Strimmer smashed Sunroof, who pays?

loobyloo2

Been on the phone All morning.
Phoned Tesco enquiring about cover as a new customer, they said ALL glass is covered! Not yet spoke to them as an existing customer.
Autoglass are going to phone me back, so fingers crossed as this is who Tesco use.
The guy who imports these cars seems to think I will need to get a new one sent from Japan, Glyn Hopkins my local parts dealer cannot find this part on their system.
Local council say they may wish to take it further as she is not supposed to employ anyone to do this work, we will see
Finally, the nursery owner phoned just now to say she had spoken with her legal people, and they said there are no health and safety issues as no-one was hurt. She will not pay. not even the excess.
Will try to explore where I can go from here.
Any ideas anyone.
Thanks

loobyloo2

maninthestreet wrote: »

How can a stone kicked-up by a strimmer manage to smash a horizontal sun roof?? The person using the strimmer was under no legal obligation to give you their name and adrress.

Well the police seemed to think so, and they got their details for me.

Quentin

Since when did the police concern themselves with opinions on such civil matters?

Put this in the hands of your insurers (that's what you pay them for) - you need to prove negligence to get all your costs paid by the third party - how you going to do that?

In any case you are obliged to inform your insurer about incidents, not just claims, and how long are you prepared to drive round without a window in whilst you argue liability? You could get this fixed now under your insurance, and let them fight out the liability issue.

maninthestreet

Quentin wrote: »

Since when did the police concern themselves with opinions on such civil matters?

TBH, I was surprised when I read that the the police had attended.

loobyloo2

Quentin wrote: »

Since when did the police concern themselves with opinions on such civil matters?

Put this in the hands of your insurers (that's what you pay them for) - you need to prove negligence to get all your costs paid by the third party - how you going to do that?

In any case you are obliged to inform your insurer about incidents, not just claims, and how long are you prepared to drive round without a window in whilst you argue liability? You could get this fixed now under your insurance, and let them fight out the liability issue.

The police were called by the lady driver who stopped to see if I was OK.
They told me i could pursue this as a civil matter.
I'm sorry if my posting was not too clear, I understand that late at night, shaken up, I may not have been too clear on the exact details.
If you want to see the location, google maps, junction of Harwood Hall Lane and Aveley Road, near Upminster. You can see on the map how quiet this area is, there were no children around to throw a stone, no other users on the road, just this bloomin silly woman strimming and my vehicle.
re getting it fixed , big problem as I said it is an import, no joy so far locating anything in the UK. obviously not driving it in this condition.
The nursery owner is talking to me like she has had a full legal team checking it out, all she should be doing is considering paying the excess therefore me not pursuing it, she says I should claim from her public liability insurance!
I have never had anything similar happen before, never even had a bump in 25+ years of driving.
Just p's me off that someone can cause this damage, and muggings here has all the inconvieniance and the bill!
This is a money saving forum, that is why I asked for advice, to save me any extra expense and to get the correct result. Nothing dodgy or illegal, just want advice on the correct way to move forwards. Already spent 3 hours this morning on the phone etc, so losing a days work too!

Quentin

You have had lots of advice!

You are going to find it hard to reclaim all your extra costs you are now incurring (such as loss of a days work).

It will be much cheaper all round for you to let your insurer deal with this for you!

Pay your excess, get it fixed, then if you have legal expenses cover use it to try and reclaim it off the public liability insurance you have been offered. (If you have no legal cover, write your own letter to the public liability insurer)

(You blame the "silly woman" because she was there, but can you prove her negligence, which is the whole point)

And the nursery proprietor is running a business, so obviously won't just pay you to "shut you up" if she's not liable!

haveibeendone

It is obvious that no matter who pays what you need to do is get the roof fixed. With glass it is normally a case that you don't lose your no claims bonus and as already been said the xs will be £50 - £70. If you pay this then consider the fast track of County court to recover your outlay and any associated expense but for a sum this low the registrar will spend 30 seconds looking at the case. He will not want to hear long legal submissions.

You mention "the importer of your car" - what make is it that the glass may have to be sourced from Japan?

I too think it is very strange for a strimmer to hurl an object so far in the air to then fall back and damage a tooughend(??) glass panel. The heavier the object the less height the strimmer would propel it and the lighter the less damage it would cause. I am only guessing but I don't think a half a house brick from 3ft drop would do this kind of damage and as your car roof would be maybe 5 ft off the ground the strimmer would need to send the HHB over 8ft in the air. Must have been one mighty strimmer.

loobyloo2

Yes i have had some great advice, big thanks to those who posted.
I don't wish to claim for loss of days earnings, you seem to be seeing things that I haven't stated, I just am p'd about all the inconvieniance of today.

As for the silly woman, well yes, she was, I mean, if it was not my sunroof, it could have been something much worse like her being run over! She should NOT have been there, as stated by the local council.
Grass verges are the responsibility of the council, some do not cut them more than 3 times a year, some verges are not cut at all as it is deemed too dangerous, they would then use weedkiller spray.. Councils have issued warnings before to householders who have cared for verges outside their property even without an incident occuring. It is to make sure that these incidents don't occur that they put these rules in place.
I doubt youwould like it if it happened to your wife and child, covered in fragments of glass that the police sweep out of your hair, neck and back with a paintbrush they borrowed from the nursery! The police wished to call an ambulance as I had been hit on the head with the opening/closing device from the sunroof.

Proving liability, now that is the one I have to find out about.

loobyloo2

Police seemed to think gravel being sent up in the air was responsible. isn't this how car thieves break windows in cars, just a few bits of small gravel?

easy

The way this is supposed to work is that you claim on your insurance. You explain on your claim form what happened. Give them the name of the nursery, and whatever contact details you have for them. Your insurers get your car fixed, and do the necessary legal stuff to recover from whoever is actually responsible.

If the person using the strimmer was paid 'freelance' to do the strimming, I think she'll be liable to your insurance co (and she should have business insurance to cover her for such accidents. If, however, she is an employee of the nursery, they will be liable (and must have public liability insurance to cover them for this damage).

Sit back, get your insurance company working on getting your car repaired, and ensure they have the details thery need to claim from the other party.