Damage following car re-positioning. Can I claim?

Richard53

Exactly the same damage happened to my car, luckily when I was reversing out of my drive and not on the motorway 30 mins later. Spring snapped, ripped side of tyre, car immobile. According to my garage, it's fairly common.

I didn't complain, as it happened when I was driving the car. Your incident happened when you were nowhere near. How they can claim not to be responsible is beyond me. And yes, if they were working on behalf of the council, it's the council you should be complaining to. You have no contract with the removal company. Damage to both sides at once is beyond coincidence - it has to be the result of mishandling by somebody. The finger only points one way. Photos of the outside of the car are irrelevant,

Nobbie1967

Richard53 said:

Exactly the same damage happened to my car, luckily when I was reversing out of my drive and not on the motorway 30 mins later. Spring snapped, ripped side of tyre, car immobile. According to my garage, it's fairly common.

I didn't complain, as it happened when I was driving the car. Your incident happened when you were nowhere near. How they can claim not to be responsible is beyond me. And yes, if they were working on behalf of the council, it's the council you should be complaining to. You have no contract with the removal company. Damage to both sides at once is beyond coincidence - it has to be the result of mishandling by somebody. The finger only points one way. Photos of the outside of the car are irrelevant,

He doesn’t have a contract with the council either. I didn’t have a contract with the person who hit my parked car, but they were still the person I approached to pay for the damage. Same would be true if they were delivering on behalf of Amazon at the time. They did the damage, so they are responsible.

Richard53

Nobbie1967 said:

Richard53 said:

Exactly the same damage happened to my car, luckily when I was reversing out of my drive and not on the motorway 30 mins later. Spring snapped, ripped side of tyre, car immobile. According to my garage, it's fairly common.

I didn't complain, as it happened when I was driving the car. Your incident happened when you were nowhere near. How they can claim not to be responsible is beyond me. And yes, if they were working on behalf of the council, it's the council you should be complaining to. You have no contract with the removal company. Damage to both sides at once is beyond coincidence - it has to be the result of mishandling by somebody. The finger only points one way. Photos of the outside of the car are irrelevant,

He doesn’t have a contract with the council either. I didn’t have a contract with the person who hit my parked car, but they were still the person I approached to pay for the damage. Same would be true if they were delivering on behalf of Amazon at the time. They did the damage, so they are responsible.

You're probably right, although the responsibilities are far from clear. He has a kind of contract with the council if he is a council taxpayer, although there are too many variables. As a public body, the council had a duty of care to employ a removal company who would not cause unnecessary damage to the vehicles they recover, so perhaps that is another route. I dunno - just thinking aloud. One thing is sure - he will find it far easier to pursue a claim for (say) under £1k from the council than from a private company. Quite likely the council wouldn't contest it for such a small amount.

sheramber

Were there not notices posted in the area (on lampposts often) in advance  advising of the suspension.?

Manxman_in_exile

Any claim the OP may have will be based on negligence - it's got nothing to do with contractual relationships with anybody.  The contractor lifting the car is acting on behalf of the council as their agent so the council is responsible.  If the council wants to sue their contractor, that's up to the council, not the OP.

(If a principal - the council in this case - could simply evade liability by saying "sue the contractor, not us" then there would be no incentive on councils to make sure that they used competent and efficient contractors.)

Richard53

Manxman_in_exile said:

Any claim the OP may have will be based on negligence - it's got nothing to do with contractual relationships with anybody.  The contractor lifting the car is acting on behalf of the council as their agent so the council is responsible.  If the council wants to sue their contractor, that's up to the council, not the OP.

That's what I was trying to say back up there ^^^ Thank you.