My car was hit in a car park. Can I get CCTV recording

Jem8472

Hi guys,

Just want some advice on how to go about trying to get possible CCTV recording.

I was parked in a tube station car park on Sat 18th Jan for a day out in London. Came back to the car late at night about 9pm.

Next day I noticed that my car had been hit on the back passenger side door and along to the rear wheel arch. It looks down to the metal in place.

No note or anything was left on my car, but it does look like the person got out and rubbed my door as you can see rubbing marks in the dirt on the car.

So how do I go about finding out if there was a CCTV camera pointing at my car? I like about 100 miles away from where it happened so its not really possible for me to go there again and have a look.

Thanks,

Jem

sharpy2010

It's up to the tube company if they wish to furnish you with CCTV evidence, but they are certainly under no legal obligation to do so.

paddedjohn

Could the damage have been caused elsewhere? Could it have even been damaged before you left it there?

Norman_Castle

http://ico.org.uk/for_the_public/personal_information

InsideInsurance

You can request the information but CCTV is complicated under the Data Protection Act because they have an obligation to the privacy of the other individuals caught in the CCTV footage as well as an obligation to you.

eddddy

hi Jem8472

The "ICO Code of Practice for CCTV" mentions this precise scenario:

Example: A member of the public requests CCTV footage of a car park, which shows their car being damaged. They say they need it so that they or their insurance company can take legal action. You should consider whether their request is genuine and whether there is any risk to the safety of other people involved.

(See: http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/topic_guides/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Detailed_specialist_guides/ICO_CCTVFINAL_2301.pdf page 13)

So the car park owner (London Underground?) is probably legally allowed to give you the images - but they don't have to (unless you get a court order).

My guess is that they will refuse from a purely practical point of view: Working out which cctv camera covered your car, and then viewing a whole day's footage looking for the culprit.

If London Underground did that in response to every scrape in every car park they run, they would need to recruit a whole bunch of cctv checkers.

The SAR approach suggested by Norman Castle isn't really relevant, as it is not images of yourself that you are interested in.

Jem8472

I have been onto NCP and it turns out that they don't hold the CCTV footage, that is held by the British transport police.

I do't want to get my insurance company involved as the repair job will probably be about the same as my excess.

Do I report this is a accident to the Police? If so will my insurance company have to be informed?

InsideInsurance

You legally should inform your insurers anyway, though obviously most dont if they dont intend to claim.

Evidently the more people you inform then the more chances your insurers have of finding out that you've breached your policy terms by not informing them of an incident

londonTiger

It's a risk you take by not disclosing.

Should not happen to you. But there was an incident on another forum where person x reversed into person y at a car park. x and y got out and discussed and decided not to make a claim as damages were minor.

3 months later person y receives a letter from insurance informing them that their ncb is zero and they had paid out to person x and person y needs to pay excess.

Person x was a complete scum and lied to insurer that person y drove into them.

Insurance didn't contest it, didn't even notify person x and just paid out.

Though on a hit and run scenario I don't think that will happen. I'm sure they'll just scarper and never utter a word about it to insurance.

Buzby

No need to inform the police - it was on private property, so they will not be interested in property damage.

Mark_Mark

Buzby wrote: »

No need to inform the police - it was on private property, so they will not be interested in property damage.

Was it?

Thought it was in a public car park and therefore the Road Traffic Act would make it a matter for the police.