Help – I accidentally bumped the work pool car the other day into a low wall I couldn’t see while parking in a car park. It’s left a little scuff down by the nearside front fog light. I fessed up as soon as I got back to work to show my boss what had happened.

My boss is wanting to get the car fixed but he’s reluctant to claim off the insurance for it as ‘my carelessness will be costing him money’

I’ve since been on holiday for a week & in my absence it was taken off for a quote & it turns out apparently my little bump has caused the whole front end out of alignment & on the opposite side the gap between the wing & the bonnet is about 20mm near the windscreen & much smaller near the front bumper. I never noticed this at the time.

He’s currently ‘thinking’ about what he wants to do. I can’t believe the car is so badly made that the low speed impact I had could cause all this damage to the car. Anyone got any advice what to do or is it a case of suck it up, pay for the repairs & put it down as a life lesson?

What does it say in your contract about paying for damage to a works vehicle?

You should have something already in writing concerning the action to be taken in the event of accidental damage to a company vehicle. It’s quite possible that you will just have to pay up, but I’d ask for a second quote – one that you can source yourself.

This is why your work pays for insurance.

your employer has insurance to cover this.

paying the excess might be a reasonable request in a ‘fault’ incident like this, any more isn’t.

tell him to get a second opinion because you’re not paying for it.

Life lesson, don’t fess up to bumping the pool car, let someone else take the blame in future.

Were you using the car for business at the time of the bump, if so then tell the boss to get it fixed on the insurance, don’t be paying for it out of your own pocket.

You’re not responsible for genuine accidents to company property, that’s what their insurance is for. I rolled a pool car at Nortel, writing it off. They just claimed on insurance and that was that.

What does it say in your contract about paying for damage to a works vehicle?

Don’t think it says anything, if it does it would be due to negligence.. So I guess it would be up to them to prove I was being negligent?

And driving into a wall isn’t being negligent?

Did the wall appear when you were looking elsewhere?

And driving into a wall isn’t being negligent?

A low wall that I couldn’t see from inside the car in a car park.

What does it say about paying for damage to vehicles due to your own negligence?

I’d agree with footflaps – accidents happen.
If it’s a minor scrape the decent thing is to offer to pay, if it’s more major the company can claim off the insurance. Sounds like your boss is being an arse to prove a point.

PrinceJohn – Member
A low wall that I couldn’t see from inside the car in a car park.

You couldn’t see it as you drove towards it?

You already “fewssed up” in your own words. No idea what the legal position is.

You couldn’t see it as you drove towards it?

Nope – the space next to the one I was pulling into had a Range Rover blocking my sight parked in it & the wall was no more than a foot high.

This is why they have insurance. I would be very very surprised if you are in any way contractually obliged to pay for this. Nor should you be expected to.

Of course, you were using it for company business… weren’t you?

That’ll rather depend on the contract’ T&Cs etc. It’s not unusual for an employee to be responsible for damage caused to company property through negligence

Yup. Even more annoyingly this was the second car park I had to park in cos work hadn’t given me enough money to park in the first one!!

You couldn’t see it as you drove towards it?

Who cares? It was an accident. Company insurance pays.
They might be a bit more cautious about lending PJ the pool car in future though.

So – you couldn’t see it as you drove towards it?

no – it was too low & only protruding from the main wall by about 1.5′

That’ll rather depend on the contract’ T&Cs etc. It’s not unusual for an employee to be responsible for damage caused to company property through negligence

Well it will won’t it. Burden of proof of negligence occurring would be on the company, not on him to prove he wasn’t negligent, though.
I’d like to see them prove negligence for a minor car park bump.
Perhaps if they have a witness who’ll swear he was talking on the phone, eating a bowl of cereal and applying his makeup in the rearview as he handbrake turned into the space.

How fast were you going when you hit the wall?

And what kind of car is it?

I meant to say, the quote does sound like a rip-off tho.

Stuey01 – whose fault was the accident then? The builder for making the wall too small? Perhaps the driver ofthe Range Rover for parking first?

How fast were you going when you hit the wall?

No more than a few mph

And what kind of car is it?

A Fiat Bravo

PrinceJohn – are you really, really short?

Then how did it bend so easily??? Was the car new to the company or could it have been shunted previously??

your firm has insurance… or rather your firm SHOULD have insurance and this is what it is for.

accidents happen.

however, how big is the company? or rather how big are its profits? if it is a small concern you could offer to halp out with the excess. if it is a large multi-national then i’d let them pay for the damage.

druidh… leave it out. i’ve hit a bollard that was 6″ lower than the boot of the car. i’m sure he wasn’t aiming to hit the wall. it was an accident. all accidents have a cause, but they are not intended.

Druidh, just because there is no else to blame it doesn’t mean he was negligent.

Not looked at our TCs for a while but it used to be something like

£500 for the first at fault accident
£1000 for subsequent at fault accidents

the company’s excess is £1000

Does your boss own the business/company? If not, then he’s being a bit of an arse.

Even if he does, he’s still being a bit of an arse if the car is insured. Covering accidents is what insurance is for.

He’s probably got some other issue with you and just using this as an additional lever.

He’s probably got some other issue with you and just using this as an additional lever.

Yeah don’t think he was happy with me earlier this year when I left them in the lurch when I took a month off to have a broken leg…

check the vehicle is actually insured on thewww.mib.co.uk website, a mate drove a van for 3 weeks not knowing, his boss hadnt insured due to cash flow problems.

a lot of bus and some transport companies charge the driver a small amount for every accident they have, that was there fault.

My employer has for years used pool cars as a means to paying out less in travel claims/mileage to its employees using their own cars. If I prang my own car on work business claiming 46p a mile or whatever it is to cover fuel, maintenance and insurance, then it is my policy, my excess, my problem.

If work insists that I use their car on work business because they think it will save them money in the long run, and then I prang it, whose problem is it? (never damaged a works car fwiw)

But as above, you should have something in your contract or works car policy that spells out the excess (in pounds not %) you should pay in ‘your fault’ accidents on work business.

I would also be highly suspicious that someone else has subsequently damaged the car. How could you check at the time and notice a tiny scratch by the foglight and not the rest of the damage? 😕 Or would anyone accident/claims/bodyshop repair-related like to comment on how you could bend the whole front end at ‘frontwards round a range rover’ parking speed? I’d be checking for paint/scratches that are not consistent with the wall you drove into for a start.

A low wall that I couldn’t see from inside the car in a car park.

Has anyone mentioned the height of a child’s face yet ?

Has anyone mentioned the height of a child’s face yet ?

I would say it was the height of a child’s waist…

Yeah don’t think he was happy with me earlier this year when I left them in the lurch when I took a month off to have a broken leg…

I like the turn of phrase. Having a broken leg. Did it have a name?

What about a small child, struggling with his shoelaces.

Or and average size child sitting down in a sulk.

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(feel free to ignore me by the way, I’m not being serious)