Too long, don't want to read: How do I get a caravan that's in Austria, back to the UK, with the least amount of hassle?
My folks have been rather done over by their insurance, and as a result they are back in the UK and their van is still in Austria, potentially slated to be scrapped.
They were on a campsite in Myerhofen, when my dad suffered a bit of a mental health crisis and needed to get home.
The insurers initially said they would repatriate my dad, but they couldn't take the car and caravan as my mum was there and had a valid driving licence and insurance.
My sister drove out to them and took charge of negotiations, and got the insurers to agree that as my mother has never towed a van on the continent, and was needed to take care of my father back in the UK, their initial offer was unfair.
They agreed to repatriate my folks by air, and arrange for the car and caravan to follow. So my parents returned by air (dad now thankfully doing much better) and my sister drove back to the UK.
The caravan was picked up and towed, without issue, to the depo from whence it should be driven back to the UK.
So far so good.
Next thing, my dad gets a call (not my sister) saying the caravan chassis is twisted out of alignment and is not safe to tow, that it is 20cm too long to be transported by trailer (policy exclusion), and that he either has to pay for it to be put in storage until he's fit to collect it or agree to let them scrap it. To avoid any further stress he signed the consent form and sent it back before any of us knew what was going on. A few belongings were loaded into the car and it was returned to the UK.
I figured that was a done deal, and there wasn't much we could do, short of suing later when he's feeling better.
However, now it turns out the company who refused to tow it back have "expressed an interest" in the van, and would like to know if they can keep it, instead of scrapping it.
I'm f*cking livid. I was angry enough when it looked like they were making shit up to avoid the work, now it seems they were actually planning to profit from doing them over.
On the other hand, at least the van hasn't been scrapped.
When the car was in Austria I could have flown out on a Friday night and been back to work by Monday morning, but now (as I don't have a towbar on the van) I would have to drive to Scotland, pick up the car and drive all the way down and back... It'd be a week off work and we're really busy right now so that wouldn't go down well.
Anyone any experience of getting a large (7.2m) caravan transported long distance, or any smart ideas?
Maybe someone would like a holiday home in the Alps for the summer, in return for bringing it back 😁