Damage caused to car on private land

Legacy_user

Can anyone help or advise please? We were parked recently in a private car park, and something flew off our car in a gust of wind and caused damage to a car next to us. Being honest citizens, we told the car owner what had happened and offered to pay towards costs of repair. We have since been told that as we were not negligent, it was a pure accident/act of god, that we don’t really have to pay anything. Now the quotes have come in so high now, we have offered to pay a contribution to their excess when they claim on their car insurance. This was a suggestion by them, but now they’ve said that’s not good enough and are wanting to take us to the small claims court. Can anyone please advise as to where we stand legally? Thanks!

custardy

What was the 'something'?

Quentin

If you have a court claim to deal with then it's probably time to involve your insurer.

Put it in their hands to deal with

Aretnap

From a legal viewpoint whether or not you were liable will depend on whether you were negligent or whether it genuinely was an unforeseeable freak accident. That in turn depends on what it was that flew off, how well secured it was, how obvious it should have been that it was insecure, whether it was a freakishly strong wind or just a blustery day etc - basically whether a careful driver could reasonably have been expected to do more to prevent the accident happening.

However if you ARE liable to pay then your insurance will cover it - that's precisely the point of having insurance. (The fact that it was a private car park is neither here nor there in this respect) As above if the other driver is threatening court and asking for more than you feel willing/able to pay then now would be a good time to contact your insurer if you haven't already and let them deal with it - it's what you pay them for after all.

paddyandstumpy

I doubt the car insurance would cover that.

But, given you mention an events management team, were you there in a professional capacity? If so, do you have liability cover?

Aretnap

Ah. I assumed above that the "something" was a bit of luggage attached to the roof rack or similar - that or a bit of bodywork from the car itself.

If it was a gazebo and you had just tied a couple of the guy lines to the car then I agree that your car insurance is unlikely to cover this - it's too remote from the actual use of the car.

However if you were not acting in a professional/business capacity (eg you were helping out at your local fete) then this is likely to be covered by the liability section of your home/contents insurance - so it's them who you should be in touch with.

brianposter

Dimps812 wrote: »

We have since been told that as we were not negligent, it was a pure accident/act of god, that we don’t really have to pay anything. Now the quotes have come in so high now, we have offered to pay a contribution to their excess when they claim on their car insurance. This was a suggestion by them, but now they’ve said that’s not good enough and are wanting to take us to the small claims court. Can anyone please advise as to where we stand legally? Thanks!

It is difficult to see how you would convince a court that you were not negligent. Do the other party really need to repair their car ?

agrinnall

brianposter wrote: »

Do the other party really need to repair their car ?

Whether they need to or not is irrelevant, they have damage to their car and they see the OP as responsible so they want the damage repaired at the expense of the OP.

brianposter

agrinnall wrote: »

Whether they need to or not is irrelevant, they have damage to their car and they see the OP as responsible so they want the damage repaired at the expense of the OP.

Given that the cost of a repair by an insurance company may well be quite out of proportion to the actual damage, repair by the insurance company is often a very poor solution.
The OP has asked for advice. Given that I cannot see them winning in court, I would certainly try to negotiate.
Last time I had to negotiate I started offering £50 and ended up paying £5.

TrickyDicky101

Having a large 'sail' (aka a gazebo) on the car one hopes you used really secure attachments!