When the weather is bad, travel around the UK becomes a complete nightmare. But what can you do if wintery conditions have stopped you from getting from A to B?
We look at whether you can get a refund if the bad weather has forced you to put your travel plans on ice.
Travelling on the roads
The Met Office have been warning people to stay off the roads unless their journey is absolutely essential, but that hasn't stopped people from trying to venture out.
Unfortunately, this has resulted in a plethora of abandoned cars strewn at road sides across the UK, excessive demand on breakdown services and a boom in car insurance claims.
But what can you do if you've been one of the unlucky ones?
If your abandoned car is damaged:
If bad weather meant you had to abandon your car at the roadside only to find that it had been hit by another vehicle on your return, you should be able to claim on your car insurance, even if you don't know who caused the damage.
Unfortunately, this is likely to mean that you will need to pay out your policy excess and, potentially lose your No Claims Discount if you haven't protected it.
That said, this will depend on your car insurance provider's policy on claims relating to unknown drivers so the best thing for you to do as soon as you are able to return to your car is to:
- Report the damage to your local police
- Take photographs of the damage caused to your car and the surrounding area (if possible)
- Contact your car insurance provider's claims help line
If you have a car accident:
If you're involved in a collision, either with another driver or with something else, then you should inform your car insurance provider as soon as possible. It is also worth informing your local police even if their assistance wasn't required at the scene.
If yours was the only vehicle involved, it is likely that you'll need to pay out your policy excess and may forfeit your No Claims Discount if it wasn't protected. The same applies if you were at fault (your car hit the other vehicle).
However, if your car was hit by another vehicle then their policy should cover your excess and your No Claims Discount shouldn't be affected.
When you're involved in a collision it's important to take down the contact details and make, model and registration of any other vehicles involved. If you can get the contact details of any witnesses to pass on to your insurance company, all the better.
Do bear in mind that you're only likely to be able to claim for damage to your own vehicle if you have comprehensive insurance in place - third party, fire and theft cover just doesn't protect you for this type of incident.
If your car iss damaged by bad road surfaces:
Once the ice starts to thaw, the damage that the bad weather has caused to road surfaces becomes evident and more and more potholes start to appear. These can cause their fair share of problems as they make driving more difficult and can cause significant damage to your vehicle.
If a run-in with a particularly nasty pothole has affected your car then you may be able to claim on your car insurance, providing you have comprehensive cover, although you will need to cover your policy excess and possibly forfeit your No Claims Discount.
However, you do have another avenue to explore.
Your local Highways Agency is responsible for maintaining the roads where you live and you may be able to claim compensation from them for any damage caused by bad road surfaces.
To do this you should take a photo of any damage caused to your vehicle and photos of the damaged road surface and contact your local highways agency notifying them that you would like to claim from compensation.
If your breakdown provider won't come out to you:
Breakdown services have been overwhelmed with calls from people stranded at the roadside. This has meant that many people have been refused assistance - particularly if they were stuck at home with a car that wouldn't start.
While it can seem unfair this is down to the fact that most breakdown providers have a 'priority assistance' policy whereby they attend to individuals in the most perilous situations first. In such wintery conditions this is obviously those who are stuck out in the cold.
That said, if you've paid for a service only to be told that you can't claim on it when you need to, you're going to be understandably frustrated.
As such it is worth lodging a claim to your breakdown service provider stating what happened (eg they refused assistance when you when you called them out), what this meant (eg did you lose out on a booking efor example), whether you had previously been informed that you would ever be turned down for assistance and what you'd like them to do about it. There's no guarantee that you'll receive compensation in return but it is worth a try.
Trains
Most train operators have been running a reduced service while the weather has been bad and many journeys have been delayed or cancelled altogether.
You may be able to claim compensation if you have been affected, but this is not guaranteed as most operators will only pay compensation for delays or cancellations that were caused by circumstances within their control. That said, it's still very much worth a try if you had booked an advanced ticket or are a seasonal ticket holder.
Each rail company will have a Passenger Charter that states exactly what they'll offer in the way of compensation for delayed or cancelled journeys so you'll need to check with the train provider you were meant to travel with.
Some rail companies will offer compensation if your train is 30 minutes late, while others won't pay out unless the delay runs over an hour.
Similarly, some will offer you a 100% refund, while others will pay out a lesser amount either in cash or in the form of credit.
If your service was completely cancelled you should have been able to use your ticket on another service or offered a full refund.
You'll need to make a claim for compensation either via your provider's website or using a claims form, available at your local station - remember to include a copy of your receipt.
Eurostar
Eurostar are offering to refund or exchange your ticket if your journey was cancelled and you were not able to travel on the next available service. They have full details about the claims process and their refund policy on their website.
Accommodation
If you have booked accommodation that you are unable to use it's unlikely that you'll be able to claim a refund.
The only exception to this is if you had taken out cancellation insurance on your booking or if you had travel insurance in place. As such it's worth contacting your travel insurance provider as soon as possible to find out whether you're able to lodge a claim.
It is always worth contacting the hotel or B&B directly to see whether you are able to cancel or reschedule your booking too.
Package holidays
Most package holidays booked in the UK are ATOL protected and this means that your travel provider should either offer to refund, defer or transfer your holiday if bad weather stopped you travelling.
If you aren't eligible for this protection - if you booked your flights and accommodation separately for instance - you'll need to contact your travel insurance provider (presuming you had cover in place) to lodge a claim.
Flights
Surprisingly you're not automatically guaranteed a refund if your flight is cancelled because of extreme weather conditions. Nor are you entitled to anything in the way of compensation towards missed accommodation or onwards travel costs. Instead you should look to making a claim on your travel insurance.
Your flight provider should have made efforts to re-route your journey and get you to your intended destination if at all possible. If they weren't able to do this you may be entitled to a refund so it's worth lodging a claim.
If your flight was delayed you should receive something in the way of assistance or compensation. However, your entitlement varies depending on how long you were delayed and how long your flight was. Generally anything less than 2 hours and you won't receive anything but if your flight is delayed over 5 hours you are entitled to a full refund on your ticket as well as on any later flights on the same ticket.
