Insurance Question - Replacement Hire

[jwrhind]

Heard today the sad story of a friend whose motor boat was run over by another boat, while moored in a marina on the south coast. That was in July and the boat has still not been repaired, so the poor chap had half the summer with no boat.

Got me thinking. If someone runs into my car, I get a replacement while my car is being fixed.

So, if someone runs into my yacht - and it's clearly their fault - presumably I can hire a replacement at their cost to continue my summer holiday or whatever?

From my limited legal knowledge, I believe I would have this right in common law, but what is the insurer's attitude? Has anyone been successful in this?
(Always, assuming the offending party has insurance - I know people with no insurance!)

Sadly, this is the second story like this I've heard recently. Another friend was run down sailing starboard tack, by a yacht on port. That, of course, is less clear-cut: he should have kept out the way!

While the probability of such an event is very low, I'd be very unhappy if at the start of my two month summer holiday there was an "incident" that left me unable to complete the holiday.

 

[VicMallows]

I would assume the general rules of negligence would apply. The other party would be liable for any loss you sustain, which could well include the need to hire a replacement yacht. Whether or not he is insured for such an eventuality is not your concern. Of course pursuing the action would cost, with no guarantee that you would win the case and even if you did, recover the money. So you could end up with big bill altogether.

I am not a lawyer, and will be interested to read qualified legal opinion. I suspect there may be specific maritime law implications.

Vic

 

[Stemar]

IMHO, loss of enjoyment should be part of his claim against the other boat, plus any cancellation costs, but whether he'd get away with rental costs is another matter. If he can show prebooked marinas, annual leave and such like, I'd have thought he'd be in with a chance, but I wouldn't hold my breath for anything more than cancellation costs.

IIRC, consequential losses have to be pretty closely linked to the original incident - you wouldn't get away with, "Because you ran into my boat I was shocked so I backed my car off the quay, so I couldn't go to a job interview so I didn't get the job that would have paid double my current salary so my wife divorced me so..... My life's ruined I want £20,000,000"

 

[mainmarine]

I am in the procces of claiming for damage to my boat and loss of use for the summer, when it was being repaired. A car ran into the back of my Cornish Crabber while I was towing it to Plymouth in July. I tried to get the insurers to agree for me to hire a replacement boat, they were so slow in responding that the season was over. Despite numerous phone calls letters and emails the third party's insurers have still not paid out on my claim, the latest ploy they are using is that they don't know if the driver was driving on his own insurance or his mother in laws although the driver has admitted liability. I have given them seven days to sort it out or my insurers solicitors will take them to court. Luckily I had legal protedtion on my policy to recover uninsured losses.. There surely ought to be some form of repacement system in place, I lost the whole of what appeared to be, from the shore, a great sailing season. I will keep you posted
Malc

 

[Hardley]

Over the years my boat has been hit twice whilst it was moored up and yes I lost most of both summers.
I had legal protection and got all repairs done, plus a sum for the boat being devalued due to repairs, but on both occasions I was advised that unless I could prove that I had a prearranged holiday booked on my boat, I would be very unlikely to recover the cost of hiring another boat.
As I was retired I could not claim for my time in trailing the boat to two repairers for estimates.
And if you don't get offered what you consider a fair sum for your expenses and devaluation of boat, other parties insurers will put their offer into court and if you don't get awarded a larger sum, you have to pay the other parties insurance costs from the date that they put the sum into court.
I felt I was on a hiding to nothing so had to accept their offer.