Insurance Claim

Sadly the cost of repairing Motorhomes is at times scary. I bumped ours in similar fashion to you and was shocked at the cost. My bump happened in France and I notified AXA next day but the holiday continued and the work was not carried out for a month after the bump. I also insisted that the repair be carried out by Donaghey’s as specialist Fiat and Hymer agents rather than a repairer from their panel. My bump was front end. This was approved without any problem. I had to claim via AXA (Dolmen). I have to say AXA were very simple to deal with although I suspect some of the communication was dealt with by Donaghey’s who did a superb repair. AXA loaded my premium for one year, but I had to declare to my car insurer and I am loaded there and suspect I am not back to usual level of premium. It did not affect my no claims bonus (which was protected) but did affect the premium as I was/am regarded as a higher risk after the bump. You might want to take this into account when deciding wether to claim or not. The other point which I kept stressing to my car insurance company was that the cost of the repair was only 4% of the value of the van as the cost in cash terms was probably enough to write off a small reasonably new car!

Davy

Hi Christian.
My thoughts would be to inform your Motorhome insurance company, straight away of the accident. Ask for things like, claim amount excess and etc. Afterwards you can decide if you want to claim or close the file.
Secondly, regarding your private car insurance, I would only inform them, if they asked at the next renewal.
However, since you have a 2015 reg mh, it is worth pointing out that whoever does the repair, that it's done to manufacturers specifications.
Modern mh are sold with assurances of 10 years anti water ingress amongst other things. The workmanship should be of a standard that the manufacturers assurances are still binding.
Malcolm

I have, in the not too distant past, read on one of the larger Uk forums of people contacting their insurance company to ask about an accident/incident and although not formally making a claim, they were penalised as the company were made aware of the problem and decided that the person constituted a higher risk irrespective of claim or no claim, so private quote first and take it from there.

I also believe that should you go down the road of a claim then you need to inform your car insurer as your policy probably requires you to notify them of anything that might bear on your policy. In this day and age with internet databases and sharing of information I don’t think not informing them is an option. Being cynical I would make the assumption that they will not challenge your non disclosure of a claim, but sit tight until you do need to claim when I would assume they will look carefully at your records.

In my bump neither van or car policy was adjusted during the year of claim but were in the subsequent year.

Davy

Just to put a bit of meat to this topic.
Some damage sustained by us about 18 months ago.
A new unpainted bumper was quoted over €1200.
A new rear lamp unit was €100.
To paint and fit the new bumper and lamp was quoted €250.
After vat, approximately €1760.

Luckily we had pick up all of the broken pieces.
The bumper was glue back together with fibreglass support behind, polyfilled, sanded and painted for less than €400.
The new rear lamp unit was €100.
All in, the repair was less than €500.
Motorhome replacement parts are expensive in their nature but repairs can be done for alot less.
Malcolm

I had repair work done like that about 10 years ago by Bridge motorhomes and it was a fraction of the cost of new replacements and repaired quicker than waiting for new parts to be sourced and no insurance increases

The van I had at the time was old and a rare van in Ireland it was a Weinsberg and they had gone out of business at the time but Bridge motorhomes were able to make part's,