Damage by skip company

VLANotts1000

I recently hired a skip which was delivered on Friday evening last week. I arrived at my property on Saturday morning to find that the stone/ brick pillar on the side of my driveway had been knocked down.Their terms and conditions state they are not liable for the damage and as I didn’t actually see it happen and their driver has not admitted it, they’re denying it even happened due to their driver at all. 

This will cost me hundreds to fix and I just don’t have the money. 

Any ideas of where I might stand/ who I can complain further to please? 

Olinda99

One option is to get an estimate to fix it, bill them and if they don't pay then take them to the small claims court

Ideally you will need a witness, but in the end it will come down to who the judge believes.

Obviously take photos, and canvas your neighbours to see if anyone saw anything. They may have Ring doorbells recording etc. 

user1977

VLANotts1000 said:

This will cost me hundreds to fix and I just don’t have the money. 

Do you have insurance?

thebullsback

Every home should have its boundary covered by CCTV

TELLIT01

A contract trying to avoid responsibility will not necessarily hold up in court but better to try to come to some sort of agreement with the skip company.  How big is the gate pillar that it will cost hundreds to repair, or has the wall also been damaged.  Photo's would help.

TELLIT01

thebullsback said:

Every home should have its boundary covered by CCTV

Not everybody can afford home CCTV.

user1977

TELLIT01 said:

A contract trying to avoid responsibility will not necessarily hold up in court 

Indeed, and I'd really like to see this contract which purports to give them the right to crash into their clients' gateposts!

Grumpy_chap

VLANotts1000 said:

I recently hired a skip which was delivered on Friday evening last week. I arrived at my property on Saturday morning to find that the stone/ brick pillar on the side of my driveway had been knocked down.Their terms and conditions state they are not liable for the damage and as I didn’t actually see it happen and their driver has not admitted it, they’re denying it even happened due to their driver at all. 

This will cost me hundreds to fix and I just don’t have the money. 

Any ideas of where I might stand/ who I can complain further to please? 

Without any witness or CCTV this is unlikely to be successful if the skip company stand by the statement it was not them.

The skip was delivered Friday.  
The wall was damaged by Saturday morning.

The wall could have been damaged anytime between the skip delivery and Saturday morning.  

When was the last time the OP was at the property before the skip was delivered? 
The wall could have been damaged anytime between the OP last being at the property and the skip being delivered.

There are two relatively long time periods here when the wall could have been damaged by anyone.  The OP has nothing more than suspicion it was damaged by the skip lorry.

Does the OP have home insurance?

Ergates

Grumpy_chap said:

VLANotts1000 said:

I recently hired a skip which was delivered on Friday evening last week. I arrived at my property on Saturday morning to find that the stone/ brick pillar on the side of my driveway had been knocked down.Their terms and conditions state they are not liable for the damage and as I didn’t actually see it happen and their driver has not admitted it, they’re denying it even happened due to their driver at all. 

This will cost me hundreds to fix and I just don’t have the money. 

Any ideas of where I might stand/ who I can complain further to please? 

Without any witness or CCTV this is unlikely to be successful if the skip company stand by the statement it was not them.

The skip was delivered Friday.  
The wall was damaged by Saturday morning.

The wall could have been damaged anytime between the skip delivery and Saturday morning.  

When was the last time the OP was at the property before the skip was delivered? 
The wall could have been damaged anytime between the OP last being at the property and the skip being delivered.

There are two relatively long time periods here when the wall could have been damaged by anyone.  The OP has nothing more than suspicion it was damaged by the skip lorry.

Does the OP have home insurance?

A small court claim will be decided on the balance of probabilities though, not "beyond all reasonable doubt".

The wall *could* have been damaged any time between the skip being delivered and Saturday morning, but how likely it is that something else did it?  It takes a fair whack to knock down brick pillar.   A skip delivery lorry is exactly the kind of thing that could deliver such a whack.  It should also be pretty simple to show that to deliver the skip, the lorry (or skip) would have had to have moved close past the pillar in question.

Might be worth checking the skip over - there might be a dent/scrape on it of the appropriate shape, size and location to have been caused by hitting the pillar.

Olinda99

good idea about checking the skip - it may have been the lorry of course but you might get lucky

VLANotts1000

This is the damage after the skip arrived. I’ve also attached the before pics. Re CCTV I defy cannot afford it - and I only just moved in 7 days before the skip arrived.