Damage to persons van on our property - liable?

paddedjohn

just because the insurance company wont pay up doesnt mean it wasnt your fault, your husband placed the boards in a precarious manner and they fell on the van end of, its your husbands fault and he should pay out of his own pocket if your insurance wont pay. as far as saying they could have parked on the road well they were working for you at your property did you by any chance tell them they couldnt park on your drive? id bet not

skiddlydiddly

scotgirl wrote: »

No I don't want the bad feeling, we both feel awful about it.

The scratch is very small but we do not have the money to pay for the repairs. We pay our insurance premiums and it is up to them, I will follow the advice given on the insurance board to just forward any correspondance to my insurer and let them deal with it.

Accidents happen, we did not willfully damage his vehicle, he parked in our drive at his own risk (there is masses of parking off road), he parked beside the wood, he knew it was windy. Why should we be responsible?

Anyway, thanks for the input, we will just do as our insurer advises.

I must have missd the bit about him parking there after the wood was stacked, I guess he should have been more careful really then.

I stick by what I said about peoples opinions if the tables were turned though .

Flyboy152

scotgirl wrote: »

So it is not covered by his own vehicle insurance?

Can we claim this sort of thing from our house insurance do you think?

I would imagine it come under your public liability cover.

cyclonebri1

Flyboy152 wrote: »

I would imagine it come under your public liability cover.

I don't think it does as the van HAS to be covered in it's own right, and you do not have to have home insurance.

From my own unfortunate personal experience my neighbours roof lost a good few tiles from the roof. These hit my daughters car that we had bought 2 days earlier and had not yet transferred over the ins as she was away at the time. Over £1000 in damage. The other parties insurance wouldn't pay and neither would the other party in person.

I checked this with the solicitors and was informed that same cover and some don't, but they aren't obliged too so it all comes down to the small print.

Just to add I've never seen a builders van without dents :A

Quentin

Flyboy152 wrote: »

I would imagine it come under your public liability cover.

To get a payout for a third party under your public liability cover, you first of all have to be found liable.

This is not the case here.

Quentin

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

I don't think it does as the van HAS to be covered in it's own right, and you do not have to have home insurance.

From my own unfortunate personal experience my neighbours roof lost a good few tiles from the roof. These hit my daughters car that we had bought 2 days earlier and had not yet transferred over the ins as she was away at the time. Over £1000 in damage. The other parties insurance wouldn't pay and neither would the other party in person.

No. You don't have to have insurance to be liable to pay out compensation to a third party if you have been negligent! As long as the negligence can be proved, you can sue for the damages and get paid directly by the responsible guilty party (assuming the guilty party has got some money to pay up)

(And the van in this incident doesn't "have" to be insured against damage!)

Your issue over the roof tiles is similar to the van driver's - your neighbour hadn't been negligent and so wasn't liable to pay you for the damage (just as the OP hasn't been negligent)

cyclonebri1

Quentin wrote: »

Your issue over the roof tiles is similar to the van driver's - your neighbour hadn't been negligent and so wasn't liable to pay you for the damage (just as the OP hasn't been negligent)

Yes I understand that, infact if I continue the story the same thing happened again, this time it was my other daughters car and a tile went through the sunroof.

It happened a third time and luckily in this instance I just had 3 tiles land on the empty drive.

The neighbour now has a "solicitors letter" lodged with them to the effect that they will be held negligent if it ever happens again.

petrolhead69

If it was me, and I have no clue on the legal side of things but if I was in your shoes the decider for me would be did the tradesman explicitly ask your permission before starting work to park his van on YOUR driveway? If he asked and you granted permission I would man up and fix it at no cost to him. If he just parked there without expressly asking your permission I'd tell him to do one. If he pushes the matter invoice him for a parking charge equal to the cost of the repair. If his van wasn't trespassing on your private property it wouldn't be in harms way. Make him prove he never knocked the boards over himself when he walked past them.

That is just the way I'd do it though I have no idea if it's legal or not, and don't really care but even if it isn't I'd still do it, If your going to do it, go all in and never back down. Even if your wrong if you make enough noise you'll often get your own way anyway.

Personally I've stopped letting workers park on my drive from past experience. A painters van leaked oil all over my drive and a joiner had a few self tappers fall out the van and never picked them up and I got a puncture a week later. Neither of them were forthcoming in fixing the issues just lying and saying it wasn't them and there was no way to prove it. Needless to say I will never use those !!!!s again and have told as many people as I can to avoid them. Your story is one more reason to add to the pile.

I'm a tradesman myself and I never park in somebodies drive, the exception being rural mansions where there is no choice. I'd rather carry my tools and ladders an extra few yards than put myself in an insurance/liability gray area. Some people are lazy though.