Pothole damages v's Insurance Claim!
We were unfortunate to hit a pothole measuring 4" deep by 22" square and at only 15-20mph.
5 miles further to our club site, my first problem was connecting the gas bottle valve to the bottle, I had leaking gas from a damaged seal. (Never leave your valve loose on the gas bottle inlet).
Second damage was to our shower sidewall corners, several splits measuring over 6" long. I have a 2009 Bailey GT60 460-2, which is immaculate, and we always use club sites. The van was having its first outing (March) after the annual service where all was
in order.
Saga insurers sent their 'Access' accessor round to inspect after I had sent a full report with photographs of both the pothole and the damages. I also made the Council aware of this dangerous hole.
The accessor report came back with their 'Assumption' that, "as there was no evidence of suspension damage and that they would have thought that the suspension should have taken the shock-load, the shower damage was down to "Wear and Tear"
Following this, the council insurers, Zurich, sent a 25page denial of liability complete with dates of road examinations etc.
Not accepting the Zurich reply nor the Saga refusal to my claim, I contacted P.S.S., Plastic Shower Specialists who assisted my claim stating that in their 20 years of repairing showers, they had never seen walls damaged from ware and tear.
By using the 'Freedom of Information' about inspections, other claims and how inspections were carried out, I found the Zurich denial flawed with errors.
With all my evidence, Saga embarrassingly overturned their accessor statement and returned to me my no claims. The council also had to accept liability and I now await my expenses to be refunded.
Moral of this story is: If you know you are right and have the evidence to prove it, don't take accept statements from others who don't know what they are talking about.
