Car Vandalised on a "Secure car park", does anybody think I have a case?

littlebluesaxo

Hi,

I my first thread so I apologise if its not in the appropriate section of the forum guys!

Basically, I live with my boyfriend in a block of apartments that have a car park with a gate which you open with a key fob. Since the bad snow in Jan 2010 the gates have been broken and therefore constantly open. I have called the people many times who we pay our service charge to (£100 a quarter) and they say there is not enough money in their budget to fix the gates.

Last Monday evening my car was badly vandalised by 4 people as well as the car next to mine. All but one window was smashed, dents all along the side. Its just a mess really, I was really shook up by it as you can imagine. No idea why they would want to do this (I have no enemies that I know of!) and the police basically have no leads to follow. Unfortunately being that my car was quite low in value, I didn't see a need for anything other than third party fire and theft insurance as I am quite young and anything to get my insurance cheaper is a bonus! Obviously I have learnt my lesson from this and shall be fully comp in future.

Anyway, my question is, as we have paid our service charge in full every quarter, is there anything I can do/claim back from the company? As far as I know every other flat pays theirs on time too so thats roughly £4800 they have had from us and they say they still can't afford to fix them? I have a brother who works in a car body shop who says it will be more than the car is worth to fix it.

Help!

Any suggestions would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

lesalanos

get them to come back and set fire to it

gardner1

small point for the future fully comp is normally same price as 3rd party fire & theft

mikey72

I think you have a case, do you have any legal cover on car, house, or any AA /RAC legal cover?

littlebluesaxo

Well it's good to know that in future If I wanted fully comp it should be the same, I know when I looked with swift cover I did a quote for fully comp and without and there was a difference in price and as my car isn't worth an awful lot I didn't bother.

As far as legal cover goes, my car insurance does not include it. I don't really know about house insurance etc as I moved into my partners house and he'd been here for two years so it was all sorted. Where should I look for this stuff, along with the house insurance?

I am a member of the RAC in fact I used them to tow it to a more secure location because anybody could've come and done something else to it. Does legal cover come as standard with the RAC? It's actually a family policy I am still covered with, so I'd have to check with my mum.

To be honest I was going to try calling a solicitor and see what they say. Even paying a fee I could maybe get something back for it all. The policewoman who came on the night said that we should at least withold our service charge until its fixed, what are they gonna do, not cut the grass?

I honestly have had no dealings with anything like this before so advice really would be a big help. Its such a frustrating situation. :mad:

andygb

mikey72 wrote: »

I think you have a case, do you have any legal cover on car, house, or any AA /RAC legal cover?

I agree. If you pay a service charge, the gates to the secure parking spaces do not work, and your car is vandalised, then I would suspect the landlord is liable for part/all of the costs.
It is negligence on his part, to not fulfil part of the contract.

NB Check the wording of any contract which you have.