Somebody drove a car into our house - should I take it further

[jenkel]

And no I'm not kidding.

A long story so here I go.

We were on holiday in Australia and whilist we were away an old biddy slammed her foot on the pedal in the car and drove into our kitchen. We have lost the door, extensive damage to the wall (which is now supported), central heating boiler, kitchen tiles and some of the kitchen units. Kitchen is a fitted kitchen which was done 2 years ago. Majority is being sorted by the insurance. Unfortunately for us the kitchen is now discontinued and after lots of phone calls to the suppliers they are unable to find matching doors. The insurance company will pay for matching doors for the ones that have been damaged, if no replacement can be found they will pay 50% of the cost for a whole set of new doors.

I am so angry about this, not only have we had a perfectly good kitchen trashed, we have no central heating and the holiday was ruined trying to sort all this out in Australia. To make matters worse the old lady hasnt even apologised. We need major building work to be done and ordinarily there is now way I would consider having anything done with a 2 year old and a crawling baby. And all this on top of christmas.

The lady escaped unhurt.

As it looks like we will be out of pocket for the kitchen, as well as the incovience and the fact that a holiday was ruined I am wondering if we should take it further, especially as she hasnt even apologised.

I would just like other peoples views on this, nothing like this has happened before to us. We are the innocent party yet we are the ones suffering the most and it just doesnt seem fair.

Well, rant over, be interested in other peoples views

Yeas of course you should. Is it your insurance company or hers who are only willing to pay 50%. You need to claim from her insurers not your building insurers.

It sounds as if they are trying it on...insurance companies always try to get away with paying out as little as poss. You should be left in the position you would have been in if it hadn't happened; I think they should probably also pay for accommodation for you while the work is done since you have small children. And compensation for the spoilt holiday.

Have you had any legal advice? I think I would go to the CAB in the first instance. Or sign up for Which magazine's legal advice service.

btw she can't apologise I don't think - her insurance company will have told her not to - it amounts to an admission of liability or something? So don't hold that against her (yet!)

Didn't this happen to another MNer fairly recently??

btw, surely she is the only one who can be liable. Unless the house leapt out at her . It's certainly the case if you have a run of the mill car accident though.

Agree with others - sound slike you need to be claiming from the lady's insurance - not yours!

We are claiming off her insurance through ours. As long as our insurance company manages to claim 80% of the cost back it wont affect our insurance. So far they have been OK, providing us with heat etc but we do have a few little niggles with them. To be honest this is the first time we have ever claimed so all very new to this.

have no expertise or experience but I think it is highly unreasonable for them not to pay the full cost of matching doors - you started out with a kitchen with matching doors - you should have a kitchen with matching doors at the end of all this. If the current doors are not available, then that means you get a new lot. There is no way you should be expected to foot any bill at all for this. not very helpful, I know, just sympathetic.

I think you should speak to someone senior at your insurers. They will recoup in full their losses from the vehicle's insurers provided they can demonstrate that their losses (i.e. the amount they've paid out) are fair and reasonable.

They are not likely to lose anything. Don't accept this without a fight and mention that you will contact the ombudsman if they refuse to give in.