When various electrical components in my Volkswagen Tiguan car stopped working, I discovered rats had chewed through the wiring and insulation in several places. This had caused nearly £6,000 of damage, rendering the vehicle unsafe. Entry seemed to be through an air vent near the boot. I made a claim through my insurer, Aviva, which declared that, as the damage must have happened over a period, it would be treated as seven incidents and seven separate claims. Each claim involves a £400 excess payment. In the event, the repair costs for four of the areas of damage came to less than the excess, so I was expected to foot the £801 bill for these, as well as £1,200 in excess payments for the three other “incidents”. My premiums will rise substantially as my claim will be recorded as several claims, when it should have been just one.
DS, Thurso, Caithness
Down in Leeds, a prized Volkswagen camper van has proved an equally tasty snack for rodents. IN’s two-year-old vehicle seized up on the road and he took it for repair under warranty. VW declared that rats had eaten through wires on the underside. “It seems that, in the interest of making their products more environmentally friendly, they have switched the wiring casings to a plant-based material and nocturnal wildlife love eating it,” he writes.
