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#Post#: 18528--------------------------------------------------
Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: ghodrick235 Date: March 29, 2024, 12:29 am
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Hi
This occurred in England:
The employee of an airport car parking business damaged my and
another customer's car, moving mine out of a very tight spot
they had parked it in. They are not affiliated with the airport
and appear not to be part of any regulatory schemes.
They admitted liability for causing the damages via email and
there are witnesses that have observed the incident.
I explained to the manager that I will provide them with a quote
from a garage that will carry out the required repairs to the
manufacturer’s standard and specification. They agreed to this
in a phone call that was recorded by one of the witnesses.
I have since provided them with a quote by a dealership
estimating the cost to repair my car at approximately £5k,
possibly more.
In an email, they declined the quote, offering for me to drop of
the car at their location two hours away to have it fixed at a
garage of their choice, referring to their Ts and Cs.
Based on two separate dated copies & screenshots of their terms
and conditions, it is evident that between the incident and
sending that email they have:
- rewritten and amended the terms and conditions published on
their website after the incident occured;
- altered clauses with the intent to retrospectively reduce
their liability for the damage caused;
- are deliberately trying to mislead me by falsely suggesting
our contract is subject to those revised terms (which I was not
presented with during the purchasing process via a third party
website)
I have responded to the email highlighting this and set a
deadline that expires soon to agree to fix the damage via my
garage and let me know if they are a member of an alternative
dispute resolution scheme.
What are my options / how would you proceed?
For those suggesting to go through my insurance: I have spoken
separately to my car insurance to confirm this is not a claim
that I should be pursuing with them as a) I was not operating
the car nor b) do I want premiums to go up.
#Post#: 18555--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: sparx Date: March 29, 2024, 5:55 pm
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[quote]rewritten and amended the terms and conditions published
on their website after the incident occured;
[/quote]
Please provide the web address or company name (via PM if you do
not wish to publicly disclose the company name) and I will have
a look to see if there are any historical snapshots that have
the old T+Cs for you.
#Post#: 18556--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: ivanleo Date: March 29, 2024, 5:58 pm
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They must have insurance cover to allow their employees to drive
customers' cars, so the most obvious step is to tell them you
want to go through their insurance and ask them for details of
their insurance policy. If they refuse, tell them you'll involve
the police. If they still refuse, contact the local police force
and tell them this company may be allowing their staff to drive
customer vehicles around with no valid insurance in place (which
if true would be a causing / permitting offence), there has been
an accident and they are refusing to provide details of their
insurance policy. The police will not rush to the rescue but
they normally dispose of such matters by ensuring that the
parties have details of each other's insurance policies.
Once you have got hold of the name of the insurance company,
forget about the parking company and claim directly off the
insurers, which you are entitled to do under The European
Communities (Rights against Insurers) Regulations 2002
HTML https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/3061/contents.
If the
insurance company accepts liability (which seems inevitable
based on what you've told us), they're not going to argue over
quantum, and if they want to use their own garage you'd be
entitled to require them to come and pick up the vehicle and
drop off a courtesy car while you wait for the repairs to be
completed.
#Post#: 18563--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: 666 Date: March 30, 2024, 1:12 am
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[quote author=cp8759 link=topic=1558.msg18556#msg18556
date=1711753091]
They must have insurance cover to allow their employees to drive
customers' cars, so the most obvious step is to tell them you
want to go through their insurance and ask them for details of
their insurance policy. If they refuse, tell them you'll involve
the police. If they still refuse, contact the local police force
and tell them this company may be allowing their staff to drive
customer vehicles around with no valid insurance in place (which
if true would be a causing / permitting offence), there has been
an accident and they are refusing to provide details of their
insurance policy. The police will not rush to the rescue but
they normally dispose of such matters by ensuring that the
parties have details of each other's insurance policies.
Once you have got hold of the name of the insurance company,
forget about the parking company and claim directly off the
insurers, which you are entitled to do under The European
Communities (Rights against Insurers) Regulations 2002
HTML https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/3061/contents.
If the
insurance company accepts liability (which seems inevitable
based on what you've told us), they're not going to argue over
quantum, and if they want to use their own garage you'd be
entitled to require them to come and pick up the vehicle and
drop off a courtesy car while you wait for the repairs to be
completed.
[/quote]
Although the OP hasn't said so explicitly, the collision
probably occurred on private premises, so are the police are
likely to be interested?
#Post#: 18565--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: ivanleo Date: March 30, 2024, 9:41 am
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[quote author=666 link=topic=1558.msg18563#msg18563
date=1711779174]
Although the OP hasn't said so explicitly, the collision
probably occurred on private premises, so are the police are
likely to be interested?
[/quote]
If I crash into your car in a pub car park and drive off are you
saying the police won't be interested because it's private
property?
#Post#: 18571--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: slapdash Date: March 30, 2024, 10:45 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=cp8759 link=topic=1558.msg18565#msg18565
date=1711809686]
If I crash into your car in a pub car park and drive off are you
saying the police won't be interested because it's private
property?
[/quote]
Trying to get any real interest can be frustrating.
However, if this is an airport parking business it may well be a
locked compound of some description with no general public
access. Does that change anything?
#Post#: 18573--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: ivanleo Date: March 30, 2024, 10:56 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=slapdash link=topic=1558.msg18571#msg18571
date=1711813529]
However, if this is an airport parking business it may well be a
locked compound of some description with no general public
access. Does that change anything?
[/quote]
If members of the public drive their cars into an area of the
locked compound where the staff then get into the car to move
it, that's a publicly accessible area. I might drop off my car
and get out and then get run over by an employee driving another
customer's car after all. The fact that there might be some
other area that is only accessible to staff would be irrelevant.
#Post#: 18586--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: ghodrick235 Date: March 30, 2024, 12:35 pm
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Hi
First of all, thanks for all the replies.
This happened on private land (although as some have said,
whether this means the police will be interested or not is
debatable).
The company have not outright refused to provide their insurance
details but will change the topic of conversation when I ask
them for it - so they may have insurance, they may not. I will
follow this up with the police.
Thanks for offering to find old copies of the Ts and Cs - I have
got two separate versions that are dated and clearly show the
edits they have made after the fact :)
#Post#: 18607--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: andy_foster Date: March 30, 2024, 4:53 pm
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Ownership of land is irrelevant.
As regards the criminal law requiring third party insurance - it
applies to roads and other public places.
What is and isn't a public place is a matter of fact and degree.
The question is effectively "is the place open to the public?".
If there are signs or barriers intended to keep the public out,
then it is unlikely to be a public place.
As regards civil liability, there was a European case some years
back where a someone was injured by a mechanical vehicle
somewhere that was very much not a road or open the the public,
so the court took a purposive view of the requirement for
insurance for road vehicles, as opposed to any other heavy
machinery with the potential to cause serious injury, and
decided that roads and public places were irrelevant to the
liability.
#Post#: 18611--------------------------------------------------
Re: Car park damaged my car and retrospectively amended T&Cs
By: ivanleo Date: March 30, 2024, 5:05 pm
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The case you're thinking of is Vnuk, which has been abolished in
GB by the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) Act 2022
HTML https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/25/contents.
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