Thread: Problems with airport parking

Hi,
I wasn’t sure where to post this so please feel free to move if it will get a better response elsewhere.
Basically we left our car at Purple Parking off site car park at Heathrow in good condition and returned to find a flat tyre and broken suspension.
The duty manager told us that when they had been to bring the car round to the collection point near reception they had noticed it had a flat tyre so they thought they would change the wheel for us. Apparently when the wheel was removed they saw that the front driver’s side suspension was broken.
We completed a comments/complaint form and the duty manager told us Customer Services would telephone my husband on the next working day. We had to get the car towed home.
My husband did get a call but found it difficult to get much sense from the caller as to what we should do to submit a claim and asked her to put it in writing.
We didn’t receive a letter so we asked a mechanic to look at the car. He said the damage to the suspension spring was caused by an impact (probably by being driven at speed over a pothole when the car was moved from the reception area to the holding area). The spring is snapped and the bottom suspension plate is missing. The tyre has a slash in it that the mechanic said was caused by the broken spring.
He says that the damage would have been immediately obvious to whoever was driving the car so their claim that it was not seen until 2 weeks later is dubious.
We have now written to them twice – the first time enclosing the mechanic’s report and photos of the damage and the second time giving them 10 days to authorise repairs or we will go ahead and ask them for reimbursement.
They have sent us two letters, both saying they do not accept liability for mechanical failure.
We do not feel this is a mechanical failure and we obviously want them to pay for the repair work and for the cost of alternative transport while we are without a car.
We would really appreciate some advice on whether you think we have a good case if we take this to the Small Claims Court and how we should proceed now.
Many thanks for reading this very long post and for any help you can give us.

Yep you sure have a good claim IMHO. Go ahead and sue them for the repairs. send all data, photos, garage report to court.
But first send them a LBA, letter before action, telling them that if you do not receive a satisfactory response in 7 days you will take them to court.
You could make a cliam aginst their insurers, you can ask for the details which they must give as part of their third party liability, they wont want you to claim because its below the excess!
Also you could cliam on your own car insurance and if you have legal cover they can go after them and get your NCB back.

Thank you raydetinu.
Our insurers have said we can't claim on our insurance as we weren't driving the car when the damage occurred. We do have legal cover though so may be worth another phone call.
I'm sending the car park company a final letter today giving them 7 days to pay for repairs and I'll ask for details of their insurers. I do think though that I won't get anywhere with them until we take legal action (going by their last 2 letters to us they have no intention of admitting any liability for the damage).

I dont know who your insurers are, but if you are fully comp then thats what it means! if your car is damaged while it is parked in the street or tree falls on it, you mean you cant claim! Again if your car is damaged while in for a repair, you should be covered. I would defo check again.
Also I would persue the parking companies insurers, at least to let them know that there may be a claim pending and you can give the details to your insurance co.

OK, so do you think we should go for a 3 pronged attack here - our insurers, their insurers and small claims court - and see who cracks first?
Or do we try the insurance first and if we get nowhere then take legal action?
Your advice is really appreciated; we've never had to deal with anything like this before. We don't want to have to pay for the damage ourselves - we didn't cause it and it didn't just happen while the car was sitting in a car park for 2 weeks!

More work but try all three, once they get the stuff from the court that might make them take you seriously and hopefully settle. They should definetly be insured for this sort of thing and they must give you their insurance details. Another point is they dont you can report this to the ppolice as it is criminal damage that occured while in their care and they would be negligent in this respect. Have you asked about any CCTV? coverage. Keep at them, dont give up!

Thanks again Raydetinu.
We'll try all three approaches. I'll let you know what happens.