Last Christmas we had lost everything but we still had hope. This year we don’t even have hope

A couple left with only the clothes they were wearing after fire destroyed their home are spending a second Christmas in a caravan as their insurance claim drags on.

Donald MacGillivray and his wife Angela have revealed the wrangle with Trinity Claims has shattered their lives. According to the couple, the stress of their situation led Angela – who was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the fire – to try to take her own life.

The nurse – who with Donald was not at home when the blaze ripped through Sunnyside Croft at Lethenty, near Fyvie on June 8, 2018 – said: “The caravan is beside the skeleton of what used to be our home. I see it every day. It is still a stab to my heart and a constant reminder of what happened.

“We are living in a 30 by 10 foot metal box, with no heating and no insulation, our clothes are damp in the morning and we are constantly trying to keep warm.

“This is not a joyful Christmas. It is a never-ending battle. In the end I saw there was no hope; no hope for the future whatsoever. That this wasn’t the short term but that it was life as far as we could possibly see. I couldn’t face it anymore.”

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service carried out an investigation after the fire, which is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault. Tonbridge-based Trinity Claims also sent a forensic investigator along, followed by a loss adjustor. But according to the MacGillivrays, the insurance firm decided their six-acre croft was a business run from their home, making their claim invalid. The couple say the insurers accused them of running a business from the house and not declaring it before, after months of negotiations, passing to the matter to Trinity’s lawyers.

© Chris Sumner

The pair who – work full-time with the NHS – said they keep two rescue donkeys, five dogs, three rescue cats, 11 hens, a cockerel, and 43 sheep – to keep grass under control – on the land.

Donald, 57 – who works with the Scottish Ambulance Service, and Angela, 51, who before the fire worked at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and is now a primary care nurse – insist their croft, run from an outbuilding – is a hobby and costs, rather than makes, them money.

They also claim they insured only the three-bedroom house with Trinity and not the outbuildings and land that surrounds it, which are uninsured, in line with legal advice contained in guidance provided by the law firm handling the conveyancing.

The MacGillivrays – who married in 2013 and who between them have seven children – drafted in their own solicitor at the end of June 2018 to contest the decision.

Angela – who with Donald bought the policy online – claimed: “Trinity accused us of running a business from the house that we did not declare when we took out the policy. They said it was up to us to prove we were not running a business.”

“We got a letter from them saying we had misrepresented ourselves. We were angry and bewildered. How could we walk away? We have done nothing wrong. We are paying £1,700 a month in mortgage and still have 12 years to go. We cannot afford to walk away.

“Trinity have not said ‘no’. They have not, as yet, refused to pay. If they had that would be a step forward. Our solicitor says then we could then go to the ombudsman.

“But by passing it to their lawyers for an indefinite period they have left us in a legal limbo with nowhere to turn.”

“We truly appreciate all the help we have had from our family and friends, but living here is having a profound effect on our relationship and on our physical health. Sunnyside was the home of our dreams. It was where we were going to be spending the rest of our lives. Now we can’t bear to be here.”

Donald admits he was given a business reference number by the Department of Agriculture but says the croft has never been more than a hobby or made money, adding: “They are saying the house and the farm are one and the same, and we are saying the house is separate from the farm.”

Trinity Claims said no decision has been taken on whether the couple’s claim is valid or not and denied that they had been advised to withdraw it.

A spokesman said they were waiting for more information before taking a decision, adding: “It is a matter of public record that the farm is a registered business.

“We are sympathetic to Mr and Mrs MacGillivray’s position and have been seeking an early resolution by offering alternative suggestions to obtain the information about the business, required by insurers, in order to bring the matter to a conclusion.”

The fire and the friendship 

Donald and Angela MacGillivray have devoted their lives to helping others but in July 2018 we told how after losing everything they owned in the fire, it was others who rushed to help them.

The couple had been thrilled to leave Yorkshire and return to Donald’s Scottish homeland. But their dream was gutted in the flames that ravaged Sunnyside, the croft they had bought a year before. They didn’t know where to turn, but hadn’t counted on the kindness of strangers and the tiny community with a giant heart that came to their rescue.

The people of nearby Lethenty and Millbrex organised a meeting to see what could be done and within hours the couple were receiving a steady stream of donations.

Everything from clothes and bedding to pots and pans, lamps, cushions and cutlery.

Donald, a third generation piper, who lost his bagpipes and the Highland dress he inherited from his celebrated missionary grandfather Dr Kenneth MacKay of Badenoch, to the flames, said at the time: “That’s good Scottish hospitality for you.”

Donald had just started his shift at 2pm in Aberdeen when an elderly neighbour called his mobile to say she spotted smoke coming from the roof of his house.

Angela had been off work and on her way to the shops at the time. She saw the fire
engines but did not think for a second they bound for her home. Then she noticed a series of missed calls from Donald.

The nightmare had begun.