Market trader insurance help wind damage

flowerpot2424

Hi does anyone know if i am at fault if my market stall gets blown with a very strong gust of wind into a burger van and causes slight damage am i liable to pay for the damage it has caused as he has already asked for my public liability details which i have but needed just to clarify that he can claim against me

dacouch

Roughly how strong were the winds?

Was it a sudden gust of strong wind without any previous strong winds that day?

What precautions do you take to prevent your stall blowing away?

InsideInsurance

They'd need to show negligence which is defined as doing something a reasonable person wouldnt do or failing to do something a reasonable person would do.

Generally in this will come down to how forseeable the events were, what precautions you'd taken, if there had been any warnings and the opportunity you'd had to respond to the warning.

flowerpot2424

It was yesterday and the winds were strong all day, the market manager, myself and the man in the burger van moved the stall behind his burger van to shelter it from most of the strong winds it is a heavy strong iron market stall and it was only at the end of the day when a very strong gust blew it over

Quentin

If have given him your insurers details then they will decide whether or not you have any liability for this, and deal with him.


Make sure they have all the details from your view of the incident

eddddy

flowerpot2424 wrote: »

It was yesterday and the winds were strong all day, the market manager, myself and the man in the burger van moved the stall behind his burger van to shelter it from most of the strong winds it is a heavy strong iron market stall and it was only at the end of the day when a very strong gust blew it over

So the man from the burger van helped you move your stall to the position it was in when it later damaged his van? So he was clearly happy for you to put it there, in those weather conditions.

I don't think any court would allow his claim against you for negligence in those circumstances - unless there are other factors that you haven't mentioned.

(Although, if the claim is just for a couple of hundred pounds, I don't know if some insurance cos would be tempted to settle, because it's cheaper than arguing.)

dacouch

eddddy wrote: »

So the man from the burger van helped you move your stall to the position it was in when it later damaged his van? So he was clearly happy for you to put it there, in those weather conditions.

I don't think any court would allow his claim against you for negligence in those circumstances - unless there are other factors that you haven't mentioned.

(Although, if the claim is just for a couple of hundred pounds, I don't know if some insurance cos would be tempted to settle, because it's cheaper than arguing.)

The liability policy is likely to have an excess of £250 to £350ish

forgotmyname

Seen this happen on a Sunday carboot/market. It was a food stall, It just missed us, But landed on a young family. The guy grabbed his toddled to shield him from the worst of it.

Paramedics were on site already, I dont think they had proper insurance to cover it and had failed to properly secure the frame down.
The regulars have a wheel or large metal block holding it down.

They never returned.

flowerpot2424

We both looked at the van and i asked if there was much damage he replied no just some scuff marks i said ok thank god there is not much more damage and i proceeded to pack up my stall and went this was Friday, on Saturday he rang me Shouting down the phone at me saying i had left the scene of an accident and not been to see him to offer to pay for any damage that there was, as he first said to me its only scuff marks i did not think anymore about this i am a new trader only been selling for 3 months, so it did not occur to me to ask him if i could pay for any damage i was still a bit shook up from it, and the angry,nasty and intimidating stairs from his Father, this van is brand new, he carried on shouting down the phone for about 10 minutes saying if i had offered to pay for any damage he would have mended it himself for about £50.00 but because i had not offered he wanted to take it to my insurers, he went to the market manager on saturday and told him i had left the scene of a crime and not said anything to him at all so the market manager gave him my phone number i was going to see him on tuesday to offer to pay for the damage, should i do this?

Quentin

Obviously if you make any offer of restitution that will appear an admission of your liability. Who knows what the final cost might be.

Leave it to him to contact your insurer.

And take the manager to task for revealing your phone number. All he should have done was advise the angry man that the police are the people to report crimes to!

InsideInsurance

Offer of restitution may be seen by the layman as a form of admission of guilt but not in law. You can easily make a without prejudice offer/ guesture of goodwill payment without admitting to anything though this wouldnt be covered by your insurance.