Legal Eagles needed- storage company destroys my stuff!

[pugwash4x4]

Ok Quickly- i have my whole house contents stored by a large storage company. As required by them i maintain insurance (not there's as it was expensive and crap). Their unit flooded over Christmas due to a burst water main at the top of the building (actually it was a burst sprinkler system). It took them 10 days to tell me- despite having my adress and 3 phone numbers! In total i didn't see my unit untiul 14 days after the event.

Insurance gets involved and as expected agrees to cover damaged items on a new for old basis.

Great, but it takes me and the missus a couple of days (including time off work) to get all the stuff out of the wet unit into a dry unit and get stuff dried out. I also lost a huge amount of very personal heirlooms and other items with huge sentimental value.

Now as a matter of course i would expect the storage co to not charge me for the month when they trashed my stuff- and possibly give me an extra month for free or so- is that unreasonable? frankly i go far further that that for my customers if something goes wrong.

I write to Storage Co suggesting this, and in reasonably polite terms get told to take a hike.

So- where do i stand legally- i'm really annoyed that they don't have the common courtesy to even try and make good the damage they caused.

Consequently i'd like to gain compensation for anything i legally can!

Advice welcome.

[Swilly]

pugwash4x4 said:

Ok Quickly- i have my whole house contents stored by a large storage company. As required by them i maintain insurance (not there's as it was expensive and crap). Their unit flooded over Christmas due to a burst water main at the top of the building (actually it was a burst sprinkler system). It took them 10 days to tell me- despite having my adress and 3 phone numbers! In total i didn't see my unit untiul 14 days after the event.

Insurance gets involved and as expected agrees to cover damaged items on a new for old basis.

Great, but it takes me and the missus a couple of days (including time off work) to get all the stuff out of the wet unit into a dry unit and get stuff dried out. I also lost a huge amount of very personal heirlooms and other items with huge sentimental value.

Now as a matter of course i would expect the storage co to not charge me for the month when they trashed my stuff- and possibly give me an extra month for free or so- is that unreasonable? frankly i go far further that that for my customers if something goes wrong.

I write to Storage Co suggesting this, and in reasonably polite terms get told to take a hike.

So- where do i stand legally- i'm really annoyed that they don't have the common courtesy to even try and make good the damage they caused.

Consequently i'd like to gain compensation for anything i legally can!

Advice welcome.

I am not a legal bod so my advice isnt worth shiite, but...


You have a contract. You agree to pay a monthly fee they agree to do something.
You are obliged to pay your fee or be in breach.

If you believe you have suffered damage you need to write to them explaining what damage you have suffered and why it is their liability.

You need to be able to show a trail of communications and reasonableness.

When all that fails go to the small claims court (assuming its a smallish claim)

Don't treat this as a personal affront as you will only reduce your effectiveness to deal with it. Treat it as business.

[johnfm]

What does your contract say?

You claimed on your insurance - they will then claim agaisnt the storage company - so you probably need to eek out as much recompence as you can from your insurers.

[Jasandjules]

pugwash4x4 said:

Great, but it takes me and the missus a couple of days (including time off work) to get all the stuff out of the wet unit into a dry unit and get stuff dried out. I also lost a huge amount of very personal heirlooms and other items with huge sentimental value.

Now as a matter of course i would expect the storage co to not charge me for the month when they trashed my stuff- and possibly give me an extra month for free or so- is that unreasonable? frankly i go far further that that for my customers if something goes wrong.

As your insurance have covered the loss of the items you haven't any legally recoverable losses there as I see it.

BUT, if you are self employed in any way, then you can claim for your time in fixing the mess. The question is were they negligent? In terms of the storage costs, what does it say in terms of any such event? I think it would be a bit difficult for them to ask you to pay for storage of damaged goods, when they caused the damage, and presumably the damaged goods were subsequently removed.