Car damage in ramp

lisyloo

Hello forumites,

after some “advice”
we damaged our car on a ramp at the property of a well known charity.
we have minimised our losses and the total bill is £395 
we have third party evidence of a history of problems plus photos of other drivers avoiding the offending ramp but it’s not the merits of the case that are the issue at the moment,.

We said we would be prepared to go to mediation as part of a letter before action,
we’ve heard back from their insurers.

firstly we didn’t give permission for our details to be passed on - is there a gdpr breach here?

We want the issue resolved of course but their insurers are not independent mediators they are a party with a vested interest. Our issue is with the owners of the site not their insurers. If they want to use their insurers that’s up to them.
Is this considered standard that we have to deal with their insurers?

I do have a legal cover policy I can look at but I’m not sure if this is covered and I’m not sure they help where the route is small claims anyway.

DullGreyGuy

lisyloo said:

firstly we didn’t give permission for our details to be passed on - is there a gdpr breach here?

We want the issue resolved of course but their insurers are not independent mediators they are a party with a vested interest. Our issue is with the owners of the site not their insurers. If they want to use their insurers that’s up to them.
Is this considered standard that we have to deal with their insurers?

I do have a legal cover policy I can look at but I’m not sure if this is covered and I’m not sure they help where the route is small claims anyway.

You dont have a choice, you hit a static object. GDPR isnt really relevant when you are suing each other or contacting each others insurers. All compulsory insurance is public record.

They are not, they represent their client as your insurers represent you. Its 100% their choice if they wish to deal with it themselves of pass it to their insures to deal with it, its what they pay them for. Just as their insurers can contact your insurers to advise of the situation, but that won't be a problem as obviously you've already told them about it rather than trying to defraud them. 

As to your legal policy, depends on the terms. If it's attached to your car insurance then its typically limited to your uninsured losses (eg your excess) and doesn't cover insured losses. 

lisyloo said:

we damaged our car on a ramp at the property of a well known charity

This is the most important and honest statement. You damaged your car, just pay up for the damage you did to their ramp

chrisw

lisyloo 

 plus photos of other drivers avoiding the offending ramp 

Which begs the question, if everyone else could avoid it why couldn't you? You clearly hit the stationary ramp, I don't really see how the charity is to blame.

TELLIT01

Passing on a potential claim to their insurers is not breaking any rules/laws.  Most businesses would do the same.  What' the point of having insurers if you don't use them?

Ayr_Rage

It's not really clear what happened, did you hit a ramp that has nothing to do with vehicular access or was the incident on a ramp you were driving on that is constructed in such a way that it can damage vehicles?

I cannot see any breach of GDPR but determining liability will depend on what exactly happened.

lisyloo

chrisw said:

lisyloo 

 plus photos of other drivers avoiding the offending ramp 

Which begs the question, if everyone else could avoid it why couldn't you? You clearly hit the stationary ramp, I don't really see how the charity is to blame.

We followed the directions (and have pictures of the signs).

After the incident When there was no opposing traffic we noticed some people (a minority) going on the “wrong” side of the road out of a marked no entry.
a logical conclusion is that they know of issues and might be regulars.

we did not know of any issues so it would not be normal to drive on the wrong side of the road out of a no entry.

lisyloo

Ayr_Rage said:

It's not really clear what happened, did you hit a ramp that has nothing to do with vehicular access or was the incident on a ramp you were driving on that is constructed in such a way that it can damage vehicles?

I cannot see any breach of GDPR but determining liability will depend on what exactly happened.

We went the way we were meant to go.
the ramp is one we were supposed to go over. It’s the type that has teeth that lower when tyres go over them.
We were on the left side of the road and there was a sign to go that way.
the other carriage way for opposing traffic had a no entry sign.

i have an independent witness who is willing to testify that they have personally made repeat complaints and there have been repeat issues.

On closer inspection the ramp is also “wonky” I.e. there are 2 ruts where tyres go.

I’m not sure how we can we liable for driving where we were meant to go, following the instructions and not being aware of issues with their ramp. They surely have a duty of care.

lisyloo

TELLIT01 said:

Passing on a potential claim to their insurers is not breaking any rules/laws.  Most businesses would do the same.  What' the point of having insurers if you don't use them?

We’ve got no issue at all with them using their insurers, but the contract for using the car park is with them not their insurer.
if we go to the small claims court it will them.
if they want to fund it via their insurer that’s up to them but how they pay (if found liable) is nothing to do with us.

thats now I thought it worked anyway.

bazdvd

how did the car become damaged and what damage was sustained?

400ixl

It will be them you take to court, but will be the insurers solicitor you will be up against.

lisyloo

bazdvd said:

how did the car become damaged and what damage was sustained?

I wasn’t asking about the merits of the case but I’ll explain.
we drove the way we were meant go on the Normal left hand carriageway with no entry ⛔️ sign on the other carriage way which has oncoming traffic.
there was a loud metal scraping sound of the exhaust bottoming out on the ramp.
we stopped on the ramp as unable to go forward or back without damage,
when we got out of the car we saw the exhaust was “hanging off” I.e. clamp had been ripped off and also the bumper had been detached from the car by the exhaust forcing it off (breaking the rivets).

we called out the operators of the site.

there was nothing wrong with the teeth on the ramp (by that I mean they were going down if you stepped on them)
.it looked like the impact was with the ramp (they agreed this).
we met a local person who is prepared to testify about a history of issues and complaints (of which we knew nothing).
I then drove the car off the ramp being the lightest driver (not much choice).

we returned back at a later date and took pictures of the ramp which on closer inspection was wonky (2 ruts)
we also took pictures of others driving on the wrong side of the road against the no entry side and at the risk of meeting on-coming traffic round the bend.
perhaps they were local, perhaps aware of complaints or perhaps they’d heard of our issue.
we are not regulars so we’re not aware of any faults with the ramp

we haven’t had any other issues of this nature with our car over the last 20 years and it’s not particularly low ground clearance.

will update, but clearly their insurer has a vested interest when doing their “investigation” as of course do we but we were doing nothing other than driving slowly the way we were meant to go.