Hope you can help.

We have just moved house over the New Year.

We hired a removal firm for Thursday 29 December 2016 through a bidding website.

I received an e mail from the company saying they would attend after 1 p.m. on that day which I felt a bit late.

On the day they came at 4.55 p.m. for a house removal!

We got stuck in and starting moving and when it came to our 52 inch TV asked their advice about how to move this, they said use bubble wrap which we found and put round it and the removal men said they would use blankets and they moved the TV .

When we unpacked the following evening (Friday) the TV was smashed completely.

The company did advertise insurance.

I telephoned early Saturday morning to be told, and received an email, that the TV was not in its box, we wrapped it ourselves, we probably broke it ourselves, and we didn't report it in 48 hours (which we did).

They are saying its too small an item for insurance but this was a £600 television.

Can anyone give advice please

I hope I have put this on the correct forum page.

If they're refusing to pay on their insurance, then the only way I can see this being resolved is via the small claims track.

Put it in writing that you want them to cover for the damage to the TV, which company was it?

Give them 7 days in which to respond accordingly, before you will seek legal advice with a view of issuing a claim for the cost of the TV.

Hello and welcome to CAG, you are on the correct forum page.

The removal firm has a duty of care to transport items safely. If they fail to do that, they are responsible for the resulting damage. Whether they want to reach into their own pocket or rely on their insurance is up to them.

I suppose they could try to say that the TV was damaged because it was not properly packed and that you were responsible for this, if the removal firm was only engaged to do the actual moving and not to do packaging. But to be honest I fail to see how a TV wrapped in bubble wrap and blankets could get smashed to bits unless it suffered pretty bad damage during transit.

For now, I think it is worth pushing this further with the removal company, making clear that they are responsible for the damage and should put it right. If they give an unsatisfactory response, you can write a 'letter before action' followed by a small claim, you can get help with that on here if you need it.

Check terms of Home Insurance to see whether you have cover.

In regard to any cover via removal company, you would need to check the details.

Even if you did pack the TV, they should have checked it was in a safe condition to move it from one location to another without damaging it. If they are a professional removal company, then they must provide a service of an expected standard. You might have grounds to sue the company.

Can you supply more details about the contract you signed up to.

Thanks for all the replies.

The TV didn't get put in a blanket as they promised only our bubble wrap.

I didn't sign any contract with the removal company, it was through Any.van.com who I have now contacted and they have asked for photos of the television.

The company was Top Movers from Croydon.

I will definitely write to the company giving seven days, etc, as per the advice.

I was attracted to the company as they had advertised that all would be fully insured.

Shocked when they gave such short and unhelpful response that this damage was done by us the following day and much too small a detail to bother their insurance with.

It was so dark by the time they arrived to us it was difficult for them to get the job done.

I never expected removal men to turn up at 5 p.m. for a full house removal.

Thanks again for your help.

Staff from Any.van (the bidding site) has tried to speak to TopMovers and told us we now must claim on their insurance as they are refusing to budge. I have e-mailed for their insurers name but they are ignoring me. Any advice please?

Sorry to hear that you didn't get anywhere with the company.

The next step would be to write a 'formal letter before action' to the moving firm, stating clearly and concisely what happened (i.e. the TV was smashed to bits) and what you want them to do. Give them 14 days to contact you to agree payment arrangements or you will be issuing a claim against them if the matter is not resolved.

If the moving firm still doesn't respond, the final step would be to issue a small claim against them through the moneyclaimonline system.

Hi, with regard to the above matter I have sent a letter to Smart Movers demanding they put this matter right or let us go through their insurance, giving 14 days to reply and have not had a reply. Now going through the small claims, one question I have is that they seem to have 2 names, I booked Top Movers, received an email from them @smartmovers and have had 2 discussions with Smartmovers. The letter sent was to Smartmovers. When we put it through the small claims process should I do it through Smartmovers or can they hide behind another name. Many thanks for any replies.

The name you put in is the name you paid and hold a receipt and paperwork/quote for.

Andy

Thanks.

Please may I ask for more help with this matter. The Money Claim Online seems to require the full name of defendant but in all dealings only first names were given on correspondence, can I just use Smartmovers as the e-mail sent was @smartmovers.com. There was very little official documentation with this case. A lot of it was give by AnyVan.com who seem to be some kind of search engine for removals and take a third of the money.

Also one other question I have is, that the company advertised £75,000 of insurance but have refused to give the details of the insurance (actually refusing to speak to us at all), is this a trades description issue as this was a reason we went with this company as we thought we had peace of mind that there would be insurance if something went wrong. It did, and now we seem to be in a position of not being able to do anything about it. Many thanks in advance for any answers.

The name you put on the claim form is the name you will get on the CCJ.

If you put an unclear name on the claim form, you will find it very difficult to enforce the CCJ. Bailiffs can't enforce against a "John" or a "Harrry".

If you are suing a company, the name you put on MCOL will be the legal name of the company.

Is this their website? http://www.smartmovers.co.uk/contact.html?page_no=0&count-num=1674. If so, it has a company number on it.... https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/02675057

Thanks for reply. No this is not the company, Smartmovers are from Croydon.

There is a Smart Movers in that companies house link you gave me with the correct Croydon address but it does say 'dissolved 29 Sept 2015', that seems weird. As mentioned before they also called themselves Top Movers.

Is it this link at all: http://smartmovers.com/

Yes that is them.

Who did you pay, how much, and how?

Ok the actual name of the Company is actually on that main Homepage almost near the bottom of the webpage it states 'Smart Way To Move Ltd' & below that it states

'We are a Gold-certified and accredited company on Anyvan'.

Endole Link for Smart Way To Move Ltd: https://www.endole.co.uk/company/09309152/smart-way-to-move-ltd

Thanks for taking the time to look this up. That address is the same but there seems to be three names Top Movers, Smart Movers and now Smart Way to Move Ltd that this company use. Should I put as a Defendant Smart Movers do you think? I paid a deposit of £115 through Anyvan.com and then £200 and an extra £130 to the removal men on the day, we paid extra as we had more than we first estimated which we paid happily.

I am now also quizzing Anyvan.com as to why insurance for individual companies are advertised but then they won't give details when you need to claim. I don't want anything extra other than re-imbursement for my smashed television.