Damage to car caused by garage services
Discussion
I am after some advice and what my chances are with getting a favorable outcome.
In a nutshell, I took my car to a well known car servicing centre last week for an MOT and when I went to pick it up I discovered that the whole of the near side had been damaged including wing mirror. The damage looks like it had been done with either another vehicle or heavy object scrapping the length of the car from the near side passenger door to the near side rear bumper. Resulting in heavy dents thay have pierced the door skin and rear wing.
The garage are denying that they did it and claims that the car was already like that when they did the MOT. In otherwords they are saying that the car was either damaged before I drove it to them or it was damaged within their customer car park.
They also say that cars parked within their customer car park are the responsibility of the owners and if something happens to the car it is not their responsibility. This they say is clarified by a sign at the front of their building saying "cars parked at their owners risk".
As far as I am concerned once I hand the keys over to them, the garage has a duty of care to look after the vehicle. But if their is a sign outside would this absolve them of blame?
I have already started the process of taking them to small claims court but wondered what my chances are of claiming for damages because at the end of the day it is going to be my word against possibly a few of them.
Some points to consider:
The car was dropped off early in the morning and picked up at the end of the day. Meaning they had the keys to car for the whole day. Therefore the damage would have been done within that time.
The MOT report only mentioned broken wing mirror and not any damage to the car. Which means if the car had already been damaged should they not have specified this on the report as well as the broken wing mirror?
The damage to the car will cost in the region of £960 - £2000 to repair. If it goes to court, is it likely that the garage will be represented by a solicitor?
What are my chances of winning this claim?
If I win, would I be able to get the full amount to repair the car as the value of my car is approx £1100?
I would be very grateful if anyone could off me some advice on how to tackle this.
In a nutshell, I took my car to a well known car servicing centre last week for an MOT and when I went to pick it up I discovered that the whole of the near side had been damaged including wing mirror. The damage looks like it had been done with either another vehicle or heavy object scrapping the length of the car from the near side passenger door to the near side rear bumper. Resulting in heavy dents thay have pierced the door skin and rear wing.
The garage are denying that they did it and claims that the car was already like that when they did the MOT. In otherwords they are saying that the car was either damaged before I drove it to them or it was damaged within their customer car park.
They also say that cars parked within their customer car park are the responsibility of the owners and if something happens to the car it is not their responsibility. This they say is clarified by a sign at the front of their building saying "cars parked at their owners risk".
As far as I am concerned once I hand the keys over to them, the garage has a duty of care to look after the vehicle. But if their is a sign outside would this absolve them of blame?
I have already started the process of taking them to small claims court but wondered what my chances are of claiming for damages because at the end of the day it is going to be my word against possibly a few of them.
Some points to consider:
The car was dropped off early in the morning and picked up at the end of the day. Meaning they had the keys to car for the whole day. Therefore the damage would have been done within that time.
The MOT report only mentioned broken wing mirror and not any damage to the car. Which means if the car had already been damaged should they not have specified this on the report as well as the broken wing mirror?
The damage to the car will cost in the region of £960 - £2000 to repair. If it goes to court, is it likely that the garage will be represented by a solicitor?
What are my chances of winning this claim?
If I win, would I be able to get the full amount to repair the car as the value of my car is approx £1100?
I would be very grateful if anyone could off me some advice on how to tackle this.
The sign is meaningless in law, you cannot discharge yourself from responsibility just by putting a sign up.
Tesco are actually liable for damage to cars in their car park caused by runaway trolleys, only because they employ somebody to collect them! If they didn't employ anybody they wouldn't be liable!
Tesco are actually liable for damage to cars in their car park caused by runaway trolleys, only because they employ somebody to collect them! If they didn't employ anybody they wouldn't be liable!
I had a similar situation a few years back. I had my car in for a service and when I got it home and went to open the boot to put things back in place I noticed a tennis ball sized patch of paint/laquer had been melted on on the spoiler. I know it wasn't there before as I had washed the car that morning.
I went straight back the next day and although they said they had no idea what could have caused it they refunded me for the full service. TBH I've never had the patch fixed but it probably wouldn't cost as much to repair as the value of the refund I got.
I know the damage wasn't as extensive as the OP's but I hope they have the decency to put it right.
Just to add, I'm guessing that the MOT report is unlikely to mention the other damage as it wouldn't render the car un roadworthy, whereas the mirror, if broken would be a MOT fail.
I went straight back the next day and although they said they had no idea what could have caused it they refunded me for the full service. TBH I've never had the patch fixed but it probably wouldn't cost as much to repair as the value of the refund I got.
I know the damage wasn't as extensive as the OP's but I hope they have the decency to put it right.
Just to add, I'm guessing that the MOT report is unlikely to mention the other damage as it wouldn't render the car un roadworthy, whereas the mirror, if broken would be a MOT fail.
Edited by nanafagis on Wednesday 20th July 23:42
Tried reporting to Police but they said it is nothing they can do and to take it up with the garage.
Thanks for clarifying the Tesco car park scenario.
Sounds like I am going to have a real fight on my hands to win this. Especially if they are going to be represented by a solicitor in court whereas I will be representing myself!
Thanks for clarifying the Tesco car park scenario.
Sounds like I am going to have a real fight on my hands to win this. Especially if they are going to be represented by a solicitor in court whereas I will be representing myself!
Tried reporting to Police but they said it is nothing they can do and to take it up with the garage.
Thanks for clarifying the Tesco car park scenario.
Sounds like I am going to have a real fight on my hands to win this. Especially if they are going to be represented by a solicitor in court whereas I will be representing myself!
Thanks for clarifying the Tesco car park scenario.
Sounds like I am going to have a real fight on my hands to win this. Especially if they are going to be represented by a solicitor in court whereas I will be representing myself!
Chipmonk0606 said:
Especially if they are going to be represented by a solicitor in court whereas I will be representing myself!
For a claim of less than £5k they have no chance of getting their legal fees if they win or lose and the first solicitor they call will tell them this.The claim will cost them at least £2.5k to defend properly if they instruct a solicitor.
It will cost you an evening and iirc £80 to file a claim on line.
You fill in the blanks as to what your next moves should be.
Without any evidence that they caused the damage it's going to be 50:50 at best.
County Court criteria is the balance of probabilities and does not require hard evidence as such, but this seems to be just your word against theirs. You could argue that they have refused to provide any CCTV evidence, and the judge may not belive that they are just dummy cameras. One might expect the garage to have this to cover themselves from customers making just this sort of claim against them where they are not a fault. Not saying you are, but people do!
The garage does have a duty of care to your vehicle but I don't see how that could extend to patroling the car park 24/7, if it did any ding in a car park would be the owners/operators liability and that is not the case.
County Court criteria is the balance of probabilities and does not require hard evidence as such, but this seems to be just your word against theirs. You could argue that they have refused to provide any CCTV evidence, and the judge may not belive that they are just dummy cameras. One might expect the garage to have this to cover themselves from customers making just this sort of claim against them where they are not a fault. Not saying you are, but people do!
The garage does have a duty of care to your vehicle but I don't see how that could extend to patroling the car park 24/7, if it did any ding in a car park would be the owners/operators liability and that is not the case.
Ricky_M said:
Just to add, I MOT'd a car in this state and the damage was noted as an advisory.
Surprised they didn't make a note of it.
Why was it noted as an advisory? Dents in panels and colour match of wings are nothing to do with the MOT - unless the door was badly enough damaged that it couldn't be closed easily?Surprised they didn't make a note of it.
freecar said:
The sign is meaningless in law, you cannot discharge yourself from responsibility just by putting a sign up.
Exactly what I have been told on various courses in my time working at car dealerships. At every place I've worked, we've had to pay up for damage that has happened in our car park. The only defence we ever had was if we had a handover report, signed by the customer, showing the damage was present when the car came in. On a couple of occasions this wasn't filled in, and we had to fix damage we knew 100% we hadn't caused. Bottom line, we couldn't prove we hadn't caused it, and it wasn't worth the expense of going to court.
I'd suggest contacting their headoffice. Not wanting to sound patronising, but be calm, polite, but firm with them. Much as we all want to rip someone a new a
hole at times like this, it gets you marked down as a thug and you get no where. I've seen a lot of people make this mistake.Keep at them, hopefully they'll give in without to much of a fight!
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