Beyond economic repair

Well... I don't think that even I am going to be able to bring this one back !

My caravan went up in smoke on the way back up the M5 last week. It all started without much warning, I had a woman frantically waving at me as she overtook, pulled over to see what the fuss was about and 'woof' ! Up it went.

Managed to get the Discovery unhitched and out of the way, and had no choice but to sit and watch as the van and all its contents went up in smoke. The whole van was pretty much destroyed by the time the fire service arrived (only 8 minutes after the call), all they could do was put out the remains.

I have to say, the guys from Highways were great and kept everything organised as were the police, fire and paramedics. Nice to know that they are all there when we need them.... let's not forget to support them when they need us ! The remains of the van, pretty much just a chassis and a pile of ash were scraped up off the road and taken away.

Now... here is the painful part. It wasn't a hugely expensive caravan, only worth around £2500.00, so we didn't have a specific insurance policy for it. It is covered by our home insurance when at home or on a site, and by our car insurance when on the road.... or so we thought ! A quick call to Budget (the company I will no longer be using for insurance ever again) revealed that what they told us when we took out the policy wasn't in fact correct. (The moral here is not to believe what they tell you and make sure you read ALL of the small print of your policy when it arrives). Our caravan is covered when being towed... but only 3rd party ! This wasn't what we had been led to understand.. we have a full comp policy with all the bells and whistles and it doesn't even cover fire... more to the point, when towing they only cover the car third party as well... so if I had left it hooked up, I'd have lost even more.

So.. I now find myself without a van, having lost around £800 worth of contents, with no insurance payout. :( What's worse, is that as a result of this, I even had to pay for the recovery as it was a "specialist" job involving a winch truck.. so that's another £350.00 down the drain.

Not a happy bunny at all..

 

If you would like the to see the full horror, there's a set of photos in the gallery.