Car vandalized in hotel car park, who pays?

The_Fat_Controller

Unless you can prove who did it and sue them, either claim on insurance or pay it yourself.

nortong

The_Fat_Controller said:

Unless you can prove who did it and sue them, either claim on insurance or pay it yourself.

This will be covered by 'Ticket Cases' in contract law. The hotel would have to display a non-liability notice in a prominent place in the car park in order to avoid liability. It is important that this notice is obvious to the customer before he parks his car i,e. before he enters into an implied contract with the hotel.

foxy-stoat

Catholic666 said:

I have reported it to the police. My car will need at least half of the body resprayed at great expense. I have no intention of going through my insurance. Do I have any recourse with the hotel?

You may as well claim now, as you have had it documented as a loss and will have to declare this for the next 5 years.

Hotel wont be paying for it so either your insurance will less the excess or you can pay for all of it.

sweetsand

The_Fat_Controller said:

Unless you can prove who did it and sue them, either claim on insurance or pay it yourself.

Prove who did it? I think the OP would only have a claim against the hotel if it was their staff, I'm sure like almost everyone else on this thread that the OP is most likley to pay themselves or via their insurance.

Herzlos

nortong said:

The_Fat_Controller said:

Unless you can prove who did it and sue them, either claim on insurance or pay it yourself.

This will be covered by 'Ticket Cases' in contract law. The hotel would have to display a non-liability notice in a prominent place in the car park in order to avoid liability. It is important that this notice is obvious to the customer before he parks his car i,e. before he enters into an implied contract with the hotel.

Have you got a reference for that? I can't see the hotel being automatically liable just because there isn't a prominent sign saying they aren't liable.  It's presumably not a secure or staffed car park, with no presumption that the cars are being looked after, and there's no evidence that the car was damaged whilst on the hotels premises.

Car_54

nortong said:

The_Fat_Controller said:

Unless you can prove who did it and sue them, either claim on insurance or pay it yourself.

This will be covered by 'Ticket Cases' in contract law. The hotel would have to display a non-liability notice in a prominent place in the car park in order to avoid liability. It is important that this notice is obvious to the customer before he parks his car i,e. before he enters into an implied contract with the hotel.

A notice is required where parking is to be paid for. In this case there is (so far as we know) no payment, and hence no contract, implied or otherwise.

foxy-stoat

The poor sap still has to prove negligence, unless they paid money for a company to keep his car safe and secure for a specific time period, took time and date stamped photos of the car and agreed the condition before they left it they have zero chance of the hotel paying for this.  Even if it was one of their employees the hotel wont be held liable, the person(s) who caused the damage would be sued with proof, then you have to get the money out of them.

OP will pay, or the insurance or they will just leave the damage as is.

sweetsand

Having read todays comments as well - I am prepared to be the OP won't get a penny from the hotel and/or whoever manages the car park.
If I was her/him, I'd write it of as we do when our cars are vandalised. On one of them, not got it reapired, don't get it washed but inside remains clean - if were to have it washed just attracts the inbreeds agin that attack peoples property just becuse they don't want to work and buy nice things. 

I hope you get payment OP but I am 100% sure you wont - sorry about that.

facade

The only way the hotel would be liable for damage to a car on their carpark would be if one of their employees damaged it during the course of their employment, e.g. they dropped a bucket on it whilst cleaning the hotel windows, or caught it with the end of the ladder.

If some unknown third party enters the carpark and damages a vehicle it is not the hotels "fault" and they are not liable.

(There would be an element of liability if the hotel left a big box of sledgehammers in the middle of the carpark and the cars all had sledgehammer dings on them, but I doubt if it would be 100%)

Those "Park at your own risk" signs at supermarkets etc.are meaningless in Law anyway, I think they are just there to reduce the number of drivers bothering the management about someone backing into their car and driving off.

Homer_home

Why would the hotel be responsible for paying for damage to your car just because you parked it on their land?

If that were the case everybody would be driving onto their car park claiming there car was damaged on their land and getting them to pay for it.

The person who is responsible for paying for the damage is the person who damaged your car not a third party.

You have no recourse from the hotel unless it was the hotels staff who caused the damage and it would be futile trying.

Just take it to a good bodyshop and dont bother going through your insurance cause that will cost you even more