Car dented in car park

Peter2006

Hi,

Think I know the answer to this already, but as it's the first time it's seriously happened to me I thought no harm in asking.

Came down to the car in a Travelodge car park this morning to find a whacking great dent in the driver's door, from what I guess was someone opening their door into mine with considerable force.

There was no car next to me when I parked, and no car there this morning, so whoever did it has done one, obviously without a note saying 'Oops I'm sorry about that huge dent'.

Is it even worth asking Travelodge about CCTV (although looking around I couldn't see any cameras) or is that a bit pointless and a waste of my time.

Presume this is something to put down as just one of those things, and it'll be a case of stumping up to get it fixed?

dramaqueen1973

Hiya

Yeah no harm in asking to see if they have cctv - I work for a hotel and it happens all the time!!!

I have guests come in and Im asked to look at cctv, they cant show you the image but they might be able to get reg of car and then inform police etc to get liability from the person involved!

I'm sure they have to have CCTV overlooking car park etc like we do, it cant harm to ask.

Hope that helps

Drama xxx

s_b

no harm in asking but do it soonest as i clear all my recordings each morning if everything is ok, just like they might

Quentin

You are correct in that if you cannot identify the culprit you have no-one to claim off to pay for your repairs (other than your own insurance).

So why not ask about CCTV. It won't cost to ask!

Peter2006

Cool, thanks for the help everyone. I'm back at the hotel tonight (was in a rush this morning, so couldn't do it then) so will ask about CCTV. It was the top floor (open air) of the multi-storey, and couldn't see any cameras overlooking the car park, but like you say, no harm in asking!

Will let you know how I get on.

liam8282

They won't necessarily have cameras in the car park, it isn't a requirement. But no harm in asking, the sooner the better though, as others have stated if there are no incidents they will probably record over the tapes.

Peter2006

Have just spoken with the manager, and I've been referred to Travelodge Customer Services, as (fairly enough) they can't give me access to the CCTV, so that permission has to come from HQ. They keep the tapes for two weeks before recording over, so fingers crossed I've got a few days to try and get on top of this.

scheming_gypsy

if you report it to the police, possibly as criminal damage, they'll be able to obtain the CCTV recordings.

pitkin2020

Peter2006 wrote: »

Have just spoken with the manager, and I've been referred to Travelodge Customer Services, as (fairly enough) they can't give me access to the CCTV, so that permission has to come from HQ. They keep the tapes for two weeks before recording over, so fingers crossed I've got a few days to try and get on top of this.

Did you ask if the CCTV actually covered where your car was parked though and not just that they have CCTV covering parts of the car park.

newfoundglory

Play the system here.

Report large dent to Police as possible criminal damage and get a crime reference number. Police are unlikely to act here, and not within your 2 week window.

Write to the data protection manager at Travelodge requesting them to provide the CCTV to you under Section 29 of the Data Protection Act. This provides a crime exemption from the first data protection principle - that an individual must consent to the processing of their personal data (i.e., a video that could be used to identify a living individual).

As the dent was large, surely this could potentially be criminal damage and therefore could be classed as a crime. In your letter you should quote your crime reference number and specifically state that failing to provide the video would prejudice the outcome of the investigation.

Clearly, its unlikely you are going to be able to do someone for criminal damage - but you might be lucky and get a number plate + some video evidence for a civil claim

Peter2006

pitkin2020, yes I did explain where my car was and say top floor, and the Travelodge said 'Oh yes car park is covered by CCTV'. I'm still slightly sceptical of this however, as I still can't actually see any cameras with a decent view of the top floor of the car park, but we'll gloss over that for now.

scheming_gypsy, newfoundglory, Admittedly slightly ignorant here as I've never had to do it before, but how do I go about reporting this? Google the local police station and give them a ring on their landline I presume?

Also does getting a crime reference number mean I have to inform my insurance, as obviously if I'm going to ultimately be paying to get this repaired, I'd probably not go via insurance as it'll work out cheaper that way.

Finally on the size of the dent, now my anger has subsided it's not huge, but at the same time it is far larger than you'd expect from just a door hitting your car. Think because it's hit on a 'styling line' there's obviously a hollow behind so it's caved in a bit, roughly football sized.