ‘claim from your insurance company’! I’m not happy with this and have requested a full refund for breach of contract.  They have said no to the refund, I want to take this further as these companies are trusted with our belongings and should not get away with how our items are treated.  Has anyone been successful with getting a refund? Did you go to small claims?

MorningcoffeeIV

Go through your insurance (or theirs). Even if you got a full refund, which you won't, what you actually want is your possessions fixed or replaced 

user1977

What you're entitled to is compensation for the value of the damage they caused, whether that's more or less than whatever you paid them. You can just make the claim from the company - whether they pass it to their insurers or not is up to them.

born_again

Did they not have any insurance?
Surely there must be some for storage, or who would payout in event of fire etc?

user1977

born_again said:

Did they not have any insurance?
Surely there must be some for storage, or who would payout in event of fire etc?

Not that it appears to be relevant here, but if damage happened during storage (e.g. a fire) then that wouldn't necessarily be negligence by the removal company, so the customer may need to have their own insurance.

p00hsticks

user1977 said:

born_again said:

Did they not have any insurance?
Surely there must be some for storage, or who would payout in event of fire etc?

Not that it appears to be relevant here, but if damage happened during storage (e.g. a fire) then that wouldn't necessarily be negligence by the removal company, so the customer may need to have their own insurance.

I can't comment on the situation when going through a third party, such as a removal company But we currently have items in storage and part of the cost is to cover (I think compulsory)  insurance. 

I would expect that a removals company would usually have its own storage facilities, but it wouldn't surprise me if they passed the cost of insurance on to the customer in a similar way. 

tightauldgit

user1977 said:

What you're entitled to is compensation for the value of the damage they caused, whether that's more or less than whatever you paid them. You can just make the claim from the company - whether they pass it to their insurers or not is up to them.

I think technically you are entitled to compensation for the value of your loss - which if you have an insurance policy covering the items would be relevant to determining your loss.  

max5445

Yes I had insurance for storage too. Not a problem claim through my insurance however the some of the items damaged are part of a set. Insurance company will only pay out for the item that’s damaged eg dining table and 6 chairs - 1 chair is ripped and deep scratches, this set is discontinued so insurance will give me a small payment for one chair and the said chair handed to them.  My office furniture badly damaged. If replaced with the same, they won’t pay for a carpenter to put it together. So things like this I want compensating from the removals company as insurance will not cover

tightauldgit

max5445 said:

Yes I had insurance for storage too. Not a problem claim through my insurance however the some of the items damaged are part of a set. Insurance company will only pay out for the item that’s damaged eg dining table and 6 chairs - 1 chair is ripped and deep scratches, this set is discontinued so insurance will give me a small payment for one chair and the said chair handed to them.  My office furniture badly damaged. If replaced with the same, they won’t pay for a carpenter to put it together. So things like this I want compensating from the removals company as insurance will not cover

Does that insurance include any kind of legal cover or help to recover uninsured losses?

max5445

Unfortunately not, insurance was through the removals company