I can’t tow my caravan with a German car.. so can I get them to compensate me for loss of use of caravan? I can hire one, so I should be able to bill the insurance company….

consequential loss is a tricky one – I’d talk to your insurance company.

Was it part of the T+C’s when you bought the insurance? If so, I can’t see how you get compensation (you did read the full T+C’s?)… or am I misunderstanding your misunderstanding?

I’m claiming against someone else’s insurance. I’ve been stopped from doing what I was going to do because their insured crashed into me.

I was relying on a caravan trip to the mts to get some Alpine biking in whilst I am here.. don’t want to miss out on that!

Some more details might be handy! I’m guessing the car is yours and you’ve hired the caravan? Where are both of them in relation to Germany? Assuming they’re in the same place, or is that part of the problem?

Edit: slow

Ok well I brought my car to Germany for 6 months, and brought the caravan a) to carry more stuff and b) so we could get away to the mts.

Woman crashed into me, car is out of action for a while, I have a rental replacement. However as above, I can’t use it to tow my UK caravan, so I can’t get away to the mts as previously planned.

You probably need to try a German forum – even the armchair lawyers on here aren’t hot on German law!

why aren’t you allowed/able to tow the caravan?

In Germany (as in other countries) trailers of all kinds are registered and insured separately. My caravan is insured under my car policy (in motoring terms). So if I drive a different car (ie the rental replacement) the insurance doesn’t cover my caravan, and because I’m not driving my UK car it’s also not covered on that.

I know people don’t know about Germany specifically, was just canvassing for opinion on how it normally works at home with being out of pocket for stuff like this.

You would have a claim over here based on what you have said but it would have its difficulties. You also have a duty to mitigate your loss and quantifying the loss of use figure for the caravan would also be open to debate.

My understanding is that a number of european countries do not compensate to the level that we do here (the awards for Personal Injury in Germany are significantly less than over here from experience.)

good luck

I agree it’s complex, but surely, the fact that you’ve been provided with a hire car to replace your’s is the limit of what their insurance company would be expected to do (i.e. – you have not been put in a position where you do not have a car)? For the insurace company to insure your ‘van as well, which has nowt to do with the claim would be generous of them. I can see that you have, perhaps, been inconvenienced, but surely the insurance co have done all you could reasonably expect them to do?

EDIT: or put it another way, do they know you have a van and want to use it/have you told them/what did they say, and why?

Caravan rental seems to run at 45 €/day. I’d hope a couple of hundred euro wouldn’t be too much to ask since they’re alread on the hook for a good 5,000 € according to the garage.

I’m not asking them to insure the van.. just compensate me. I’m out of pocket through no fault of my own and it’s annoying.

EDIT: or put it another way, do they know you have a van and want to use it/have you told them/what did they say, and why?

Called the claims handler.. left a message.. I’m 100% sure they’ll tell me to bugger off, I want to know how loudly I can reasonably complain about it…

I’m out of pocket through no fault of my own and it’s annoying.

That may be true, but I can’t see you getting a Euro out of them – I am standing to be corrected! 😀

I can’t see you getting a Euro out of them

Realistically, me neither. But it’s still not fair!

Got legal cover on your insurance which will help you out? Claims handler is presumably not actually on your side.

not sure legal insurance in England would touch this given that out of jurisdiction, a smallish claim (i.e. no entitlement to legal costs) and fraught with difficulty.

as I said……good luck