council dented my car

[tim_s]

Today the council turned up for the second time to lop the tree out the front of my house. They left the first time cos my car was in the way and i was at work so coudlnt move it. Today, however, despite the same situation, they did it anyway, and in the process put a dent in the psgr door and rear wheel arch.
I've taken loads of photos, phoned the council who said i'll have to phone the appropriate dept in the morning. I get this funny feeling I'm gonna get raped over this one, don't believe they didn't own up to it. anyone got any advice? It's pretty blatent that the damage is fresh (slight sappy marks on paintwork) but get this feeling they'll wriggle out of it as i didn't catch them in the act. what do you reckon?

[buster]

bastards.
See if you can get a witness,neighbour maybe see if they seen anything

[smithy318i]

Im sure others will be able to advise you better on a specific corse of action. but the words 'county court' have an ear catching ring to them.
(sort of 'PAY ATTENTION, IM SERIOUS' quality to it)

[OllieB]

Find a friendly neighbour who 'witnessed' it happen who is prepared to testify. Might cost you a pint or two but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

[smithy318i]

Just an afterthought,
but if you new they has been round the day before to lop down a tree next to your car, why the hell did you park it in the same place ?

[tim_s]

lol at smithy, you know how to cheer a guy up! I didn't know they had been previously as no-one told me (typical of my flatmates), and it wasn't yesterday it was about 10 days ago, and they came back unannounced! plus the car was on the drive, wasn't like it was on the street. so i was hardly negligent - if you knew how anal i am over my car you wouldn't have even suggested that!
don't believe it, was so chuffed to get a proper k+n cone filter kit for it for Ԛ£35 off the bay today was in a well good mood. gutted. now got prop centre bearing (i think), service, and getting two dents taken out. i know it won't be the same now too, it's not had any filler anywhere before and the one on the door in particular will be a sod to fix, its over the 'crease' at door handle height.

[tim_s]

a 'witness' would be handy. there's a load of ppl around normally too, someone must have seen it.

[mist]

the council was cutting the grass out side my house, when they chiped a stone right though my nabours o\s front window. she saw it happen and come out of her house to confront the grass cutter bloke. he said to her she will have to ring the council to sort it out , so she did. they said to her thats it is imposable that there equipment could do this as they have specil gards on them to stop this from happening. she went mad becouse she see them do it , but they refused to pay out

[E30BeemerLad]

get yourself sorted with a sensible estimate to rectify the damage. You will need this to establish the value of the damage. Either the council will be reasonable and send you a cheque or they will be twats and either make excuses about prior notice etc (which is no substance of a defence by the way) or just ignore you.

See what you can get sorted by phone tomorrow. If they aren't playing ball then if you have legal expenses insurance give your insurers a ring and they will refer you to solicitors and it won't affect your no claims discount as you are not claiming off your motor policy, merely using the legal expenses cover. If you don't have legal cover on your motor insurance, check you don't have it with credit cards or other home insurance. If you are stuck and the bods at the council continue to give you the run around then PM me and I will make some threatening calls. (I work for a law firm which deals with this kind of stuff)

[tim_s]

That's some really good advice E30Beemerlad, thanks! I've just looked at my policy and I have elephant's 'legal protection' but it is worded in such a way as to suggest that they will cover legal expenses 'in relation to a claim', so I may have to give them a call and see whether they can do anything. I'm gonna stop stressing for tonight, give the council a call first thing in the morning and see how it goes - you never know they might just be reasonable about it.
Thanks again, appreciate the advice

[Gwynleym10]

Whiich council is it?

Did they leave any signs around before they cut the trees, i.e parking suspension? If not then why not?

If find with council's (used to work for one...) that its best to send stuff via e-mail, especially with lost of pictures. If you have any before pictures that would be good as well. Just detail everything and think of anyway that they would try to get out of it, and don't let them.

They should pay out, but put some ground work in.

Make sure you log any calls/emails etc etc with DATE TiME PERSON you spoke to and INFO about the calll.

[japcarkiller]

and as i found in the past unless ur a e30 nut, like we all our. people see e30's as nothing but an old car of no real value.not a future classic as we all do. make them see sence .
also the person you speak to at the council office is probs very thick and even tho they are trying to be helpful expect stupid no brain answers. rubbish rules like" i'm sorry sir but the person that can give you an answer right now can't speak to members of the public ,so we have to play chinese whispers"

this isn't a rant or piss take. well maybe just a little rant. this is what i was told by the council when i had to phone them with a problem.
be ready for a fight mate record every thing if you can record the phone call. and don't take no for a answer.

fingers crossed for ya m8.

[tim_s]

cheers for the help lads, we'll see how it goes tomorrow! totally agree about the opinion on e30s, am sure it will be a bit of a fight. I'm hoping if i keep calm and reasonable it will help. I was chatting to my flatmate over a few whiskeys tonight (am nicely fucked now), and it turns out he told them not to go ahead because my car was there, and that the guy chopping the tree told him when he saw him (he must have been out) that the car alarm had gone off. quite clearly it must have taken a bit of a beating for that to happen - its only got ultrasonics, nothing special! unfortunately my flatmate didn't notice the damage. There was no prior notice and nobody was expecting them today. It was hounslow council by the way, fingers crosed they'll be reasonable.

[ouch]

YOU SHOULD HAVE MOVED IT THEN

[japcarkiller]

YOU SHOULD HAVE MOVED IT THEN

did you read the rest of the thread?
this is the sort of rubbish comment we don't want on the zone.
if ya got nothing good to say then shut up

[ouch]

OH DEAR DID I HIT A NERVE

[japcarkiller]

no you didn't. but your not being helpful are ya.
hang on a minute.
do you work for the council?
MODS keep an eye on ouch he seems to want to be band from the zone.

[ouch]

OH LIKE I GIVE A S..T

[Stoney_god]

OH LIKE I GIVE A S..T

c0ck..

[Richy325iTouring]

YOU SHOULD HAVE MOVED IT THEN

was off the road on a driveways so why the fcuk should he have moved it
read the thread you illiterate fcuk and piss off back to chav site youcame from

anyway btt

just persist with the council mate

if your car was off the road at the time enfersise that as well

i mean if there was a kid there it could have hit them

they should have had the area coned off apropratley as well as the works they were carrying out are dangourous

[Fushion_Julz]

First step is report the damage to the police..."Criminal Damage"

Then approach the council. If possible get the name of the team leader and pass that on to the police. If the council are being cagey, point out to them they have been reported for criminal damage and that the police will require the information.

If the damage was caused on private property (your drive) and they haven't notified you or asked your permission before entering then the (civil) charge could be "Trespass" or, since they caused damage, "Aggravated Trespass" (criminal offence).

Take plenty of pics....
Find a solicitor

[japcarkiller]

dude let us know what happens.

[crazybitchfttf]

The council smashed my window on XR2! didnt leave a note or anything!

Phoned them up they admitted it, sorted it to be fixed within a week, didnt have any problems

Good luck with getting it sorted, dont take anything but what you are due.

[Karan]

unlucky tim!!

fancy meeting up with me and Jon and having a few.....

[Adam318i]

ouch, your not artis's are you? Or one of his brothers/jane/uncle/cusions?

Thats crap luck aswell tim, i know what you mean about insurance companies thinking the E30 is poo, as it does look it on paper

Adam

[dazleeds]

ouch, your not artis's are you? Or one of his brothers/jane/uncle/cusions?

thats just what i was thinking

[c76jon]

for what its worth
i had an escort coz about.............12 years ago now (christ iam old!!)
nice car 6000 miles lux 372 "ahmed BAJOO" bhp,AP brakes etc
i had 18inch rondells on it
came rounf ring road in coventry and a massive hole had appeared in road due to water /frost damage iam not sure
couldnt avoid it wasnt going silly quick and hit it with front nearside
i kid you not the depth was 9 inches at least
any way it cracked the front wheel into 2 bits right round the inside of the wheel so it was in two halves..........scrap

phoned council took photos of wheel ,hole,etc etc

got car home on spare and parked it up
council sent me form etc
filled it in and went to my wheel man to get quote
as it happens rondell had stopped making that rim in that offset and even tho we tried all dealers we could to find an old stock rim i couldnt get one which in reality rendered the other 3 useless

so i contacted my insurance as i had leagel cover and they did without any probs take case up for me

so after 2 years wrangling for what i saw as a new set of wheels as i couldnt get a new one they ended up paying for a tyre
thatb was it
legal guy said i could have pursued it but he didnt think it economical to do so

needless to say tyre was the worlds dearest tyre ever which covered cost of a 2nd hand rondell that was refurbed and away i went with a nice"receipt" from my wheel man

the councils are wonkers and will squirm and wriggle

take the advice and get a "witness" as that was my biggest let down as they said for ages i hadnt done it in that hole etc

make yourself water tight before putting form in
the car was 25ks worth at time and i was all for killing some one

best of luck

john

[tim_s]

escort cosworth what a car! love your m3 too. I've talked to the council today and 'complete tree solutions' (who did it) are coming in the morning to take a look and have a chat about it. The guy sounded definitely the sort to try to wriggle out of it, esp the way he refused to talk about what happened etc.
fingers crossed they'll be ok about it. I'm quite naive when it comes to this shit, so i'm trying to think through how to play it with them in the morning. I still get this feeling they're gonna be assholes about it somehow. I'm much more chilled out about it today, i know if i think about it too much it'll just piss me off. thanks for all the advice guys, am going to see how things go tomorrow morning then take it from there. If they give me grief i'll seek legal advice. I'll keep you all posted.
Karan - we definitely need to meet up, i see you've got a touring slag. love it! I'm doing an MA at bristol uni starting in a few weeks so am sure i'll see you about mate! what car(s) you gonna have up there? how's the m5 engined beast? wouldn't mind some advice on my motor actually mate - think i may have buggered the prop centre bearing, got noise at 30+ odd mph, not coming from either side, but towards the back. not a whine, don't think its the diff, as its not obviously from one side or another i don't think wheel bearing. anyways if u could have a listen next time i see oyu it'd be appreciated. am tempted to just change the bearing anyway, it was pretty knackered and all that smacking the prop in desperation with a lump hammer when putting the diff in couldn't have done it any good!

[Karan]

i have ure number!!! great ure coming back here!! good times to come!!!

u still havent been for a scare in the sport!

[OllieB]

"First step is report the damage to the police..."Criminal Damage"

Definitely some very good advice from Fushion_Julz, I would do exactly what he said.....



Go get 'em

[tim_s]

The tree guys have just been and were totally sound. The guy was a car nut, and apologetic for hitting the car. He said the tree cutter makes 120db or something and they didn't hear it hit, thought the alarm had just gone off as they do. Was very decent indeed about it. He's texted photos and passed it on to his boss to sort. Am well happy. Cheers for the advice though lads.
Karan - I'll see ya soon fella, and a scare in the sport would be awesome!

[Adam318i]

Wow what a result tim!

And no arguing either!

Its nice when things go so smoothly, takes a big weight of your mind!

Adam

[Stoney_god]

Bit of a result hey fella. Hope it all get fixed quickly.

[eun]

thats great news mate!

councils always try to wrangle their way out of stuff,

just the same as council scum who gob off behind their
computer screens and when u get hold of them they
squeal like little bitches!

hope u get it sorted asap