Car damaged in school car park – what would stw do?

teacher’s unions often cover this – check it out

Has the school offered to pay?

Yes, but in typical middle class fashion we’re umming and ahhing about taking money from a poverty stricken state school.

Ah so it’s a moral dilemma, could have told us that at the start.

Clearly if you’re prepared to refuse the schools payment which option you choose will be depend on how much excess you pay on your insurance. If it’s £500 for example then paying out your own pocket might be the best option.

I’d be taking the money off the school, surely they have insurance to cover such things.

Yeah ask the school if the money’s coming out of the fund for textbooks or from its own insurer/from county hall.

There’s no doubt who did it or when

Then that person is liable (if they can be).

In order to make the school liable, you’d need to show that either they had a specific duty of care that they breached or that they were negligent (in breach of a basic duty of care). If this was a deliberate criminal act (sounds like it) then you’d need to show that they could reasonably have predicted and prevented it.

Kid throwing crap over the fence probably doesn’t reach a high enough bar to make it the school’s fault. Teacher running a cricket game in the wrong place (or probably even giving kids the equipment to do so) and the ball landing on your car would be more the sort of thing to make it their fault.

You must report this to your insurer, you will have a contractual obligation to do so. That will result in your premiums going up – statistically you probably park in places with higher risk. You don’t have to claim – probably not worth risking NCD, even if it doesn’t wipe it, what if you have a bigger repair next year.

I think that, unless the culprit can be made to pay, you are taking this one on the chin…

I can’t go into details but holding the student/their parents to account (financially or otherwise) or involving the police is not appropriate.

It isn’t the school’s problem that you don’t want to chase the guilty party. You can’t make them liable if someone else is, just because you think they are a better target.

Normally there’s a ‘parking at own risk’ notice

Which has little or no legal standing. You cannot disclaim away your own negligence or liabilities.

Without further info I’m struggling to see that the school is liable in this scenario.

Bit of t-cut ‘ll fix it

Then that person is liable (if they can be).

They really can’t be. I can’t say more than that.

Thanks all, I’ll pass the advice on. I did say to her that the insurers should probably be told any way so looks like a claim down that route is probably the best one.

‘Dealer Reset £65’

Cake and coffee for dealer.

(I suspect they will detach battery to spray it, requiring a reset of some systems like a stereo or key fob…?)

They really can’t be. I can’t say more than that

underage or immune under mental capacity act is my wild guess

‘Dealer Reset £65’

we are charging your for a procedure that will take 2 minutes and is so simple we dont want to tell you what it is.

Yes, but in typical middle class fashion we’re umming and ahhing about taking money from a poverty stricken state school.

Get a cheaper quote, offer to go 50:50?

TBH, poverty-stricken or no, £800 should be well within a school’s budget to stand I’d have thought. A quick Google suggests that an average school’s spending is £5k per pupil per year.

Do you really have to notify your insurer even if you decide to just repair it yourself – it wasn’t an accident, no-one hurt etc etc? Seems a bit odd to me! I wouldn’t tell my home insurance if I fell through the roof and decided to sort it myself.

It is amazing what a good PDR guy can do. Had a dent on a crease line that the bodyshop said there was no chance of a PDR guy getting out.

Well he did! If you are in the south I can recommend Tom at TDL dent repair, he has a number of youtube videos showing his handy work. I would really avoid any kind of filler+respray if possible.

I wouldn’t have thought so, how would the insurance company ever know you’d had a repair done.

I’m pretty sure you can fix scrapes on your car without telling anyone.

underage or immune under mental capacity act is my wild guess

Quite possibly. But OP says:
holding the student/their parents to account or involving the police is not appropriate. which kind of suggests that they are responsible but OP doesn’t want to chase them.

But just because the culprit isn’t liable (assuming that to be the case) doesn’t automatically mean that someone else is. Negligence would probably be required and OP hasn’t suggested anyone has been negligent.

Do you really have to notify your insurer even if you decide to just repair it yourself

Wording is usually along these lines:
“You must tell us if you have any accidents, thefts or losses (whether a claim is made or not and regardless of blame)”

Failure to do so would be a breach of your contract – worst case would be your insurer cancels your policy if they find out and then you are screwed forever. Good chance that they won’t find out (and you may just get a verbal slap on the wrist), but having cancelled insurance will cost you quite a bit. Most insurers won’t quote someone with even one historical cancelled policy.

You pays your money and you takes your chances. If OP is contemplating going after the school then its a bit more serious than an anonymous bump you got Mr Vinyl to take out.

If OP is contemplating going after the school

he said the school has already offered to pay.

If it was me I’d take a payment from the school. £800 is a bigger chunk out my budget than a school budget.

If the school pays and makes a claim on their insurance Does that get the incident recorded on the insurers database anyway so Op has to report to insurance anyway as a no claim incident?

Do you really have to notify your insurer even if you decide to just repair it yourself –

“You must tell us if you have any accidents, thefts or losses (whether a claim is made or not and regardless of blame)”

Is correct.

Schools are struggling with budget cuts and £800 spent on your dent will be £800 they won’t be spending on your kids.

As I mentioned a creased dent can be removed with PDR if you get a skilled person. Most PDR dents will be in the range £75-150 so much cheaper than a garage respray (and a much better job as a bodyshop respray + filler will never be as good as an original factory finish). You can email/text photos to get a quote / opinion if it is repairable

If the school claims on its insurance could be a risk it gets recorded against your car then you’d have to come clean to your insurer and your insurance would likely go up anyway.

Yes, but in typical middle class fashion we’re umming and ahhing about taking money from a poverty stricken state school.

If they’d offered I’d let the school pay, I’m as poverty stricken as any school 😉

Could always tax the the binlids of their dinner money on their way in to school. You’d be doing them a favour as they only spend it on fags and junk food.

Get a cheaper quote and go halves.

That may not be up to you if you claim on the insurance (I suspect £800 might not be enough for the insurance company to bother chasing, but they would certainly have the option).

cloudnine – Member

Or just leave it dented

🙄 STW in a nutshell right there

matt_outandabout – Member

(1 – that is what insurance is for. If you want car to be safer away from children and flying objects, park elsewhere. )

And again

No consolation to OP but when my insurance renewal came through from direct line recently there was an amendment about claims for vandalism. I’d have to pay the excess but future premiums unaffected/no loss of ncb etc.
It is vandalism that we are talking about here isn’t it?

echoing what others have said, I’d be inclined to investigate the dent removal people. The one near us is very good, and in the order of £50 rather than £500. Try asking around local bodyshops, either for the job proper or someone might do a homer?

Three_Fish – Member

This is why I love STW so.

Please elucidate.

He was indicating, with good justification, that lots of people on here are utter tools 😀

Yeah, because only an utter tool would question why the school is liable when the school isn’t likely to be liable 🙄

Schools are struggling with budget cuts and £800 spent on your dent will be £800 they won’t be spending on your kids.

Get the head to pay if you’re worried about depriving the school of funds He/she must have been involved for them to agree for the school to pay surely ?And if they can live with depriving the school of the payout then you shouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

surely they have insurance to cover such things.

Nope – schools “self insure” ie there are so many of them that the cost of insurance premiums would be more than the cost of vandalism type damages over a local authority / country ( state schools) Most state owned institutions self insure.

There can be no liability without negligence which has a specific legal meaning. for negligence to be shown you must pas the 3 part test. That a duty of care is owed, that this duty of care has been breached and that there has been monetary lost. all 3 parts must be met for it to be negligent and I simply cannot see how it can be.

Either go after the vandal, pay up of go thru insurance. From the info we have there is no liability on the school and the school would be breaking the law by paying you

Take the money. 800 quid is about 3 or 4 days supply cover through an agency. Bugger all. As a teacher I can guess at many situations where this might happen and the OP not want to involve the Police. The offer to me indicates some guilty feelings on behalf of the school so take them up on it.

And collude in breaking the law? there is no way I can see that the school can pay this off legally. They are effectively offering a bribe they are not liable unless something very different happened from what I see in the OP

The school are, effectively, offering to pay for the repair plus a bit.
Where is the illegality?
Better option might be:
– negotiate with school for them to pay actual costs plus any resultant premium increase for the next 2 or 3 years
– if they agree…..advise insurers and explain that representative/agent for the other party will pay for the work
– if school don’t agree, give it to the insurers and invoice the school for premium increases for next 2 or 3 years
Get the school’s current offer in writing.

Get the school’s current offer in writing.

Why ???? They’ve offered to pay for the damage. Either accept that or sort it out themselves. I’m not really sure what the problem is here. Can’t anybody just make a decision for themselves anymore?

If the offer isn’t in writing the school can renege or change their version; it prevents a ‘….he said, she said…’ situation.

Good luck with that.

the school have implicitly accepted liability; premium increases are a consequential cost resulting from the incident; go for it.

How about a school cake sale to raise money for the repair?
Failing that , try a nearly nude calendar.
🙂

You asked what I’d do, I’d take the money from the school however poor the school claims to be. I suspect the school has insurance but doesn’t want to claim. If you claim on your own insurance they’ll go after the school’s insurance anyhow. So why pay an excess and suffer higher premiums when the school is willing to pay?

Schools do not carry insurance – certainly state ones. they “self insure”

There will be very strict rules about what the school does with its money and simply to give money to a car owner when there is no liability would be illegal in most circumstances.

Schools do not carry insurance – certainly state ones. they “self insure”

Not correct. The real situation is much more complex than that and ties in with the local authority position, as well as academy status, etc. Oh, and certain lines of business cannot (effectively) be self insured.

Also, your post about negligence was also wrong, whilst being correct about the requirements for it to be proven. Liability does not have to arise through that tort. There are many other ways, such as nuisance, contract, strict liability, defamation, etc.

Anyway, OP. Either suck it up yourself or get 3 quotes and get the school to pay.

Just take the money if they have offered it, the poverty stricken state school will be far less poverty stricken than one of its teachers.