caravan insurance get-out

I had a recent problem with CIL on a Camper Trailer claim.
I had an item come off the CT and damage a parked vehicle.
I sent in the claim and was told that because the CT was being towed the policy did not cover damage to a third parties property and that I had to claim under my car insurance.
When I asked why do I have insurance with third party cover when it dose not cover third party property and was told - Check the wording!!
I eventually paid the damage myself because i did not want to put a claim under my vehicle insurance and risk another increase upon renewal.
Another trap for young players!!!!!

Insurance companies are in the business of keeping our money. Never take no for an answer until you've put up a good fight. You have to fight more often than not to get a claim paid these days. Then after a couple of claims they don't want to insure you any more because you're a bad. They want it all their way. Good luck - fight 'em.

Steve,
Sorry to hear of your dramas.
Few months back my wife's pulsar was heading home from work and a hail storm struck. She copped some damage so I did what i thought I had to do and i rang NRMA to notify them of the damage. At the time I had NO intention of repairing the vehicle anytime soon incase another storm hit (we live in a suburb that has lots of hail storm). Figured id save money making 1 claim from 2 hits.

Buggers rang me 4 weeks later notifying me that if i didnt repair the hail damaged car and i had either ...
1 an accident (write off)
2 Stolen vehicle
They would deduct the payout for the hail damage I sustained in the first storm. They advised me that if the car was written off for whatever reason before i fixed the hail damage, they would pay out the value of the car MINUS the damage it sustained through the hail storm.
Believe me when i tell you that they rang me to remind me of this 6 times in 2 weeks.
Finally worked out why they called so often....
They wanted me to pay 1 access for EACH claim. Smart cookies indeed.

Ange

If you're covered for hail damage, then they should pay the full amount. If you're not covered then, unfortunately, they're quite within their rights to deduct a reasonable price from the payout (but what's reasonable?). Look at it this way, they are buying your van from you at the price it would have been worth before the accident. If you'd tried to sell it to anyone with hail damage, they would have rightly haggled with you to reduce the price to take the damage into account.

You never know though, the deduction (if any) might be fairly small. A car of ours was written off by the insurance company (or more accurately by the silly sod who drove into the back of it at high speed) and we were given about 15% more for it than we'd paid for the car two years earlier!

Tell them you want the van fixed or the full amount.
Cheers
Charlie

just to clarify: I did already have the hail damage, mainly on the roof of the pop-top (largely unseen) and a little bit on the front above the A-frame. They towed it away today for the salvage guys to pick over and then the beady-eyed assessor from the insurance company will no doubt leap onto the hail damage and send us $5000. Actualy, I'm thinking worst case $8000 and anything over $10000 as a bonus. Might know by weekend.

to end the tale (I hope) I've just received a fax saying they'll pay out $11000 for the van but I can keep the annexe which is insured at $1500 although it cost $2500.(seperately from the $11000 van - totalling $12500). Bloody annexe is no good without the van it was made to fit, but at least they didn't do me on the hail damage, as I feared. Oh..... btw, annexe for sale to suit 3m long roll-out awning. It also has a 2.7m long extention giving 19ft or 5.7m of annexe. Up for grabs: $500 firm. Between Sydney/Newcastle areas.