Drive damaged by 3rd party delivery lorry.

pumas

Edit
 I've had no contact with the 3rd party lorry company. The company I was dealing with said - "we ask that plenty of space is left at the front of your house/ and or drive as this will be a kerbside delivery" - There was.
I only noticed the leg prior to the lorry leaving.
The rest of the drive has cracks, but no 'dents' and is on a slope

(Couldn't find a better place to post this)

As per title, the concrete drive has been damaged by the stabilising leg. I don't think a repair is feasible, as the drive is old and sloped. I was planning on replacing it in the near future, but not this year.

This is what the company have said - "given the weight of the vehicle with the loads, it would be very hard to tell if a drive was softening and might crack once the leg is down." They didn't ask.

The company I'm dealing with seem to want me to leave the matter there. The 'dent' is now 'wheel-shaped' as I have to drive over it.

I want them to be held responsible, but don't know what they should do. Maybe pay something towards a new drive as needing sooner rather than later.

steve866

Do you have legal cover with your home insurance?

pumas

No   Offhand, don't think it would be covered by insurance either.

Lorian

Post a photo of the damage. How heavy was the item being delivered?

sheenas

Most delivery companies that handle heavy loads state roadside deliveries for this reason. 

m0bov

Take photos of the damage, get quotes for repair, then send an LBA to the company for the cost. Normally they are reluctant to pass to insurance cos of the premium so they will often settle with some compo.

DullGreyGuy

pumas said:

(Couldn't find a better place to post this)

As per title, the concrete drive has been damaged by the stabilising leg. I don't think a repair is feasible, as the drive is old and sloped. I was planning on replacing it in the near future, but not this year.

This is what the company have said - "given the weight of the vehicle with the loads, it would be very hard to tell if a drive was softening and might crack once the leg is down." They didn't ask.

The company I'm dealing with seem to want me to leave the matter there. The 'dent' is now 'wheel-shaped' as I have to drive over it.

I want them to be held responsible, but don't know what they should do. Maybe pay something towards a new drive as needing sooner rather than later.

So this was presumably a delivery you have asked for? 

What were the conversations about where it was to be parked? Had you asked for it not to be a curb side delivery? 

Was the full lorry load just for you or did it have other customers' goods onboard too? 


Ultimately you would need to show they were negligent in attempting to park where they did but this will be tempered with other considerations like if you insisted that they come onto the driveway to deliver the goods closer to where you needed them. 

Do you have any evidence to back up your allegations? These things often become a "he said/she said" type thing where neither side agree exactly what happened etc. 

Technically, if they are liable, they should pay for the diminution in value the dent has caused. A repair invoice is simply a rough proxy for diminution. By the sounds of it the drive was old and on the based that you driving on it has changed its shape, fairly weak and so doubt it would be making any material difference in value so at most a token sum on a temp fix to make it last until you replace the whole drive. 

Section62

pumas said:

(Couldn't find a better place to post this)

As per title, the concrete drive has been damaged by the stabilising leg. I don't think a repair is feasible, as the drive is old and sloped. I was planning on replacing it in the near future, but not this year.

This is what the company have said - "given the weight of the vehicle with the loads, it would be very hard to tell if a drive was softening and might crack once the leg is down." They didn't ask.

The company I'm dealing with seem to want me to leave the matter there. The 'dent' is now 'wheel-shaped' as I have to drive over it.

I want them to be held responsible, but don't know what they should do. Maybe pay something towards a new drive as needing sooner rather than later.

Did the driver use any kind of load spreader under the stabiliser leg? (Were you present when the delivery was made?)

Broadly speaking, if a stabiliser leg caused a 'dent' rather than just a crack then you may have difficulty in demonstrating that the concrete was sound before the lorry arrived.  A 'dent' would suggest the concrete was so poor it was incapable of taking loads, or the sub-base or ground below was inadequate.

A temporary repair should be possible - either by filling the 'dent' (depending how deep it is), or by cutting out the damaged area and then filling it.  You won't get a perfect invisible repair, but if the drive is in poor condition it is unlikely to be reasonable to expect it.

The company (or their insurer) might pay you something as goodwill to go away, but if you go down the 'legal' route you may struggle to hold them liable for anything other than a fairly cheap repair... and relative to the cost of having the whole drive redone the amount is likely to be small change.  You can't get 'betterment', even if the company is held liable for the damage.

What does the company's T&Cs say about deliveries and liability if their vehicles go onto your property?

TheJP

Did you say they could deliver onto the drive? If so you may have then mitigated any liability towards the company.

pumas

heJP said:

Did you say they could deliver onto the drive? If so you may have then mitigated any liability towards the company.

No, wasn't  asked, I had no contact with the lorry company and was only told by the company I was dealing with, to ensure a clear way for a kerbside delivery, which I did.    

doodling

Hi,

It remains unclear what actually happened so it is very difficult to establish who might be liable.

Questions:

1. What address / instructions did you provide when ordering?

2. Were there any Ts&Cs when you ordered which provided any detail of how delivery would be made?

3. When the lorry arrived was there any discussion about exactly where the stuff would be deposited and / or where the lorry would be positioned to achieve that?

4. During the delivery were you present at any time?

5. Exactly what interactions were there between yourself and the driver of the lorry?

6. You state that the drive is otherwise flat but has cracks - is that correct?

Without answers to questions 1 to 5 it is difficult to establish who might be liable.

Based on the existing state of the drive, I would speculate that the extent of liability is probably limited to the cost of materials to fill the dip (bag of sand plus some cement ~ £15) plus the cost of someone to mix it and lay it (say 2 hours' work at less than £50/hour).

Personally, I'd spend the £15 and DIY.