Gatwick parking incident

Legacy_user

Hi all,

I recently returned home from holiday to find an odd smell in my car, at first we thought it was just an old pair of shoes that I had in the back and because the car had been left sitting for a week it was just them.

However, it turns out that when I left my car in the Long Stay Summer Special at Gatwick Airport my car became flooded in the rear passenger footwell, it wasn't until I got home (30mins away) and had a look around the I noticed the rear of my car was soaked. I called Gatwick straight away; they advised a complaint would be raised and they'd get back to me shortly.

Today I received this;
Dear Mr C.

I’m sorry to hear that you believe damage has been caused to your car when using our parking services.

I regret to inform you that, in line with our terms and conditions of parking, we are unable to accept liability for any alleged damage that was not reported on-site prior to your exit from the car park. This is because an incident form must be completed by yourself and a member of staff, along with any relevant evidence being obtained. This allows a full investigation to be undertaken and also rules out the possibility of the damage being sustained after the vehicle has been taken from the car park.

For more information relating to our terms and conditions of parking, please visit:

https://www.gatwickparking.com/more-information/legal/terms-and-conditions

I’m sorry that we’re unable to assist you further with this enquiry and apologise for the upset and inconvenience caused.


Kind regards,
Gatwick Customer Services


Any advice or guidance?

Aylesbury_Duck

Loobiec wrote: »

Hi all,

I recently returned home from holiday to find an odd smell in my car, at first we thought it was just an old pair of shoes that I had in the back and because the car had been left sitting for a week it was just them.

However, it turns out that when I left my car in the Long Stay Summer Special at Gatwick Airport my car became flooded in the rear passenger footwell, it wasn't until I got home (30mins away) and had a look around the I noticed the rear of my car was soaked. I called Gatwick straight away; they advised a complaint would be raised and they'd get back to me shortly.

Today I received this;
Dear Mr C.

I’m sorry to hear that you believe damage has been caused to your car when using our parking services.

I regret to inform you that, in line with our terms and conditions of parking, we are unable to accept liability for any alleged damage that was not reported on-site prior to your exit from the car park. This is because an incident form must be completed by yourself and a member of staff, along with any relevant evidence being obtained. This allows a full investigation to be undertaken and also rules out the possibility of the damage being sustained after the vehicle has been taken from the car park.

For more information relating to our terms and conditions of parking, please visit:

https://www.gatwickparking.com/more-information/legal/terms-and-conditions

I’m sorry that we’re unable to assist you further with this enquiry and apologise for the upset and inconvenience caused.


Kind regards,
Gatwick Customer Services


Any advice or guidance?

I'm not sure what you can do. What evidence do you have that the car park flooded and if you have evidence, it's probably not something the company is liable for anyway, unless it could be shown that they were negligent.

sheramber

Did you leave a window open to allow rain to get in?

Other than that how would it get wet?

mattyprice4004

Sounds like your car has a water leak - not really their fault.
I have similar and it’s a sunroof drain

AdrianC

Let's say you left there, got home, unloaded the car... and left a rear door open overnight. It hacked it down, and the car got flooded.

Would that be the parking site's fault? No, of course not. That's why you need to check for problems before leaving.

So the question is why it leaked in the first place. I doubt the site flooded to a depth that the back doors would leak - you'd have plenty of other issues with the car, not least a tide-mark inside and out.

Do you normally keep the car in a garage or under cover overnight?

CardinalWolsey

If this happened very recently, we have had monsoon-like rain on a few occasions down in sunny Sussex. Highly unlikely to actually flood a long stay car park at LGW (and the last time there was flooding in Sussex, in 2000, whilst places such as Lewes and Uckfield went under water, there were no reported issues at LGW), and consider the depth the water would have to get to for it to ingress in to your car.

Far more likely is that a seal on your car has failed, such as the sunroof (if you have one). What car is it, how old is it, and are there commonly reported "leaks" that it suffers?

System

sheramber wrote: »

Did you leave a window open to allow rain to get in?

Other than that how would it get wet?

I did not. I would not have contact them if I had left a window open.

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

Sounds like your car has a water leak - not really their fault.
I have similar and it’s a sunroof drain

I don't have a sunroof, it didn't leak before and it doesn't leak now but cheers.

AdrianC wrote: »

Let's say you left there, got home, unloaded the car... and left a rear door open overnight. It hacked it down, and the car got flooded.

Would that be the parking site's fault? No, of course not. That's why you need to check for problems before leaving.

So the question is why it leaked in the first place. I doubt the site flooded to a depth that the back doors would leak - you'd have plenty of other issues with the car, not least a tide-mark inside and out.

Do you normally keep the car in a garage or under cover overnight?

Car has been left outside since I've owned it, 5 years. I have a dated video and contact Gatwick 30mins after leaving the parking lot; flooded doesn't mean there was 3 foot of water, that's why I never said the parking lot was flooded but the rear of my car.

It's valet parked they've either left the door slightly open and it's leaked in via the seal or they left a window open. So, could it most likely be the car parks fault. Yes. Thanks for your reply though.

CardinalWolsey wrote: »

If this happened very recently, we have had monsoon-like rain on a few occasions down in sunny Sussex. Highly unlikely to actually flood a long stay car park at LGW (and the last time there was flooding in Sussex, in 2000, whilst places such as Lewes and Uckfield went under water, there were no reported issues at LGW), and consider the depth the water would have to get to for it to ingress in to your car.

Far more likely is that a seal on your car has failed, such as the sunroof (if you have one). What car is it, how old is it, and are there commonly reported "leaks" that it suffers?

No leaks or sunroof, all good.

1. My car had no leaks before or after (Also has no sunroof)
2. The car had all of its windows and doors closed when I dropped it off with the valet
3. There's a reason I posted what I posted.

jaybeetoo

Sadly, I think you will have a near impossible task proving it was something the car park did wrong.

debtdebt

Ultimately, if you get no joy, you will have to sue them if you want to go that far.

If you do that, you will have to prove negligence on the balance of probabilities. What evidence do you have to prove negligence on the part of the parking company? I'd say none at this moment in time.

foxy-stoat

Loobiec wrote: »

Any advice or guidance?

If you cannot prove that they were negligent I would remove all the seats, take out the carpet and underlay and give it a good jet wash and allow it to dry out fully.

Hopefully the smell will go and you can put it all back together again.

As to what happened, who knows, maybe a window was left open when you or they parked it up and no one noticed until the day you collected and they closed it. They would of driven it to a space then moved it closer to the entrance the day you where due to collect.

Maybe your passenger didn't close the window when you left, or they had a kip in the back when they parked it up....unfortunately you wont be able to prove anything now that can help you.

System

I have pictures of when the car was parked up, after I gave them the keys with the ticket they provided, the pictures show all windows are closed.