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Mattyboy

Member Since: 05 Dec 2012
Location: Sudbury
Posts: 58

2007 Defender 90 Puma 2.4 HT Santorini Black

Urgent help needed, Just had a total loss Vehicle fire.

Need some help here people,
I purchased a JCB digger some time ago to do a lot of work in my garden, build my garage etc. Spent a lot time and money on it as well getting it very straight. It was parked in my garden yesterday whilst I was at work with my land rover next to it and my tipper truck the other side. Yesterday morning the local farmer noticed black smoke from the garden and run down to see what was happening, the digger was well alight and the land rover and tipper where just starting to suffer the effects of the heat. He dragged the land rover and tipper to safety and called the fire service.
Luckily the digger was insured, un luckily I had massively under valued it. I have spoken to my insurance company who want to take it away, so that a loss adjuster can go over it, in a 'safe environment'
Getting it out is going to be a struggle, because of access but that's not my problem at the moment. So at the moment I have a digger that is scrap, damage to my land rover and tipper, as well as this the ground round the digger is highly contaminated with oil/burnt digger. I've taken pictures of everything, what else should I be doing? It's shaken me up a bit, nearly lost a lot more and the local farmer is lucky he didn't killed.

To add insult, one of the neighbours complains about me to the council all the time, she saw the fire starting and phoned the council to ask if I was allowed to burn my digger. It was the farmer who called the fire service! 07 Defender 90 TDCI
98 Defender 90 300 Tdi
Land Rover Freelander
MG B GT
CBR 600
AEC Matador
but no washing machine

21st Oct 2015 9:34am

jimbob7

Member Since: 06 Jul 2013
Location: uk
Posts: 2055

Ouch,feel your pain bro,but at the end of the day nobodies hurt.You may lose money on the jcb but f**k it,it's money.Guess you owe the farmer some beers and LOL at having a halfwit neighbour!! Pov.spec,ftw. 2006, 110,TD5.

21st Oct 2015 11:39am

blackwolf

Member Since: 03 Nov 2009
Location: South West England
Posts: 16937

2007 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Stornoway Grey

I'm really sorry to hear of your disaster, terrible! Thank goodness you have at least one brave, public spirited neighbour who is prepared to do the decent thing.

I can't offer much advice since I have no experience in this situation, but there are some things that common sense suggest.

Firstly, was it an "agreed value" policy? If so, and the value you suggested (and agreed) was low, then I suspect that you are rather stuffed.

If not agreed value, was the description you gave of the machine to the insurance company accurate, and did the company know that you had improved the condition of the machine? The reason that this may be important is that the insurance company must/should have a general impression of the value of the machine themselves which they would use together with other factors when calculating the premium. In other words, if you had a machine which realistically was worth £5k and you told them it was worth £50k, your premiums would be higher but they won't pay out £50k if it's a total loss. Similarly if you have mis-estimated the value and are low, I don't see why the comapny should only pay out your understimate, provided of course it wasn't agreed value. Bottom line, the pre-fire condition of the machine should determine its value. Any evidence you have (photos, receipts, etc) could be used for evidence.

I don't see why the loss adjuster cannot see the machine where it is, and personally I would not allow its removal until I had a satisfactory 'agreement in principle' with the insurance company. Depending on the terms of the insurance, it probably only becomes their property when you agree to make a claim, and they agree that you can make the claim. Until then, it's yours.

Your complaining neighbour sounds like a thoroughly worthless piece of garbage. Just remember if her house catches fire to ring the council to ask if she is allowed to burn it down, not the fire service! You couldn't make it up.

Do you know what caused the fire? Electrical fault or arson? What kind of machine was it, backhoe loader or 360?

21st Oct 2015 11:45am

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