Hit Car Parked Outside of Bay

the_louce

I have a bit of a problem where I am unsure of liability in a claim. The story is as follows:

My car was in a University private car park (card access barrier to get in) and the handbrake slipped off and it rolled back into the side of another vehicle. This car however was not parked inside a bay; he had parked next to the allocated spaces. In fact when I tried to move my car out, he was completely blocking me into the space.

When I discovered this I left a note for the person and subsequently offered to pay for the damages. He got back to me and told me that it would be £360+VAT (slightly over what I told him my insurance excess was). I then asked him to send me the receipt and I would pay him or the garage as appropriate. Following this, I heard absolutely nothing from him.

This of course led me to believe that he was trying to inflate the price of the work in order to leverage as much money out of me as possible. However today (over 3 months later), he text me claiming that he has had a recent house fire, so has not got round to sorting his car out, but will give me a timetable next week.

This has made me absolutely sick to my stomach. I have a baby incoming in July and do not have the money to pay this now even if I wanted to. I do not believe that he has been genuine with me, so I am no longer prepared to cooperate with him.

My question is though, given that he was parked improperly (outside of the bay) on private land, would my insurance company pay? My instinct is no, but before I speak to him I would like to be armed with all of the facts.

Thanks in advance.

Quentin

Where he was parked is immaterial.

But you don't have to pay him. Leave it to the insurers to sort out. Then if your insurer pays out and you want to retain your NCD you can always reimburse your insurer their outlay and have your NCD reinstated. This will give you some time to save up.

terryw

The private land is a bit of a red-herring. Your vehicle is insured.

The insurance company might contend (but I doubt it) that there is some contributory negligence as the vehicle was not parked in a bay. But leave that up to them to decide.

Really just be grateful that no-one was seriously injured as a result of your parking-brake slipping off and that just scrapes to metal are involved. And get your vehicle parking-brake repaired.

Twentyfourseven

did you not report it to the insurance company in the first instance? I am not sure they would pay now as you did not report it.

I think you will still need to pay for the damage. Nothing has changed. He may have parked inappropriately but if your car hadn't hit him, it would have gone in to the one behind.

lisyloo

As others have said, it generally doesn't matter where someone else was parked, you still have a duty of care so you are liable.

I am looking at this objectively and please try to bear in mind that you have an emotional attachment.
Car repairs particularly paintwork are very often more expensive than people imagine.
If you are doubtful then you can ask for two quotes and even go round and chat to the garge folks about the repair to settle your suspicions.
It's also entirely possible that someone has had circumstances that has meant fixing the car is not their top priority right now.

He has 6 years to claim for damage so it was perhaps a little naive to think it had gone away.
I am not trying to be harsh or nasty but if you don't have £360 spare then you don't really have enough money to drive a car.
From time to time unexpected repairs or accidents occur and it's necessary to have some kind on contingency fund.

Good luck with the new baby.
That is most important right now.

BTW - You should report any accidents to your insurer even if you do not intend to claim.
If you don't report it and the driver puts in a claim then you will be in trouble for not having reported it.

Quentin

Twentyfourseven wrote: »

did you not report it to the insurance company in the first instance? I am not sure they would pay now as you did not report it.

They will pay out if they consider the OP is liable.

alistair.long

Hi,

There are 2 things I noticed in your post.

You say "he was completely blocking me into the space" this would be classed as dangerous parking. A obstruction would mean that the other car is at fault, even if you caused damage. Pictures would have helped your case.

You say "I left a note for the person and subsequently offered to pay for the damages", this is a agreement, and although it is not a contract, it is still legally binding.

Sorry but on this one it appears you are stuck, maybe someone else can assist.

vaio

alistair.long wrote: »

......You say "he was completely blocking me into the space" this would be classed as dangerous parking. A obstruction would mean that the other car is at fault, even if you caused damage. Pictures would have helped your case.

You say "I left a note for the person and subsequently offered to pay for the damages", this is a agreement, and although it is not a contract, it is still legally binding.........

I’m not sure there is a legal definition of “dangerous parking” but even if there is it doesn’t absolve the OP of the liability to repair the damage she caused to a stationary vehicle by her negligence.

Similarly, I’m not sure what contracts & agreements (legally binding or otherwise) have to do with anything. If the OP was negligent and the third party suffered damage as a result then she has to put it right either by paying cash or via her insurance company.

lisyloo

A obstruction would mean that the other car is at fault, even if you caused damage.

Err no.............
If someone is blocking you in either partically or completely then you do not have a right to damage their property.
Any reasonable person would consider options such as, getting assitance with the manouver, locating the third party or coming back later etc.
That might be highly inconvenicent and it might incur costs such as a taxi, but you still don't have the right to trash someone else's property.

There may be exceptions in a genuine emergncy, for example a fire engine might have to pass doubly parked cars to get to a genuine emergency where lives are at stake, but that's not the same as failing to complete an awkward manouver.

did you not report it to the insurance company in the first instance? I am not sure they would pay now as you did not report it.

They have obligations to the 3rd party to pay out.
However it is possible that they could cancel the insurance then you have to declare cancelled insurance and explain the circumstances to every insurer you have in the future. A very bad outcome indeed.

vaio

lisyloo wrote: »

.......Any reasonable person would consider options such as, getting assitance with the manouver, locating the third party or coming back later etc.
That might be highly inconvenicent and it might incur costs such as a taxi, but you still don't have the right to trash someone else's property........

Bit OT but I suppose that any costs incurred could be reclaimed from the errant parker.

lisyloo wrote: »

.......There may be exceptions in a genuine emergncy, for example a fire engine might have to pass doubly parked cars to get to a genuine emergency where lives are at stake, but that's not the same as failing to complete an awkward manouver......

Yep, but I’m pretty sure that if a fire engine gently “pushes” a parked car out of the way the so called “necessity” defence will prevent criminal convictions for causing the damage but wouldn’t absolve them of civil liability for the damage.

the_louce

Thanks all for your responses. I think I'd better get in touch with my insurance company and inform them of the situation.

For info though, I was always prepared to pay out for the damage, until it started to appear that I was being conned out of money. Now I'm in a difficult situation where all my capital is tied up in savings, for when my wife gives up work for maternity leave.