Damage by tenant - insurance company won't pay

Agencies and other headaches, keys and cleaners, running costs and contracts...in short, all the things we spend so much of our time doing behind the scenes.<br>
Giraffe
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Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2016 10:10 am
Location: Cornwall, England

Post by Giraffe »

akwe-xavante wrote:Safety isn't something we should implement as a minimum at the lowest possible cost and only when it's a legal requirement to do so.
Kingyclan, I'm really sorry for your predicament, hope that you are able to get things sorted with the insurers.

I think you and your guests have been extremely lucky this time. It gives all us FHL owners a salutary lesson in the importance of safety measures. Not only should we have our visitor safety as our top priority, but in these days of increasing litigation I agree with akwe-xavante that it's better to be over-compliant with safety precautions.
(eg. I have a long strung out house which is pitch black at night. Although by law I am under the measured limit for emergency lighting, I've had it put in for peace of mind. I know visitors would not always follow instructions to take charged mobiles to bedrooms at night, nor use the supplied torches.)

Kingyclan, if you are reassessing risk for your future disabled visitors, are you aware that your local fire brigade will help you with fire risk? As far as I know it is a free service.
The best things in life are free
e-richard
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Location: Algarve, Portugal
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Post by e-richard »

Kingyclan wrote:Discussions with brokers and insurance are ongoing and not looking promising at all, though there is talk of an ex gratia payment, though, this is highly unlikely to cover anything like the expenses we now face. I am reeling at the corporate wriggling and small print get out of jail free cards that are being played but I am coming to the conclusion that I either sort out my business or spend months in legal battles pitted against some very big players.

Down but not out!
I find this part of your story the most horrific and disgusting at the same time. The implication as I understand it is that your insurance company would prefer that your guests perished in the lift rather than attempt to save themselves. They are hardly lift consultants, so they did whatever they could in the circumstances.

If the ombudsman does not rule in your favour and you get a 100% payout, then I believe that Vasek Insurance deserve a bucket load of bad publicity. Consider Which? Watchdog, and all the local papers and particularly any specialist media for disabled.

Glad to hear that despite everything, you seem keen of carrying on the fight.
** Richard
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
Hells Bells
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Location: French Alps
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Post by Hells Bells »

It was hardly wilful vandalism after all. Awful.
akwe-xavante
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Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:19 pm
Location: East Yorkshire

Post by akwe-xavante »

What If: Your guests find themselves in a situation where there mobile phones are downstairs and they are upstairs and the lift broke down or there was a power cut or a fuse tripped? (Or vice versa)

What If: They go to bed and there's a power cut or a fuse trips and there mobile phone battery dies and the chargers are inaccessible?

In the event of a fire or some such other event can they escape by some other means, fire escape? Your not supposed to use a lift where there is a fire.

I hope you have traditional simplistic corded telephones (That do not require a power supply) that are accessible to them from the floor wherever they may be within the property when things go wrong.

You mustn't rely on them having a useable mobile phone on themselves at any time, always anticipate a worst case scenario at all times.

I would re-assess your risk assessment with the assumption that your guests ignore your rules and well intended suggestions and advice and make sure they can escape and contact somebody without using there own mobiles from everywhere within the property.

If a severally handicapped person falls onto the floor on there own with nobody else present and no mobile phone can they get help, can they crawl to and reach an accessible landline phone. If the room is filled with smoke can you see the phone and get to it crawling on the floor?

I could probably think of several other situations but i'll stop there.

Not everybody has a mobile phone. Not everybody knows how to use there own mobile phone. Some people use them so infrequently they can't remember how to switch them on and even forget that they need charging up occasionally.
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