Foreign objects and damaged machinery

[hintonroadhero]

Been thinking about this after we had our insurance bill. We've had public liability for years. This year I panicked and got contractors liability too ( builders working on roofs etc ), and yet, contractors must have their own insurance too.
That's 3 different lots of insurance paid for the same job ?

An interesting concept...but which insurance company pays in the case of an incident. A few years ago I had borrowed a neighbours tandem axle 12 foot trailer to go and collect some trees the wife had bought at a local garden centre. Turning into the garden centre off a 100kph road and woman in a Hilux hit me from behind at 130kph....her husband who was in the passenger seat to me this after the event...trailer was shortened by about 3 feet, folded the A frame drawbar vertically and snapped the towbar off the back of the car. Impact was so hard that both front seats snapped backward to lie horizontal.. thought I've not been in this position with the Mrs. for years !!! But back to the insurance.. car was written off...assumed trailer would be covered by my comprehensive insurance too?......insurance company asked "is it your trailer?'...no I borrowed it... Does your friend have it insured?.. yes... In that case its his insurance company's liability.....you cant insure it twice. His company would only pay out on a depreciating asset, so as it was 10 yrs they offered him $400... new replacement was $4,400.. so in the end I had to write him a cheque out for $4,000 as I felt so bad about it... you've got to love insurance companies !!!!

 

[Mc115reed]

Thanks for the reply but don't think I like what i read ! I'm not expecting a map but just a field in a reasonable condition for the operations that are required to be carried out on it, this requires preparation at an earlier part of the season. I thought in this day and age that risk that can be very easily avoided, should be avoided. If a contractor regularly had a bad bang with foreign objects in his combine, mowers, foragers etc and had to continue to claim of his own insurance how long could he stay in buisness? Fieldfarmer mentioned about a farmer volunteering his public liability, if he did this would his insurance cover the damage then?

Unfortunately that’s contracting! We’ve ate many a thing with the forager and balers and hit man hole covers with mowers and had too swallow it for the bigger picture....
premium going up a few hundred and excess of few hundred vs £20k worth of work every year for the farmer? Take it on the chin that’s what insurance is for....

 

[Sid]

Had someone ask a friend to mow large swath of grass, he had heard that there could be stones, gate posts old wire etc.

Simple caveat when ask to mow, "£x per acre and you pay for any damage from objects left in field"
Don't know who mowed it.

 

[fieldfarmer]

Thanks for the reply but don't think I like what i read ! I'm not expecting a map but just a field in a reasonable condition for the operations that are required to be carried out on it, this requires preparation at an earlier part of the season. I thought in this day and age that risk that can be very easily avoided, should be avoided. If a contractor regularly had a bad bang with foreign objects in his combine, mowers, foragers etc and had to continue to claim of his own insurance how long could he stay in buisness? Fieldfarmer mentioned about a farmer volunteering his public liability, if he did this would his insurance cover the damage then?

From experience yes the farmers cover could pay out on it however at renewal you have to declare any accidents you have been involved in where you were at fault or not and if the insurance company had to pay or not, my insurance records have 2 no fault to me claims (and no cost to the insurers) on them but I'm sure it still put my premium up.

 

[Nigel Wellings]

Thanks for the reply but don't think I like what i read ! I'm not expecting a map but just a field in a reasonable condition for the operations that are required to be carried out on it, this requires preparation at an earlier part of the season. I thought in this day and age that risk that can be very easily avoided, should be avoided. If a contractor regularly had a bad bang with foreign objects in his combine, mowers, foragers etc and had to continue to claim of his own insurance how long could he stay in buisness? Fieldfarmer mentioned about a farmer volunteering his public liability, if he did this would his insurance cover the damage then?

If the farmer provides details of his Public Liability cover to the Contractor he is not allowed (in the policy wording) to admit liability. The Contractor will have to argue the toss with the Farmers Insurers and see if they are willing to accept liability. My view is something like stone damage they will not admit liability for but something like chain harrows left in mowing grass and Contractor not told about they will have to accept liability for.

 

[Nigel Wellings]

From experience yes the farmers cover could pay out on it however at renewal you have to declare any accidents you have been involved in where you were at fault or not and if the insurance company had to pay or not, my insurance records have 2 no fault to me claims (and no cost to the insurers) on them but I'm sure it still put my premium up.

If non fault claims where insurers have not paid out anything then premium should not being going up. A decent Broker should be spotting this and having the argument on your behalf with Insurers. If Insurers don't play ball then Broker should be moving you to another Insurer

 

[glasshouse]

I hit a concrete water trough with a rapeswather
Knife drive was totally rooted
Another driver hit an elevated concrete manhole at about 10mph.
He went through the windscreen and header was written off

 

[Nigel Wellings]

I hit a concrete water trough with a rapeswather
Knife drive was totally rooted
Another driver hit an elevated concrete manhole at about 10mph.
He went through the windscreen and header was written off

I would expect both of those claims to be paid out under the machine insurance and no liability on landowner/farmer if you were contracting.

 

[glasshouse]

I would expect both of those claims to be paid out under the machine insurance and no liability on landowner/farmer if you were contracting.

Dont know who paid
The concretes manhole could have killed the driver, nobody warned of it

 

[grass man]

I would expect both of those claims to be paid out under the machine insurance and no liability on landowner/farmer if you were contracting.

Assuming these items were unmarked in the middle of a field I'd have thought the farmer was at fault for not pointing out the objects and therefore would be liable to a claim against his insurance. Imagine the potential outcome of the man being put through the windscreen of a swather! I do agree if a contractor crashes into a hedge or gatepost etc he should claim of his own insurance.

 

[Sid]

If you were cutting your own grass and you hit "an object" which caused damage to the bed and it seized up.

Can you claim off your insurance?

 

[B'o'B]

a stone is definitely something you would expect to find in a field - from experience an insurance company (the nfu in fact at the time) will not pay under foreign object cover for a stone

They have paid out for us on a couple of occasions with stone damage to our combine. Header auger on one occasion and drum and concave on another.

 

[Nigel Wellings]

If you were cutting your own grass and you hit "an object" which caused damage to the bed and it seized up.

Can you claim off your insurance?

Yes, you should be covered for this as long as tractor pulling mower is comprehensively insured. The foreign object has caused accidental damage which is covered.

 

[davidroberts30]

I'll let you know when its sorted out

If I came to yours to mow and asked you if anything to watch out for,you say no nothing there no manholes/stones etc
What would you say if i smashed the mower on a stone half the size of a 6inch block?

i guess some soils are stoneless - so i wonder if insurance would treat that differently ?

interesting, would like to hear what a broker would say on this

when this thread originally ran i had smashed a drive hub on the mower on a lump of granite the size of half a 4inch concrete block
got back to the guys yard and said damage as id asked if anything to watch out for, would be on the bill or through his insurers
i had the details etc but his side were starting to play funny so just added the cost of damage and repair to he bill
next month i had reimbursement for the silage work with a note to say the insurers were a bit slow due to lockdown
2nd month i had the reminder with a note to say sorry for the delay

 

[Sharpy]

If you were cutting your own grass and you hit "an object" which caused damage to the bed and it seized up.

Can you claim off your insurance?

I have in the past. Would do so again.