Car Damaged in Private Car Park

mrfeloni

Hi Eveyone. Just looking for some advice here.

My girlfriend parked her car in my allocated car park space for the flat I rent whilst we were away for a few days. When we got back we discovered that the roof (plaster boards and metal framework) of the car park had collapsed onto her car and caused some damage.

I contacted the flat block management company and they say that she needs to claim through her own insurance. In the car park there are no signs stating that “you park here at your own risk” etc.

Does the block management company have any liability here as it was their property that caused the damage?

Many thanks for any input and advice.

loskie

yes they are liable, you should pursue the building insurer directly but NOTIFY your insurer too.

neilmcl

loskie wrote: »

yes they are liable, you should pursue the building insurer directly but NOTIFY your insurer too.

Not necessarily. For them to be liable she would have to show that there's been negligence. I would leave it to her insurer, let them chase a claim if there is one to be had, after all this is what you pay them for.

debtdebt

They can't limit liability for their own negligence by putting signs up.

As other's have said, you need to prove they're negligent before you can claim though.

Nasqueron

Like those waivers you see at events, you cannot remove any liability for their own failings just by putting up a sign - if they were negligent they can be sued. The issue is proving there was a problem that they knew about

Lucky_Duck_2

Contrary to what has been written above, it is possible to limit your liability for negligence in save for death or personal injury.

Whether this has been successfully done or not is a different question

foxy-stoat

Lucky_Duck wrote: »

Contrary to what has been written above, it is possible to limit your liability for negligence in save for death or personal injury.

Whether this has been successfully done or not is a different question

Your second statement contradicts the first - you cannot reduce your liability if negligence was proved - no waiver or disclaimer can go that.

Nasqueron

Lucky_Duck wrote: »

Contrary to what has been written above, it is possible to limit your liability for negligence in save for death or personal injury.

Whether this has been successfully done or not is a different question

You can, if you are very legally minded and spend a lot of money on lawyers. However, a sign saying "no liability for damage" has no legal merit if the owners of the building were negligent.



Just as if, for example, you sign a waiver to go on a zip line and the company failed basic safety checks and the wire snaps, they would be negligent and the waiver would be dismissed in court.

Lucky_Duck_2

In that example I assume you are referring to a possible personal injury or a death - in which case excluding liability is prevented by statute - the Unfair Contract Terms
Act 1997 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999

However an exclusion for liability for losses caused by negligence would be allowable provided that it was reasonable

foxy-stoat

Nasqueron wrote: »

You can, if you are very legally minded and spend a lot of money on lawyers. However, a sign saying "no liability for damage" has no legal merit if the owners of the building were negligent.

Still no idea what sign or legal wording would reduce the liability of a property owner if their building caused damage to someone else's car due to the proven negligence of the property owner.

Any payment for damage caused by our negligence to maintain this building will be reduced by 50%

If your talking about contributory negligence then quite possibly - if the poor sap parked his car underneath a building that is quiet obviously looks like its ready to fall down, moved the herras fencing that was blocking the parking space and ignoring all the danger building ready for collapse signs, then the building owner would not be negligent.

Any way - good luck to the OP with his damage problems.

unholyangel

Lucky_Duck wrote: »

In that example I assume you are referring to a possible personal injury or a death - in which case excluding liability is prevented by statute - the Unfair Contract Terms
Act 1997 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999

However an exclusion for liability for losses caused by negligence would be allowable provided that it was reasonable

Thats in b2b contracts though, where parties are expected to carry out due diligence. Especially with negotiated non-standard contracts, they should know exactly what they're walking into. Also, the UTCCRs you mention was replaced by the CRA back in 2015.

I don't think its clear yet who the gf is in contract with, (given its OP's allocated space, it belongs to them so unless OP charged her for parking there....), if anyone.