Advice needed - property damage from flying gazebo
Discussion
Figured someone here will have direct experience of this from Le Mans of years past with regard to a violent gust of wind sending a gazebo flying into someone's hired camper-van.
Firstly, whats the liability and how would you go about resolving a claim on you for damage?
We had a pop-up gazebo, double pinned on each corner literally get lifted up and then crash down into the next pitch while we were out getting some supplies on Friday morning. We returned to find the mangled gazebo which had broken a pole on next doors tent but worse, impact damage across the bonnet of a hired german camper. The folks from the camper were fantastic but obviously they are on the hook for a bill somewhere.
We exchanged details but trying to work out what the next steps are...
Thoughts on a postcard
Other than that, was a good, if not fairly quiet LM24 this year.
Cheers
David
Firstly, whats the liability and how would you go about resolving a claim on you for damage?
We had a pop-up gazebo, double pinned on each corner literally get lifted up and then crash down into the next pitch while we were out getting some supplies on Friday morning. We returned to find the mangled gazebo which had broken a pole on next doors tent but worse, impact damage across the bonnet of a hired german camper. The folks from the camper were fantastic but obviously they are on the hook for a bill somewhere.
We exchanged details but trying to work out what the next steps are...
Thoughts on a postcard
Other than that, was a good, if not fairly quiet LM24 this year.
Cheers
David
t?If you left it up in high winds and/or unattended then it might be arguable that you were negligent. Problem might be from camper hire firm. If damage minor they might just charge hirers an excess and it might not be worth pursuing.
Thought Duxford show banned gazebos and a few other things unless a club had £5m of public liability insurance
Thought Duxford show banned gazebos and a few other things unless a club had £5m of public liability insurance
s2driveruk said:
...We exchanged details but trying to work out what the next steps are...
Surely you either offer to pay all or part of their insurance excess or do nothing, depending on how charitable/guilty you feel.My car got a large scratch in the door a couple of years ago in the same circumstances, except it was our own group's gazebo that did the damage. I got some beer bought for me by my comrades and some commiserations but paid the couple of hundred quid to fix it myself.
The right thing to do is to offer to cover the cost of repair. Given the sun and rain at Le Mans, Shelters of all kinds are going to be on the campsites.
Dent Repair can be surprisingly cheap to carry out, if the dent can be pushed back out with the expert use of the right tools.
And yes Car Clubs have been asked for £5M liability, I am part of the Mustang Club Committee and we had to increase our liability insurance coverage at the request of a few venues.
The group I travel with, had not even pegged the Marquee down, which did cause me some concern as my Motorhome was right next to it.
Did this happen on MB ? I thought I saw the note on the Range Rover....
Dent Repair can be surprisingly cheap to carry out, if the dent can be pushed back out with the expert use of the right tools.
And yes Car Clubs have been asked for £5M liability, I am part of the Mustang Club Committee and we had to increase our liability insurance coverage at the request of a few venues.
The group I travel with, had not even pegged the Marquee down, which did cause me some concern as my Motorhome was right next to it.
Did this happen on MB ? I thought I saw the note on the Range Rover....
I guess for me it comes down to a couple of things...
1) Yes i obviously offered to cover the repair/replacement or excess, which on paper it looks like it was 1500euros.
2) I did everything in my control to ensure that the gazebo was as secure as I could reasonably expect it to be being double pegged on each foot etc.
If i was renting a camper and going to park it in a campsite with thousands of others, I would also have probably paid to ensure that in the event of any accidental damage, that any excess would be minimised - I rent a lot of cars globally and I had a separate policy until very recently which ensured that I never got slapped with crazy hire car company bills in the event of damage incurred.
I was just looking for practical advice from those who have been in a similar position. At the time, I was more concerned that people were not hurt from it rather than metal and paint which is easily fixed with £.
1) Yes i obviously offered to cover the repair/replacement or excess, which on paper it looks like it was 1500euros.
2) I did everything in my control to ensure that the gazebo was as secure as I could reasonably expect it to be being double pegged on each foot etc.
If i was renting a camper and going to park it in a campsite with thousands of others, I would also have probably paid to ensure that in the event of any accidental damage, that any excess would be minimised - I rent a lot of cars globally and I had a separate policy until very recently which ensured that I never got slapped with crazy hire car company bills in the event of damage incurred.
I was just looking for practical advice from those who have been in a similar position. At the time, I was more concerned that people were not hurt from it rather than metal and paint which is easily fixed with £.
ukcobra said:
The right thing to do is to offer to cover the cost of repair. Given the sun and rain at Le Mans, Shelters of all kinds are going to be on the campsites.
Dent Repair can be surprisingly cheap to carry out, if the dent can be pushed back out with the expert use of the right tools.
And yes Car Clubs have been asked for £5M liability, I am part of the Mustang Club Committee and we had to increase our liability insurance coverage at the request of a few venues.
The group I travel with, had not even pegged the Marquee down, which did cause me some concern as my Motorhome was right next to it.
Did this happen on MB ? I thought I saw the note on the Range Rover....
Ah no, this was on Bleu Nord...but plenty of them appeared to have been flattened or twisted as a result of the wind on Friday morning.Dent Repair can be surprisingly cheap to carry out, if the dent can be pushed back out with the expert use of the right tools.
And yes Car Clubs have been asked for £5M liability, I am part of the Mustang Club Committee and we had to increase our liability insurance coverage at the request of a few venues.
The group I travel with, had not even pegged the Marquee down, which did cause me some concern as my Motorhome was right next to it.
Did this happen on MB ? I thought I saw the note on the Range Rover....
Yes as an admin of a car club, we too have seen liability costs rise too.
I would assume the legal situation is you have no liability. If someone had been injured it might be different as you would be down to an argument if you had taken all reasonable steps to secure the gazebo, and by the sounds of it that would come down to is pegging it enough, or should you have taken it down when not attended? If you had then it's just an accident and you'll fall in to the small print somewhere on the camping booking of "Use fo the campsite is at your own risk". If not the other party would have to go through the courts to get you to pay.
The right thing to do is what it sounds like you are doing - tell them to claim on their hire insurance (that's what it's there for) and then reimburse them for the excess (as the accident was your fault, not theirs).
The right thing to do is what it sounds like you are doing - tell them to claim on their hire insurance (that's what it's there for) and then reimburse them for the excess (as the accident was your fault, not theirs).
Several years ago we came back to find our huge gazebo in a skip when it had done exactly the same thing, it missed a new 911 by inches. Had it come down on the car it would have made one hell of a mess of it, there's no way I could have afforded the cost of repairs. After that I invested in a dozen 12" ribbed marquee tent pegs and some ratchet straps.
So, I'm not so sure about this. When you rent a vehicle there is always an excess to be paid in the event of an acccident. It's then your decission, as the renter, as to how much you pay to reduce this to an amount you're comfortable with. As s2driveruk mentions, it's possible (and just a few quid) to buy a seperate policy which covers your entire excess, leaving you liable for nothing if something goes worng. The people renting the camper decided they were comfortable with an excess of 1500 euros, they could have chosen to reduce this to nothing but they didn't. So, why should you have to cough up the shortfall? you had no say in the risk they were prepared to expose themsleves to. They also knew the risks of camping there.
I would pay then whatever you feel comfortable with, as a gesture of goodwill, nothing more. Of course, that might be 1500 euros, it might be diddly-squat.
So, I'm not so sure about this. When you rent a vehicle there is always an excess to be paid in the event of an acccident. It's then your decission, as the renter, as to how much you pay to reduce this to an amount you're comfortable with. As s2driveruk mentions, it's possible (and just a few quid) to buy a seperate policy which covers your entire excess, leaving you liable for nothing if something goes worng. The people renting the camper decided they were comfortable with an excess of 1500 euros, they could have chosen to reduce this to nothing but they didn't. So, why should you have to cough up the shortfall? you had no say in the risk they were prepared to expose themsleves to. They also knew the risks of camping there.
I would pay then whatever you feel comfortable with, as a gesture of goodwill, nothing more. Of course, that might be 1500 euros, it might be diddly-squat.
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