Driveway removed, car in a hole - my fault?

warby68

If you couldn't see the drop, then presumably you wouldn't have seen a child, animal, tools or anything else in the space you reversed into either.

I'd be careful handing blame out when your driving seems a little iffy.

PS I've put a £70k Range Rover on my shopping list as its obviously an essential buy for when I fall into a hole I should've seen

JP1978

OP, you get what you deserve, I hope your car is damaged and you have loads of sleepless nights!

You have pulled onto PRIVATE property with no due reason - you were just been too idle to find the next PUBLIC road to turn around on.

I say this as we have a small access drive onto our (and two neighbouring properties) that is maintained by the three of us. Many a vehicle that cant be bothered driving another 30 yards to turn in the allocated area uses this private area to turn in. Are they, or amazon, Asda, Tesco etc who use that to turn in going to pay for its upkeep? No, of course not.

Car_54

deaston wrote: »

Or one of those inconsiderate people who sit at 60mph in the middle lane of the motorway. None of them care about me, or my safety, or the safety of others. They just care about getting to their destination three minutes earlier.

They drive 10 mph below the limit to get to their destination earlier. How does that work? Are they driving a time-machine disguised as a car?

Strider590

deaston wrote: »

There's no damage to my wife's car. And I'm lucky that I have a £70,000 Range Rover that my wife was able to drive to me to pull the Mini out. In all, it was just a minor inconvenience.

"Lucky" is not the word I would use, pretty any car with enough weight would have done the job. I imagine you leased it just in case you get stuck in snow as well, where unfortunately you'll come to realise that the sports tyres are absolutely no use whatsoever. Ironically they usually end up with cheap/nasty Chinese tyres fitted because the owner is paying out every penny they earn on the lease/pcp and cant afford tyres, which then makes thing 10x worse.

"Lucky" is not how you'll feel when you are stuck in snow (or mud) and nobody has a heavy enough vehicle to pull you free.

deaston

JP1978 wrote: »

OP, you get what you deserve, I hope your car is damaged and you have loads of sleepless nights!

You have pulled onto PRIVATE property with no due reason - you were just been too idle to find the next PUBLIC road to turn around on.

I say this as we have a small access drive onto our (and two neighbouring properties) that is maintained by the three of us. Many a vehicle that cant be bothered driving another 30 yards to turn in the allocated area uses this private area to turn in. Are they, or amazon, Asda, Tesco etc who use that to turn in going to pay for its upkeep? No, of course not.

You hope my car is damaged? That's very unkind. Although, as I've explained, the car is fine. And I'm not entirely sure why I'd have sleepless nights...

You're very lucky that you have never turned around on private land, but I'm not alone in doing so, so don't feel in the least bit guilty about it. In this case, I think the homeowner's personal harassment and threats against me are more serious than turning on private land, so I'm happy I was within the law.

I also have a private drive that people turn on, but it doesn't bother me one jot. I have no idea whether or not they know where the next turning point is, what their circumstances are etc. Life's a little too short to worry about that.

But perhaps you and the guy with no drive should take a look at the Occupiers' Liability Act 1984. Section 1 states that you have responsibility even to people who aren't visitors: "duty is owed by a person as occupier of premises to persons other than his visitors in respect of any risk of their suffering injury on the premises by reason of any danger due to the state of the premises or to things done or omitted to be done on them".

If he didn't want people turning on his drive, he should have placed his gates on the edge of his boundary. And he should also have signage warning people about the trench. But hey, I'm not going to worry about it anymore because I'm ok and that's what's important.

unholyangel

You keep referring to the Occupiers Liability Act - are you aware its a limited duty of care and only applies to personal injury or death and does not apply where property damage is concerned?

In general in the motoring world, when a moving object collides with a stationary one, its the one moving thats at fault.

However I'd point out that you also owed him a duty of care, except you would owe him a greater standard of care than he would owe you (with his being limited to injury & death due to your trespass).

debtdebt

Jesus christ OP, you've confirmed your car isn't damaged so why are you still banging on about the whole situation???

You've learnt your lesson. Avoid that driveway and in future, don't turn into other people's property.

deaston

unholyangel wrote: »

You keep referring to the Occupiers Liability Act - are you aware its a limited duty of care and only applies to personal injury or death and does not apply where property damage is concerned?

In general in the motoring world, when a moving object collides with a stationary one, its the one moving thats at fault.

However I'd point out that you also owed him a duty of care, except you would owe him a greater standard of care than he would owe you (with his being limited to injury & death due to your trespass).

Does mentioning it once mean I "keep referring" to it?

And again, I've made that mistake of being concerned about the wellbeing of others and the homeowner's duty toward others (not naughty, evil me, or my car, but anyone else who may fall into/trip over his trench).

But fear not, I'm not going to raise it with the council or the homeowner, so the trench will be there as a hazard for everyone else - children, dog walkers, the blind, the postman... everyone.

Aylesbury_Duck

"the blind"....goodness me. Bit of an upgrade on the usual nuns carrying kittens.

bigadaj

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

"the blind"....goodness me. Bit of an upgrade on the usual nuns carrying kittens.

Presumably blind nuns carrying kittens whilst delivering mail and walking dogs and children.

Oh and people reversing blindly too.