Vehicle damage caused by falling fence around council roadworks

dacouch

If the third party is a council there probably is no Insurer as most councils self insure up to a high amount

jamesh1982

Thanks everyone for all the replies!
gsxr carlos - its £100 but im 3rd party fire and theft only. i dont want to claim on my insurance out of principle
huckster - thats a good point they may have taken their time deliberately so by the time they made their decision there would be no evidence. i forgot to mention i took plenty of photos of the accident scene which i forwarded with the report i wrote.
lisyloo - funnily enough i have just received a letter from my insurer kwikfit saying as a free gift they are giving me free legal expenses cover from today onwards, but would that cover me for the accident?
dacouch - thanks for your input, the councils insurer is Zurich Municipal who dealt with everything after the council passed it onto them. The last letter from them said "we must advise there is no automatic right to compensation. Before any recompense can be made it will be necessary for you to demonstrate that there has been negligence on the part of the customer ( Bradford Council)......the correct procedures were followed into making the area safe. we are of the belief that the weather was the cause of the accident, and our customer cannot be held responsible for this........."

Cogito - i agree, how do i go about take proceedings to the small claims court?

Emy1501

jamesh1982 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for all the replies!
gsxr carlos - its £100 but im 3rd party fire and theft only. i dont want to claim on my insurance out of principle
huckster - thats a good point they may have taken their time deliberately so by the time they made their decision there would be no evidence. i forgot to mention i took plenty of photos of the accident scene which i forwarded with the report i wrote.
lisyloo - funnily enough i have just received a letter from my insurer kwikfit saying as a free gift they are giving me free legal expenses cover from today onwards, but would that cover me for the accident?
dacouch - thanks for your input, the councils insurer is Zurich Municipal who dealt with everything after the council passed it onto them. The last letter from them said "we must advise there is no automatic right to compensation. Before any recompense can be made it will be necessary for you to demonstrate that there has been negligence on the part of the customer ( Bradford Council)......the correct procedures were followed into making the area safe. we are of the belief that the weather was the cause of the accident, and our customer cannot be held responsible for this........."

Cogito - i agree, how do i go about take proceedings to the small claims court?

You will need to prove negligence against the council and that the potential damage was foreseeable. As has been said before what was the weather condition like on the day. If it was very windy and fence in question was expected to stand normal windy conditions then you will struggle to recover anything. The council will always try and wriggle out of everything and its not easy to prove negligence against them.

Going to a small claims court is not too difficult. You can pick up a claim form from your local county court. There is fee based on the amount being claimed. If the insurers defend it you will be expected to attended a hearing where a judge will make a decesion.

jamesh1982

The weather on the day was a little windy and rainy from what i can remember, on a scale of 1-10 for wind i would say 5.
But nothing out of the ordinary for an october day in yorkshire.

lisyloo

lisyloo - funnily enough i have just received a letter from my insurer kwikfit saying as a free gift they are giving me free legal expenses cover from today onwards, but would that cover me for the accident?

If it's a proper insurance (as oppose to some "no win no fee" thing) then no because you weren't insured at the time of the incident.

I personally think you have a case because it sounds like the weather was not extreme at all. Although you will need proper evidence from the met office to back this up.

You have two choices to deal with this.
Either do it yourself, if you feel capable or get a solicitor to handle it for you.
I don't know whether a "no win no fee" type solicitor will take this on. That depends on whether the council normally pay out legal costs i.e. how profitable these type of cases are for the solicitor.
It will require a bit more work on your part, but you could do this DIY i.e. get the MET report, photos and tell the coucil you will be taking legal action.
I think I'd be tempted to go DIY, after all for the first stage you just need a MET report and and to put together a letter with copies of your photo evidence.
I think they are just trying to put off chancers and if your case is as your say then a judge ought to decide in your favour.

Emy1501

lisyloo wrote: »

If it's a proper insurance (as oppose to some "no win no fee" thing) then no because you weren't insured at the time of the incident.

I personally think you have a case because it sounds like the weather was not extreme at all. Although you will need proper evidence from the met office to back this up.

You have two choices to deal with this.
Either do it yourself, if you feel capable or get a solicitor to handle it for you.
I don't know whether a "no win no fee" type solicitor will take this on. That depends on whether the council normally pay out legal costs i.e. how profitable these type of cases are for the solicitor.
It will require a bit more work on your part, but you could do this DIY i.e. get the MET report, photos and tell the coucil you will be taking legal action.
I think I'd be tempted to go DIY, after all for the first stage you just need a MET report and and to put together a letter with copies of your photo evidence.
I think they are just trying to put off chancers and if your case is as your say then a judge ought to decide in your favour.

No win no fee sols are only interested in personal injury claims. Small claims costs are fixed at about £80 plus vat so no money for a solicitors who typically charges about £120 to £200 per hour and who's costs for this typ of claim comes to normally £4000.