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AmandaIndie
Posts: 6 Forumite

this has now been resolved
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In summary you reversed into a stationary object in the dark. No injuries occurred but damage to your vehicle.
I suspect you are wasting your time trying to blame anyone except the driver.1 -
Given that it was a dark corner it would have been better to drive in forwards for better illumination. I suspect that head office will make a similar argument and decline to accept any liability.0
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AmandaIndie said:I hope this is the correct sub to post in, apologies if it isn't.
On Saturday night I went with my parents and my sister to my parents favourite pub to celebrate my parents golden anniversary. When I got to the pub car park, there weren't many spaces left, but there were 2 together in a corner where lighting was very poor. I reversed into one of the spaces and when there was 2ft to the end of the space there was a crunch. We got out to have a look and saw that a tree had previously fallen down and they had cut off the branches and put some tape around it, but the stump with branch end was sticking out 2 ft into the parking space (It was about 2 ft high, so was lower than the window height and wasn't visible at all in the dark, it wasn't visible in my reversing camera due to how dark it was and it didn't set off the object sensors). It has broken my number plate and put a hole/crack in the boot of my car that is about 5 inches high. We went in to the pub and said what had happened to the barman, the landlord then came out and asked us to show him what had happened (he has only been the landlord there for 2 weeks) He was apologetic, said he couldn't believe how dark that corner is and agreed that you couldn't see the stump sticking out in the dark and said that they should have cut away the whole stump rather than just the branches and that there should have been cones there to stop people parking there. He accepted liability. He assured us that head office would get the damage to my car taken care off and that we wouldn't have to go through my insurance, just needed to get a quote and send it to them and that he would call me today with details of who to send the quote to.
This morning he has called and was very brusque and said that their head office has said I have to make a claim through my car insurance against the company.
I've spoken to my insurance after that phone call and they said they have to put me down as liable until the head office makes an admission of liability and so I will have to pay my excess before the repair can be started. Now I'm concerned that their head office won't accept liability. Can I make a claim against their public liability insurance instead of through my car insurance so I don't ruin my no claims discount and put my premiums up?
You arent obliged to claim off your Motor insurance, but having registered the claim you will have to declare it going forward (as you'd have had to anyway had you not registered it). You cannot claim off their PL insurance, you will claim off the company and its the company's choice if they deal with it themselves or pass it to their PL insurers, its there to protect them not you.1 -
Agreed, if you drove into a stationary object, even one that was poorly lit and not very visible, you are going to have an uphill struggle proving it was the fault of anyone but the driver.
Broadly speaking you have the options
(1) Claim off your own insurance, pay your excess, hope that your insurance will be successful in claiming their costs from the pub and get it downgraded to a non-fault claim, but don't hold your breath. Probably the best option if it's serious damage.
(2) Pay for the repairs yourself and don't claim at all. Probably the best option if it's only minor damage as at least you keep your NCD that way.
(3) Take the pub to court for the cost of your repairs. They'll have the case over to their liability instead and you can deal with them. Quite a bit of work with a very uncertain likelihood of success.
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So you wrongly assumed everything was the same when you tried to park there again. TBH if you can't see that in your rear view/wing mirror then I'd be questoning my driving competence.
You have a duty of care to look where you are going, do your reversing lights not work?1 -
I think the challenge is it's not in a walkway or anything so not a danger to an individual, it's damage to a vehicle. By all means try but if you don't want it through your insurance you will need to pay a solicitor to be taken seriously. Still think you are throwing money after bad.
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The pub does have a duty to ensure that the car park is safe, but the driver also has a duty to take care, keep a good lookout, and to take extra care when reversing into a poorly lit area. If both parties have fallen short of that duty then you get a situation where liability is split between the pub and the driver, and that might be the best case outcome here.
Split liability would mean that the pub would be liable for a percentage of your repair costs - the exact percentage depending on just what share of the blame was attached to the each party. From an insurance point of view though split liability is the same as a fault claim - your insurer either recovers the full repair costs or they don't. So the effect on your NCD and future premium is the same whether you are found to be 10% liable, 50% liable or 100% liable. Only if you can convince a court (or the pub's insurer) that the blame was entirely the pub's and not the driver's at all would you get it downgraded to a no-fault claim, and that's probably a tall order I fear.1 -
Pi**ing in the wind with this one me thinks.0
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You said the car in the next bay was blocking the view. Think there's your answer. Driver error IMOFind out who you are and do that on purpose (thanks to Owain Wyn Jones quoting Dolly Parton)0
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Entirely drivers fault and a waste of time and resources to pursue otherwise.0
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