Friend in a bit of a pickle...

vaio

Postulated as in public car parks cars don’t generally need moving to let others out.

OP will confirm one way or the other I’m sure

mcjordi

if the car park is accessable by the public ie no gated access then RTA does come into affect..

a

vaio

No where near as simple and clear cut as that, lot of specific case law on it as google will reveal IYCBA to look

JQ.

The OP seems to suggest by taking the car to a main dealer for repair Sally is inflating the claim. She's the innocent party here and is able to take her car wherever she wants. Just because your mate was driving without insurance, that's no reason for her to have to get a cheap repair. From the description of the damage, it sounds like he must have been giving it plenty of gas.

My advice is to remove Sally from the equation - the cost of the repair is the cost of repair, what needs to be sorted is who pays for it - Matt, the client's insurance or the company. If she is dragged into what is likely to be an ensuing argument she is likely to dig her heels in, I certainly would. And the outome of that could be she just gets the repairs done by her own insurer and they go after Matt for the cost, which could end up costing him alot more.

If Matt has his own insurance policy, does it not cover him for driving other cars on a 3rd party basis - mine certainly does?

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

So he drove a car into somebody else's?

Pay up. No arguments. "Sally" is entirely correct to demand her vehicle be restored.

mikey72

Several points really to check.
Was it subject to the requirements for compulsory motor insurance, ie was it public or private.
Was your mate doing it as a company employee, were the keys given to a company rep, who he got them from, was it company policy to move clients cars, or was it a one off he did on his own after having the keys directly.
Public liability insurance will cover for liabilty of vehicles or plant where insurance is not required, or at least all my policies have, so the company may have to pay, even if they don't want to.
It will be hard to wash their hands of him.

Pernicious

Hi everyone, thank you for all the replies.

I have delved a little deeper & it turns out the person who asked him to move it was actually Sally herself! She is higher up then him in the company but is only a "limited partner", so can he claim he was acting under the instruction of his employer & not have to pay for all of it?

Also I hadn't thought of the private land part - apparently there is a sign saying the car park belongs to the company but it is not gated or anything, so is this technically private land?

I agree Sally shouldn't have to settle for a "cheap" repair, but surely it's only fair of her to get at least a couple of quotes from other reputable dealers? From what she is claiming I don't see how a tiny shunt from the car stalling could cause that much damage (but then I am no mechanic).

I also agree he should have checked it's in gear (I even do it in my own car it was drummed into me so much by my instructor lol) but at the same time I recognise he wouldn't expect someone to leave it in gear if it's not something you do yourself (especially with the handbrake off too!!!!)

Unfortunately no Matt's insurance does not cover him to drive other people's car on a third party basis as this was one of my first thoughts too, so he can't go through that.

He also does not have a company car, so we can't go down that route as my OH thought of that too.

mikey72

If she instructed him to move it, the company is liable for the clients car, and liable for sallys car.

Strider590

Serves her right for trying to be the overlord when she had no right or authority to tell him to move a car that he wasn't insured to drive. Her superiors won't take too kindly to her f*ck up either so I think your friend is quite safe.

maninthestreet

Indeed - why were the company instructing this person to move a vehicle that they knew he/she was not insured to drive? Is it normal procedure for visitors to your site who park their car in the company car park to surrender their car keys? If I was asked to do this, I would refuse, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone.