Courier damaged my property

dannyg1

Hi,

A courier delivered a parcel to my house and we were not in. The driver took it upon himself to unlock our electric meter and place the parcel in there, we were not contacted and did not give permission or instruction for this.

He didn't lock the meter box back up behind him, my wife then came home later, parked our car in the drive and the meter door swung open hitting our car. The meter box was smashed, half of the door fell off and will need replacing, our car has a scrape along the front bumper and will need repairing/a new bumper - all in all it will be costly.

I contacted the courier and provided pictures. They said that it is not in their policy to leave parcels in meter boxes, however they have spoken to the driver who said he did lock the box behind him and that they were rejecting our claim. Obviously the driver is going to say he locked it behind him because he is protecting himself and the company but he clearly didn't as the box swung open and hit our car.

How do i go about tackling this and getting our meter box and car repaired?

Thank you.
Dan.

lincroft1710

dannyg1 wrote: »

How do i go about tackling this and getting our meter box and car repaired?

If the courier company deny responsibility then you will have to sue the company using MCOL. There is no problem if the driver was an employee, but if the driver was self employed I am not sure if you need to sue him as well/instead.

With no independent witnesses, the case is likely to be settled on a probability basis i.e. was it probable that the driver didn't lock the box.

iammumtoone

It does seem unusual for the courier to be carrying a meter box key. Did they confirm they actually unlocked it? do you have this in writing? Or are they saying it was left open and they placed the parcel inside.

pinkshoes

What caused the meter box to suddenly fall off? Was it coincidence that this happened as the car drove up?

(Given they had put the parcel there a while before)

How did they get into the meter box?

Unless you have a witness this will be tricky to prove as them being negligible.

pramsay13

Your title is misleading as the property has not been damaged by the courier.
You will probably have a hard time trying to argue that it was.

dannyg1

Yes I think it is a step too far really to unlock my property, they could have just left a card saying we missed them. I didn’t tell them to leave it in a safe place or anything.

On the phone they told me that some of their drivers carry meter keys and on email they said “our driver told us he locked it back up” which implies he unlocked it in the first place.

I don’t understand how they can think this isn’t their fault.

dannyg1

The box opened as the car pulled up, it was a few days ago when we had heavy winds.

They unlocked my meter box with a triangle Alan key.

We have a smart meter so no need for us to ever open the box, it has been locked for months, I have them admitting their driver unlocked the box. Surely their is reasonable probability there that they failed to lock it again after them without having a witness?

They didn’t physically damage my car but their actions led to it. If they had locked it after them then this wouldn’t have happened. Seeing as I can’t claim against the wind for blowing the box open, it is the couriers fault for indirectly causing it surely?

Forwandert

In the OP you wrote the car was parked before it hit, is that right? thats a lot of force to cause so much damage to the door and the bumper. Even with high winds sounds more like the door was driven into.

dannyg1

The door is only thin flimsy plastic so just shattered with little force. The bumper is scraped in a small spot but won’t buff out so a new bumper. Not huge damage but in a spot has gone back to the plastic through the paint.

Hasbeen

dannyg1 wrote: »

The door is only thin flimsy plastic so just shattered with little force. The bumper is scraped in a small spot but won’t buff out so a new bumper. Not huge damage but in a spot has gone back to the plastic through the paint.

If its the white plastic door on meter box I have its quite robust. It will stand up to a fair bit punishment. Unless its hit by a large object.

What you describe seems to have been hurricane force. To shatter and scrape your bumper in a small spot. When the car was parked?

But as you posted yours appears to be quite flimsy and a small impact has easily shattered it all. Resulting in a small spot on bumper.

Would not a little spray of suitable paint on the spot not help?

Dean000000

How did the box get smashed, if only the door (moving part) swung into your car? (At that precice moment)

Those small plastic doors weigh nothing, I am struggling to imagine a scenario where so much wind force could be used to necessitate a new bumper being required.

Unless you Redescribe the circumstances, it does sound very unlikely - but that just my uninformed opinion.

Perhaps if you posted pictures and redescribe the circumstances you might get better results from the forum.