Insurance claim - deprivation of use

[KAL]

My boat was holed above the waterline last weekend when she was rammed by a boat with a bowsprit, whilst unoccupied on her mooring, minding her own business. She's being lifted out tomorrow morning and checked over by a surveyor.

She'll be ashore until the repairs have been made. I've got two firms coming out to quote for the job but neither can start for 2 to 2 1/2 weeks.

The other party has admitted full liability and his insurers will foot the bill.

I want to get the job done properly, so she'll be out until that's the case, but does anyone know if it's possible to claim for loss of use? It looks like she'll be out of action for up to a month, and we had planned a whole week on board during that time. It seems unfair to have lost our holiday through no fault of our own.

Any advice or experience would be most appreciated, folks.

 

[Tranona]

Highly unlikely unless you have already incurred unrecoverable expense. The only obligation on the other party (and their insurers) is to put you back in the position you were before the accident. Straight loss of amenity would be calculated on a %age of capital value for the period the boat was out of use - usually a very low %age. So if it was 10% (just a guess) and the boat was out of action for 5 weeks (one tenth of a year) it would amount to 1% of the value of the boat - hardly worth fighting over. Might be different if the boat was a business and you lost income.

Better to concentrate on making sure the damage is repaired properly to your and your surveyor's satisfaction.

 

[KAL]

Better to concentrate on making sure the damage is repaired properly to your and your surveyor's satisfaction.

That's the major priority. Bit galling though, as she'd only been on the water for a month, absolutely gleaming.

Ah well.

 

[GrahamM376]

does anyone know if it's possible to claim for loss of use? Any advice or experience would be most appreciated, folks.

I claimed and received compensation for loss of use but insurers didn't pay it. It's a bit complicated.

Insurers paid all repair and yard costs, less the £250 excess.

Legal Assistence then covered the uninsured losses such as the excess, police surveys, paperwork costs etc. They also had a sliding scale daily rate for loss of use and paid that out as well. All the paperwork is at home but IIRC, it was only £3-£4/day. We live aboard 9/12 so loss of use was obvious.

In our case, because of the cost and time scale in trying to recover from the other (guilty) party, our insurers were the ones paying out and legal cover also made a one-off payment for the rest. In your case however, I guess your legal assistance company will have to claim all uninsured losses from the 3rd party insurers who may or may not allow loss of use claim, particularly if you only use the boat some weekends.

 

[jackho]

Yes depending on your insurance you can claim loss of benefit. I had a similar experience but didn't in the end have the boat lifted out but my insurance gave me a figure for the loss of use - can't remember but think it was between 400 - 500 pounds a month.

 

[doug748]

I had a similar, uncontested, claim.

I had a couple of 40 mile trips to get quotes, some bed 'n breakfast, some harbour dues, driving the car about, and the rest.

I put it all down in reasonable detail, it came to a lot. I then said I would accept £100 in full and final settlement (pus the cost of the repair, of course). Job done.

I could have got more. I could have still been fussing over it. I would prefer to smile and chalk it to experience.

Reading some of the stories on here it is a blessing to have a someone who has owned up to the damage.

 

[Neil_Y]

I've done it for a damaged car, so don't see why you can't for a boat.

However you'd have to charter a similar vessel and claim the costs for the charter as that is easy to value. To come up with a figure for loss of use inconvenience is always open to discussion and debate. That type of claim is more effort than it's worth, unless you have a free lawyer.

I think it would be fare to charter and then claim, the risks are quite small and if they refuse to pay it would probably be small claims which is quite easy and cheap.

 

[EugeneR]

What happens if your boat is damaged before the season and only repaired after that season?

For example, the guy in the motor boating forum whose boat sank many months ago but is still being repaired - and may well not be repaired soon given that the repairer seems to have issues at the moment.

Do you claim for 12+ months on the basis that you've missed the season?

 

[wotayottie]

I had an RTA that laid me low for one summer and prevented a holiday on board our boat. The lawyers successfully claimed for loss of use of the motorbike but would not / could not claim for the loss of the holiday since it was too remote and no money had been laid out in advance.

 

[colhel]

I'm in a similar position, got rammed on a mooring, however because no-one owned up it's down to my insurers.
Like yours it's been holed above the waterline, although a pain, it's not going to sink or cause further damage. The repair can't be done for a few weeks because they're busy, so I'll keep using her until they're ready to carry out the repair.

Edit: In your case is it possible to carry out a temporary repair whilst still on the water?

 

[Jim@sea]

You need a Chartered Loss Assessor to "Quantify your Loss"
That way when he argues with a Chartered Loss Adjuster which your Insurance Company uses your claim has credibility.