Entire contents of house lost through fire in storage unit

leafymeadow

DullGreyGuy said:

leafymeadow said:

Thank you for all your comments.
The insurance company has told us that it has been proved as Arson , so no liability is taken by the storage company. Can someone explain why this is? We gave 40 years of our lives to a reputable company with 24 hour security, CCTV, Redcare alarm system and they do not have to take any responsibility because it was Arson?

What class of insurance are we talking about? 

By the sounds of it the insurer is talking about some form of liability insurance in which case a party would only have a claim against the firm, and therefore the insurance, if the firm has been negligent in its actions. So if the fire had been caused by them not maintaining the building or it was a theft because someone forgot to lock the door etc then there'd be a claim. 

The fact its an external person who set the fire would point to them not being liable unless they were supposed to have some form of enhanced fire suppression system etc and that didnt trigger because it hadn't been turned on or had been defective for months and they hadn't had someone out to look at it yet etc.

You say you took some extended insurance however, do you have terms for it? what does it state it does and doesnt cover? Unfortunately there is nothing on their website about the insurance for storage. 

We only took out £10,000 worth of insurance and have been granted the full amount although this doesn't cover what we have lost - our fault.

It just does not feel right that the company take no responsibility at all even if it is Arson. Should there be a police report we can access. I just feel helpless.

user1977

leafymeadow said:

DullGreyGuy said:

leafymeadow said:

Thank you for all your comments.
The insurance company has told us that it has been proved as Arson , so no liability is taken by the storage company. Can someone explain why this is? We gave 40 years of our lives to a reputable company with 24 hour security, CCTV, Redcare alarm system and they do not have to take any responsibility because it was Arson?

What class of insurance are we talking about? 

By the sounds of it the insurer is talking about some form of liability insurance in which case a party would only have a claim against the firm, and therefore the insurance, if the firm has been negligent in its actions. So if the fire had been caused by them not maintaining the building or it was a theft because someone forgot to lock the door etc then there'd be a claim. 

The fact its an external person who set the fire would point to them not being liable unless they were supposed to have some form of enhanced fire suppression system etc and that didnt trigger because it hadn't been turned on or had been defective for months and they hadn't had someone out to look at it yet etc.

You say you took some extended insurance however, do you have terms for it? what does it state it does and doesnt cover? Unfortunately there is nothing on their website about the insurance for storage. 

It just does not feel right that the company take no responsibility at all even if it is Arson. 

You haven't explained to us why you think they're responsible.

sheramber

leafymeadow said:

DullGreyGuy said:

leafymeadow said:

Thank you for all your comments.
The insurance company has told us that it has been proved as Arson , so no liability is taken by the storage company. Can someone explain why this is? We gave 40 years of our lives to a reputable company with 24 hour security, CCTV, Redcare alarm system and they do not have to take any responsibility because it was Arson?

What class of insurance are we talking about? 

By the sounds of it the insurer is talking about some form of liability insurance in which case a party would only have a claim against the firm, and therefore the insurance, if the firm has been negligent in its actions. So if the fire had been caused by them not maintaining the building or it was a theft because someone forgot to lock the door etc then there'd be a claim. 

The fact its an external person who set the fire would point to them not being liable unless they were supposed to have some form of enhanced fire suppression system etc and that didnt trigger because it hadn't been turned on or had been defective for months and they hadn't had someone out to look at it yet etc.

You say you took some extended insurance however, do you have terms for it? what does it state it does and doesnt cover? Unfortunately there is nothing on their website about the insurance for storage. 

We only took out £10,000 worth of insurance and have been granted the full amount although this doesn't cover what we have lost - our fault.

It just does not feel right that the company take no responsibility at all even if it is Arson. Should there be a police report we can access. I just feel helpless.

Why did you only take out £10,000 of cover if you knew it wouldn’t  fully cover the value of you goods?

sheramber

The storage company would only be liable if they were demented negligent. 

ThorOdinson

The arsonist is liable, but unlikely to have the money to cover your losses, and the storage company's insurance will be looking to recover from them as well.

The only way that the storage company would have liability is if their advertised security was not as effective as it should have been. Did they let the arsonist in when they shouldn't have? Did their CCTV not work, or was it not monitored which allowed the fire to be worse than I could have been if promptly dealt with? 

It will be hard to find out and hard to prove. Have to spoken to the police? You are the victim of this crime too, so you have some rights to know what is going on.

Boohoo

sheramber said:

leafymeadow said:

DullGreyGuy said:

leafymeadow said:

Thank you for all your comments.
The insurance company has told us that it has been proved as Arson , so no liability is taken by the storage company. Can someone explain why this is? We gave 40 years of our lives to a reputable company with 24 hour security, CCTV, Redcare alarm system and they do not have to take any responsibility because it was Arson?

What class of insurance are we talking about? 

By the sounds of it the insurer is talking about some form of liability insurance in which case a party would only have a claim against the firm, and therefore the insurance, if the firm has been negligent in its actions. So if the fire had been caused by them not maintaining the building or it was a theft because someone forgot to lock the door etc then there'd be a claim. 

The fact its an external person who set the fire would point to them not being liable unless they were supposed to have some form of enhanced fire suppression system etc and that didnt trigger because it hadn't been turned on or had been defective for months and they hadn't had someone out to look at it yet etc.

You say you took some extended insurance however, do you have terms for it? what does it state it does and doesnt cover? Unfortunately there is nothing on their website about the insurance for storage. 

We only took out £10,000 worth of insurance and have been granted the full amount although this doesn't cover what we have lost - our fault.

It just does not feel right that the company take no responsibility at all even if it is Arson. Should there be a police report we can access. I just feel helpless.

Why did you only take out £10,000 of cover if you knew it wouldn’t  fully cover the value of you goods?

This may sound harsh but if you paid insurance to cover the value of your stuff in storage and not the £10,000 then you would not be in this position. You still wouldn't have any of your belongings though.

I am surprised the insurance company paid out if you understand insurared the items but I know that home insurance won't pay out or pay you less if you over/under insure things but your insurance might be better different from home/content insurance.

I would just forget about this now and get on with finding a new home as fighting this wil consume your life.

DullGreyGuy

leafymeadow said:

DullGreyGuy said:

leafymeadow said:

Thank you for all your comments.
The insurance company has told us that it has been proved as Arson , so no liability is taken by the storage company. Can someone explain why this is? We gave 40 years of our lives to a reputable company with 24 hour security, CCTV, Redcare alarm system and they do not have to take any responsibility because it was Arson?

What class of insurance are we talking about? 

By the sounds of it the insurer is talking about some form of liability insurance in which case a party would only have a claim against the firm, and therefore the insurance, if the firm has been negligent in its actions. So if the fire had been caused by them not maintaining the building or it was a theft because someone forgot to lock the door etc then there'd be a claim. 

The fact its an external person who set the fire would point to them not being liable unless they were supposed to have some form of enhanced fire suppression system etc and that didnt trigger because it hadn't been turned on or had been defective for months and they hadn't had someone out to look at it yet etc.

You say you took some extended insurance however, do you have terms for it? what does it state it does and doesnt cover? Unfortunately there is nothing on their website about the insurance for storage. 

We only took out £10,000 worth of insurance and have been granted the full amount although this doesn't cover what we have lost - our fault.

It just does not feel right that the company take no responsibility at all even if it is Arson. Should there be a police report we can access. I just feel helpless.

You need to make a case for why you think they were negligent, backed up with evidence where possible. Remember their insurers are there to protect them not you. I am not saying they were or weren't negligent but you need specific allegations as on the surface both you and they have sustained losses due to the actions of the arsonist. 

You may be able to obtain a copy of the police report, certainly as insurers we buy them in some cases. Really dont expect much from them though, whilst mine were virtually about car accidents or thefts they contain very little detail and won't be released whilst there is an active investigation or if a prosecution is ongoing. 

You are somewhat lucky that there wasnt an averaging clause as there most likely would have been if it were your home insurance where if you were 50% under insured they'd reduce your claim by 50%.

leafymeadow

ThorOdinson said:

The arsonist is liable, but unlikely to have the money to cover your losses, and the storage company's insurance will be looking to recover from them as well.

The only way that the storage company would have liability is if their advertised security was not as effective as it should have been. Did they let the arsonist in when they shouldn't have? Did their CCTV not work, or was it not monitored which allowed the fire to be worse than I could have been if promptly dealt with? 

It will be hard to find out and hard to prove. Have to spoken to the police? You are the victim of this crime too, so you have some rights to know what is going on.

Thank you for taking the time to reply
We haven't spoken to the police but will attempt to contact them. For our own piece of mind mind we just need to know that we have done everything we can to find out the full facts.