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Council Liability for damage to car caused by obstruction in entrance?
Hi,
My first post, so please be gentle!
Last Thursday, I entered a multi storey car park in Cannock, owned by (I believe) the local council. It's a pay and display car park, but free after 7pm.
To get into the car park, you have to go up a long gradient ramp, which has a yellow box pedestrian area all the way along on the left (no kerb, just painted area), then at the top, the painted area ends, and you have to turn in 90 degrees to the left to get through into the car park.
There was a bright yellow 'barrier' box, which no longer had the barrier arm in (as if it was once an exit, as it was on the nearside of the car as you enter). I was concious of clipping my wing mirror on this, but had plenty of room, since I was far enough from the kerbs to do any damage.
As I entered the car park at this point, I heard a loud scrape. I didn't feel any jolt, just heard the awful scraping noise. I looking in my wing mirrors and couldn't see anything, and I was far away from the yellow barrier box.. so I carried on into a space. Again, I felt nothing as I carried on.. but got out and discovered the paintwork was scraped from the rear nearside door handle and part of the door and rear wing.
I went over to the entrance to check that yellow barrier box, and then discovered what had caused it..
There is what appears to be a roller-shutter casing surrounding the entrance to the car park, and it's a dark-brown colour.. certainly not easily visible, especially in darkness.. but what is worse, it sticks out OVER the kerb by a couple of inches either side.. so even if you don't clip the kerb, there's a strong chance (almost certain judging by the amount of paint and scratch marks on the casing) of scraping the side of your car on it as you go past.
There are no "At your own risk" signs as you enter the car park.. but I assume there may well be some on the tarrif board, but certainly nothing as you enter the ramp, go up the ramp, or turn into the car park. There are also no warnings about the obstruction jutting out over the kerb.
Would I have a case against the carpark owners for negligence by not making it more visible? I admit I was driving and therefore caused the damage myself, but you could not see this roller-shutter casing, and what is it doing jutting out into the path of vehicles anyway??? I don't think it's even used any more, I'm sure it's a 24 hour car park.
Re: Council Liability for damage to car caused by obstruction in entrance?
take plenty of photos before they fix it ! make sure the photos illustrate the situation e.g hang something very visible from the ends of these stick out pieces
Re: Council Liability for damage to car caused by obstruction in entrance?
This sounds more like an insurance related query, so I'll put my motor claims handler hat on.
First off you would need to show that the owner of the car park is negligent and therefore liable for the damage to your car, this is going to be hard to do since you were the driver and also by your own admission you stopped when you first heard the scraping noice but didn't get out to check, so by carrying on the damage to your car was worse than it could otherwise have been.
Since the object you collided with was fixed in place and stationary it was 'there for all to see' and the car park owners will argue that there is sufficient room to safely negotiate the bend if the driver is exercising sufficient due care, that's going to be a tough argument to defeat.
There is a similar thread already on the insurance forums, a link is attached....
Whilst I would like to believe the OP when he states the Council have accepted liability, in all honesty it all seems a bit too quick because of the timescales and who he claims the Council have talked to (what usually happens is that the policyholder claims off their own insurance as he states he is doing, once repairs have been completed the insurers pursue the negligent party with the known repair costs, and at that stage the detail why they are holding them responsible, since the OP involved their own insurers the third party would normally deal direct with them and not discuss the case with anyone else etc etc).
I'm not posting this to have a go at the OP in the other thread, but because I don't want to build your hopes up too much. If it is true then that's great, you can use this to help your case.
Mossy
PS The signs 'at your own risk' usually refer to damage caused to your car whilst it was parked etc as opposed to damage caused because you drove into something, so don't let the lack of such signage cloud the issue.
Council Liability for damage to car caused by obstruction in entrance?
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