the holiday inn roof fell on my car!!!

[yiddo]

hi not too sure if any one can help me on this but just really wanted some advice on my situation--a couple of months ago in all the stormy weather the roof from the holiday inn next to the football ground in leicester (anyone in leics here?) was pulled completely off by the force off the wind-8 tonnes of it by all accounts! now my car was parked in the staff car park (i work for a garage just up the road) directly opposite the holiday inn and although it could have been alot worse alot of debris was flying about and this obviously damaged my car and about ten others! just mainly smallish dents and scratches nothing that serious. now a couple of days later a decent bloke came across to see us all-i presume he was from the insurers-to take pictures of all the damage to all of the cars.

i asked what happens next to which i was told we would all be sent claim forms to confirm the incident actually happened and that the damage was consistent with the pictures taken.this man also assured me that there would me no problems getting this sorted out-standard b.s. obviously! ok i thought-very nice of the holiday inn! and waited for my form to arrive-6-8 weeks later and nothing after a few phone calls to different people who all said different things none of which made much sense i have a quote of around £700 to fix the damage-as does around ten other people at work only for their insurers to tell me "you have to prove we were negligent" sorry for the long winded story but thats where we're up to now-a £700 repair bill and a p*** off!!!!!!!!!! can anyone help?????? :-?

[xrchris]

You haven't mentioned your own insurance arrangements. Do you have a comprehensive motor insurance policy? If yes then lodge a claim with your insurer so that you may rectify the damage to your vehicle ASAP. Then sort out the mess once fixed.

[yiddo]

yes i do have comprehensive cover and this is one thing they said to me-to get three quotes and get your insurers to claim back from theirs however now they have said i have to prove they were negligent it looks like they aren't going to pay out-either leaving me with a £700 bill or paying the excess on my insurance and making a claim against it myself-obviously which i'd prefer not to do!!! the bloke who came and took the pics did actually say to me "theres no way they can't pay out" but again standard insurance b.s. i wonder-i just thought this wouldn't have been such a problem because they can hardly deny what happened!!!

[Bookworm]

No, but at the top of my head, I can see at least 2 ways they can turn down your claim:

 

1) Extreme weather conditions - quite a few insurances will not pay out in such circumstances.

 

2) (and simpler for them) Did you have permission to park on their property? If you parked there without explicit permission, I think the odds are that they'll say "parked at your own risk".

 

Why don't you just leave your insurance to deal with it? IF they're successful, then you'll recover your excess, if not, you'll have saved yourself months of trouble.

 

Something like negligence is very hard to prove for a layman, and frankly, I wouldn't give much hope for success if you were to tackle this on your own.

 

JMO.

[Yorkyclaims]

There has been a few similar threads.

 

Unfortunately, you have nearly no chance. The only way you can get the money back is by proving the holiday inn were negligent. Now if they have never maintained the roof and it was in a dilapadated state then you have a case.

 

But it is likely they will mainatin the roof.

 

You will either have to go through your insurance, or stand the cost yourself I'm afraid.

[buzby]

The old 'act of god' clause rears its ugly head again. As much as it galls me, this is where your own insurance has to take the strain. If the hotel could have foreseen their rood was unstable then they could be held liable, but if there was a storm, then they would not be liable for the outcome.

[wez1211]

I think we have too many motor insurance people in here.

 

In my humble opinion:

 

1. The hotel will be liable under Hotel Proprietors Act or Defective Premises Act or both, and under common law.

2. The hotel will have property owners liability cover and so there is cover to pay for these losses. They know this because they sent a man out to assess the damage! - a loss adjuster probably.

3. The onus of proof to prove negligence will be on you but the test will be 'on the balance of probabilities', a lot lower than 'beyond reasonable doubt'.

4. Act of God is a defence but do you think an ordinary storm/high winds can be defined as 'act of god'? If it were a tornado/monsoon/meteor, perhaps. Rather i would be asking how come the roof came off so easily, roofs need to be able to withstand normal storms, dont you think?

5. Get a quote to repair car, find out who the insurer is and send a 'letter before action' quoting the above legislation and common law etc.

6. You cant rely on motor insurer to subrogate claim to property insurer - too much hassle for them.

 

Cheers

 

Wez1211

[Trojan1401]

In my opinion this is definately an insured risk and Holiday Inns are liable.

 

I agree with Wez that you should claim directly against them as your motor insurers would probably not persue recovery due to cost.

 

Ring Holiday Inns and ask for the name and address of their brokers who will probably deal with claims on their behalf as I HI will have a significant retention under their property insurance of around $1m i.e. they will self insure claims below this level. I don't think they have their own insurance department so brokers will administer this on their behalf.

[buzby]

AIUI the damage didn't take place on hotel property, so that claim may be spurious. However, the motor insurers have to be told even if no formal claim is being made on the motor policy.

[Trojan1401]

The motor insurers do not need to be told of this unless a claim is to be made as no third party was involved.

 

Even though the damage did not take place on the hotel property, the cause of the incident was a result of debris coming off the hotel therefore they should be deemed responsible

[buzby]

'Afraid not. Since 1996 Insurers require notice of any insured event to the covered vehicle whether it leads to a claim or not. How will they know? If a claim to a third party insurer is made, the details will be stored on the Insurance Hunter database, to which the insurer of the vehicle will refer to for any subsequent claim. They can then walk away from the cover due to the previous non-disclosure.

 

I note your use of the word 'should' in the last paragraph. I quite agree, however what is right morally and what happen in the real world are quite different. There may be an offer of goodwill, but they will be under no legal obligation to do so.

[Trojan1401]

Sorry Buzby, don't agree that the incident should be reported to his motor insurers if there is no intent to claim from them. The obligation is only there should a third party be involved where there is a likleyhood of a claim.

 

My background is underwriting however if there's a claims specialist here perhaps they can confirm either way.