What Happens If Your Car Is Damaged Whilst In For Service Or Repair?
Thursday, 12. May 2022
This is the response from a law firm answering this question for a car dealer.
The situation involves a vehicle being damaged while left with a garage, but the damage incurred was through no fault of the garage.
The questions arising from this type of situation are:
Who is responsible for keeping the property safe?
Who pays for the damage to be fixed?
The principle is that of Bailment. The owner of the property is the Bailor, and Bailment is the act of the Bailor delivering goods to another party, the Bailee, without a transfer of ownership. A vehicle being put into the garage for repairs is an obvious example, as is a hire vehicle being hired out.
So just to be clear, you are the Bailor, the owner of the car. The act of leaving your car with a garage for repairs, service, MOT etc. is Bailment and the garage that has your car on their premises is the Bailee.
Most people, and that includes me, assumes that as soon as you hand over the keys to your car that the garage is immediately responsible for any damage to the car irrespective as to how the damage was caused. It would seem that isn’t true. This is what they say:
Unless there is a contractual term that makes the Bailee responsible for insuring or replacing the vehicle, then they do not owe a duty if the goods are damaged as a result of something occurring that is not due to negligence from the Bailee.
In other words, if your vehicle is left with the garage for repairs and an arsonist decides to go on the rampage there, or a major storm decides to pay a visit and rips the roof off of your car or van, the garage does not owe a duty to repair or replace it.
So, unbeknown to me and I’m sure many reading this, if you are the Bailor, the owner, it is important to have the requisite insurance to cover you in the above or similar scenarios.
It is down to the Bailor to check the insurance position with the Bailee if they have any concerns, not the Bailee’s job to advise the Bailor of this situation.
If you are the Bailee, the garage owner, you may wish to make it clear in the terms and conditions that your insurance will not cover any damage sustained due to events out of your control. Obviously, you are responsible for any damage caused as a result of your negligence. It may save an argument and ill feeling if you don’t make this clear upfront. By Graham Hill
