Neighbour's Wheelie Bin Damaged my Car

MercOwner

Hi.

I'm looking for some advices. New neighbours moved in next door to me, and last week I came home to find their wheelie bin had blown over and was leaning against my car. I then saw my car was dented. There is a low wall between our driveways and the bin was next to the front of the houses where there is a gap in the wall. I told them to claim on their insurance,must they refused, saying they are not liable. What should I do? I think they should pay for the damage as it's their bin. Should I go to small claims court?

specialboy

Claim off your own insurance,

marlot

They are only liable if they have been negligent.

Was it reasonably forseeable that the bin might cause that damage?

MercOwner

I don't see why I should have to claim off of my insurance when it was their bin that caused the damage.

Marlot, I think it was foreseeable that it might cause damage. There is a gap in the walls between our driveways where the bin was standing, so it could fall over on to my driveway.

marlot

If they were negligent then you could always try a money claim online small claims court action to recover your costs.

marlot

PS. They could argue that if it was that foreseeable you should have parked elsewhere, or warned them of the problem

Quentin

marlot wrote: »

If they were negligent then you could always try a money claim online small claims court action to recover your costs.

Taking court action does involve you paying all the court fees upfront and you only get them back if you win your case and the defendant has the funds to pay up. The loser also has to pay the other sides reasonable expenses in attending court.


So unless you can prove negligence this could be good money thrown after bad.


(And if the neighbour has insurance then they will simply pass your court claim onto their insurers who will defend it for them)


If it is worth it (taking into account any lost NCD/excess/increased future premiums) then claim off your insurance (if you have comprehensive cover).


If they think there is negligence then they will pursue the neighbour and if successful in getting recompensed will reinstate your NCD and you can then pursue the neighbour for your excess and any other uninsured losses.

nidO

Wheelie bins don't just fall over on their own, and certainly not hard enough to dent cars.
Therefore the fact that the wheelie bin was simply in a place where it had the potential to reach your car by falling over is not negligent (if it were, every person in the country putting their wheelie bin out/next to public footpaths would be potentially negligent if they randomly fell over and hit someone).

The negligence here would come if, for example, there was very high wind where you were on the day and it had been accurately predicted by forecasts over the previous few days, and they put the wheelie bin somewhere it, in conjunction with the very strong wind that'd be needed to knock it over and damage a car, could be forseen that such damage could happen.
Did you have particularly strong winds last week?

Also, minor point - it's not their bin, its the council's.

Quentin

nidO wrote: »

..........Also, minor point - it's not their bin, its the council's.

I disagree.

That is not a "minor" point.

It's an irrelevant point in all this.

MercOwner

It was quite windy, but nothing unusual. The bins had just been emptied, so they were lighter than normal and could easily blow over. If it hadn't been left so close to the boundary of my driveway, it would never have damaged my car. It seems obvious to me that it's their fault,

w00519772

The bins on my road are left close to cars on bin day. I think this is just an accident and if it was my car; I would just claim off my insurance. Just my opinion.