Help needed re damage from skip contents

PhilandMena said:
I had a quick look at this and found this, amongst other stuff.

Check if you can make a small claim
You can make a small claim for up to £10,000 if you have a problem with something you’ve paid for - like poor service or a faulty product. You can also make a small claim if you’ve paid for a service or product you haven’t received. You must make your claim within 6 years of when you bought it.

Check if you can make a small claim
You can make a small claim for up to £10,000 if you have a problem with something you’ve paid for - like poor service or a faulty product. You can also make a small claim if you’ve paid for a service or product you haven’t received. You must make your claim within 6 years of when you bought it.

Check the cost of making a claim
It might not be worth making a claim if it’s going to cost you almost as much as you’re claiming.

You’ll have to pay a fee to make a claim - the amount depends on how much you’re claiming. You might also have to pay other fees as your case progresses. Check the court fees on GOV.UK. If you win your case, you might get these back from the other side. If you lose, you might have to pay their fees.

Not something I would want to be confronted with. I do hope it gets resolved without having to go to court.
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Yes, I referred to legal costs but for simplicity I didn't mention the court fees, which are recoverable. But not cheap.

Litigation is not for the faint-hearted.
 
PhilandMena said:
I've used them in the past, noting serious, just seeking advice. I have found them to be worse than useless. I was quoted , laws and regulations and informed how to obtain legal support. They refused to give me any advice though.
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My experience is the opposite, but I guess each office is only as good as the staff.
 
This happend to my mothers motorhome whilst in storage a few years ago.

The skip owner sub lets, within that agreement there is usualy a clause where by all reasonable efforts should be made to secure the contents once in use, by the hirer.

In your case, no reasonable efforts were made, so, you have a claim against the hirer, one buzz word now you should use FOI, theres a nice piece of legislation that comes under the new GDPR regulators, the hire firm cant with hold information in a subject access request, especialy if it is likely to lead to a court hearing.

So obtaining the hirers details should be straight forward, no hire firm will want to get involved with a small claims court, and in any case they will have third party insurance as part of their operators licence.

Failure of the skip hire firm to supply, they take a hit, so it should be plain sailing, use your legal cover to take this on.

The small claims court is the route, either the hirer or the owner of skip will have to cough up.

In Mums case, the skip owner settled.

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Sorry to hear this.

Some 18 months ago I left my car in a friends drive whilst away and on my return found that a skip being delivered to a neighbours drive had been swung into it. My insurers suggested my car was a right off but refused to cover since it was private property and it was a non vehicular incident. Equally the skip company whilst admitting fault refused to pay anything! I was fortunate that the neighbour was both very embarrassed and had deep pockets and so covered all my costs. But was an experience I don’t wish to repeat. Next time I’ll leave my car on the road.
 
Did you park close to the skip knowing that there was a possibility that it's content could move..
 
nicholsong said:
There was a case years ago named Rylands v. Fletcher, which as far as I know still stands.

It established the principle that if a person accumulates items on a piece of land and the accumulation 'escapes' and causes damage to another's property then that person is liable.

Following that principle I would suggest that the company filling the skip and not securing the contents would be liable.

Can you establish who that company is?

Geoff
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It may well be that this refers to items escaping the bit of land ie: blowing over a fence or sliding from a pile into next door. This is on the same bit of land.
the skip doesn’t look overloaded, especially for one not on a road where it would have to be secured and it would be the skip hirers responsibility for that. As soon as it’s being driven away it becomes the lorry drivers responsibility.
this will probably come down to the small print in the storage contract which would be the first place I’d start before spending too much time on it. Especially if your insurance doesn’t seem interested, it’ll go down as a claim and incident anyway.
good luck.
 
RobWid said:
Sorry to hear this.

Some 18 months ago I left my car in a friends drive whilst away and on my return found that a skip being delivered to a neighbours drive had been swung into it. My insurers suggested my car was a right off but refused to cover since it was private property and it was a non vehicular incident. Equally the skip company whilst admitting fault refused to pay anything! I was fortunate that the neighbour was both very embarrassed and had deep pockets and so covered all my costs. But was an experience I don’t wish to repeat. Next time I’ll leave my car on the road.
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Sometimes you have to fight your corner with insurers - in my case they were happy to declare the RTC as a knock for knock. I wasn't at fault and not happy losing my no claims. Just insisted they investigated and I persisted - and won.
 
buttons said:
Did you park close to the skip knowing that there was a possibility that it's content could move..
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The site manager moved me to the present pitch - there was no skip there when I was moved there.

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Oh Dear, what a pickle.
Are you absolutely sure that the windscreen cannot be replaced, is the damage really that severe?
At least you would have the holiday that you have booked and paid for.
Best Wishes

Mike & Ann
 
The hirer of the skip is responsible IMHO. Having hired more skips than I care to count during my time as a contractor, it was our alaays responsibility under HASAWA to take "reasonable care and adopt preventative measures" to eliminate accidents or injuries. The picture of the skip shows it contains materials that could fly out in a brisk wind never mind a storm. The skip should have had a net over it at the very least. Better still, it should have been a covered-in model.
Good luck and I hope you get sorted.
 
Mike800966 said:
Oh Dear, what a pickle.
Are you absolutely sure that the windscreen cannot be replaced, is the damage really that severe?
At least you would have the holiday that you have booked and paid for.
Best Wishes

Mike & Ann
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Autoglass will not do it till the bodywork has been done.
 
Viennese Catherine do feel for you, hope it gets sorted out to your satisfaction.
 
Ask about locally, and find a recommended solicitor that will give legal advice for a fixed fee. The fact that He/she is being paid ensures that if that advice is erroneous they too have liability. At that juncture you should have advice on your next best move. Some years ago I had reason to take a well known Large Motor Dealership to the small claims court. I lost on a Technicality. Their costs where 4 times what I was claiming!. The Judge refused thier claim for costs (In fact he almost laughed at their Barrister).

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Viennese so sorry to read this hope you can get it sorted out must be so frustrating for you.
 
I think it's the site owner who is liable. They took your money for storage and then allowed the skip to be put near enough and loaded to an extent that allowed the damage to occur. If the skip user has been careless it's up the them to recoup the damages from them. I think you ought to put it in writing to the storage yard they took your money it would be totally unreasonable to expect you to go every day and see if anything had been left near your MH and it's even worse that they recently moved you to that spot.
 
Landy Andy said:
I think if you talk to a local glass fitting company, not Autoglass, they will probably fit a windscreen. Autoglass aren’t the best glass installers, far from it.
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I agree and 5 minutes tapping carefully with a hammer will straighten the glazing bead so the new screen can be bonded in when the smashed screen is out

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TheBig1 said:
I agree and 5 minutes tapping carefully with a hammer will straighten the glazing bead so the new screen can be bonded in when the smashed screen is out
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Probably true but won't it then need taking out to repair the bodywork above the screen properly?
 
If the skip was placed in the yard after storm Dennis was announced, the skip company could be partially held liable. You could argue that both the hirer and the skip company had a duty to ensure waste did not escape the skip due to adverse weather and they should have provided an enclosed skip. Environmental Protection Act 1990 covers waste disposal and offences. May be worth having a trawl through. Good luck and hope you get a payout xxxx
 
RuffNomads said:
the skip doesn’t look overloaded,
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I think the photo in the OP's first post is of the larger skip as it doesn't look overloaded.
He wrote:
Viennese said:
I noticed that the skip has now been changed to a bigger one and a lot of the rubbish in there now had been in the previous skip so presumably the hire company wouldn't take the old one away until the overloading had been reduced. .
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I would say that the storage yard had the skip delivered for use by others who have storage there, a lot of these storage depots do this. No such thing as act of god, that’s for Hollywood.

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In a past life I had an issue with my skip provider where one of my company employees took an item off the skip after it had been put there as unwanted spoil /rubbish.
The skip operator /driver happened to be in the process of loading the skip back onto the lorry in my yard, the driver informed the guy removing items from the skip that as the item had been thrown in the skip (his wording) it now belong to the owner of the skip and was told to replace the items back into the skip or be prosecuted for theft.
Based on that theory once an item is in the skip it is the owner of the skip that is responsible.
 
So far its been sugested that God, the site owner, the skip hirer and the skip company could be liable and you should go to the expense of hiring a lawyer when your insurance company will do all that and repair your vehicle....

My sister is in legal dispute with a cowboy roofer - 2 years so far and counting....

Save the stress and let the insurer sort it
 
And of course if you try to sue the site owner, you’ll also have to find a new storage home for you van.

The skip user, and the storage site owner, may not know who put the rubbish in the skip, which could be another hard thing to prove? Put an expletive skip somewhere and things appear it it as if by magic
 
eddievanbitz said:
And of course if you try to sue the site owner, you’ll also have to find a new storage home for you van.

The skip user, and the storage site owner, may not know who put the rubbish in the skip, which could be another hard thing to prove? Put an expletive skip somewhere and things appear it it as if by magic
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Someone dumped asbestos in a skip I hired - skip company wanted me to pay for them having to close down their yard to sort it....
 

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