Vehicle stolen from repairers, who's liable?

eddddy

The OP mentioned that the car is insured by Budget Insurance. Here's an extract from the FAQ on their website:

Is my car covered while being serviced?

• Any insurance cover you have for loss or damage to your car continues while the car is being repaired or serviced by a member of the motor trade, or being parked by an employee of a hotel or restaurant

So the OP is probably covered by their own policy. I guess Budget would then persue the garage (and their insurers) for repayment. If they get it, the OP's NCD will be restored, and the excess refunded.

Jenwillfixit

My husband once worker at a main dealer and he says if they took the car with the key then they are negligent and therefore liable.
They have a duty of care to store your vehicle and your key.
Hope this helps
Jen

dacouch

Jenwillfixit wrote: »

My husband once worker at a main dealer and he says if they took the car with the key then they are negligent and therefore liable.
They have a duty of care to store your vehicle and your key.
Hope this helps
Jen

By accepting a key you are not automatically negligent and therefore liable.

They have a duty of care as per the civil laws of the land.

They are only legally bound to pay compensation if they are legally liable, this is basically the incident could have "Reasonably" been avoided. If the garage have adequate security taking into factors such as the types of cars they handle, the area etc etc then they will often not be legally liable. If they are not legally liable they do not have to pay compensation although some of the better Insurers will pay these claims as a favour to the garage to keep customer goodwill.

morsefull

Hi all, sorry, I've been a bit busy sorting things out to post.
To answer some questions; The vehicle is a 1994 mercedes 208D van i've had from new with only 65k on the clock. Mechanically perfect, seviced by myself every year. it was in for 2 new wheelarches as the rears were rusting badly.
I'm starting to think it may be worth more as spares after reading some posts.:(
When I arrived at the garage the compound gates were open and no lock (broken or otherwise) could be seen.
The garage owner has supplied me with his insurance details but I haven't passed them on to my insurers as I was advised by the police to wait a few days incase it turns up.
I'm a market trader and need the van for work and I'm presently using my wifes car as a backup.
The whole things a bit of a disaster as i think the van's worthless in the insurance companies eyes and worth a lot to me. I didn't lose any stock fortunately as I'd unloaded it prior to taking it for repair.I did however lose some stall fittings which only adds to my inconvenience.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

pass on the details and let your insurers deal with liabilty issues. not so expensive, but to rob a van with nothing really it! mmm sounds dodgy why go through the trouble? braking through gates breaking into van then driving out all this just hightens the risk of getting cought just for a van?.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Jenwillfixit wrote: »

My husband once worker at a main dealer and he says if they took the car with the key then they are negligent and therefore liable.
They have a duty of care to store your vehicle and your key.
Hope this helps
Jen

also have a duty of care to lock the vehicle!! they would be found negligent if they hadnt locked it or wound the windows up on its etc etc

morsefull

After a few requests from breakers it appears that the van is worth a small fortune in spares. eg a wing mirror costs £45!

I'm starting to think it's in bits.

Internet searches have shown this was a common problem with old mercedes vans , they get stripped and shipped to Africa and Eastern europe.Mechanically the older models are very robust sometimes reaching 500,000 miles.

If it doesn't turn up then it's a bit of a coincindece that it happened to go missing from a garage that's tucked away on a side street, but I don't really want to think the worst of the garage owner as he'd already had the van 2wks previously for 4 days and it didn't go missing then . No major work was done as the wheel arches had failed to turn up.