Should I cut my losses? Car damaged by tow company.
Hiya. Long story short, my car broke down and RAC used a third party tow company called C&S to collect my car and deliver it to my garage of choice. The garage called me when the car was delivered, letting me know there was an incident. They told me that against their advice, the tow truck driver lowered my car by releasing the handbrake and letting it roll. This caused the car to roll off and into the wall of the garage. Now, I’m not saying my car was expensive. It wasn’t even in great condition, but they took photos and upon inspection found the boot had trouble closing and the lock on the boot was cracked. There were minor scratches caused to the back, but I’m not fussed about that. I’m more worried about the structural damages and the boot not closing properly.
I immediately called the RAC to make a report. They requested a garage report, which cost me £80 and told me they aim to get back to me, no later than 8 weeks. They didn’t of course, so I got in touch again and they told me they would escalate the situation. Week 9 I finally heard back. They said the C&S tow driver reported it as a “minor bump”. They requested CCTV footage from the garage, but they didn’t have any. I requested the footage from C&S as the driver should have filed a report and kept the footage from his vehicle, but they responded with “they don’t save footage after a certain amount of time”. I told them it should have been saved along with the report they didn’t file.
Anyway, after some back and forth, they told me the garage report of £3500 was more than the cost of the car and it wouldn’t be economical to repair it. So they instead offered me £1000 as a final settlement. I did some research, my car, which is a Honda Covic 2008 mileage 99,000 is currently worth £3500 on auto trader secondhand. I told them, I would be happy to have them fix the car, as long as I have a courtesy car while it’s being fixed or pay to have the car replaced. I just want it fixed. They have concluded that the car had sufficient signs of wear before the incident and that £1000 is all they are willing to payout.
Should I take this to court? I haven’t filed this with my insurance company yet as I don’t want my claims to go up.
Any advice would be much appreciated. All I want at the end of the day is for the damages they created to be rectified.
Hiya. Long story short, my car broke down and RAC used a third party tow company called C&S to collect my car and deliver it to my garage of choice. The garage called me when the car was delivered, letting me know there was an incident. They told me that against their advice, the tow truck driver lowered my car by releasing the handbrake and letting it roll. This caused the car to roll off and into the wall of the garage. Now, I’m not saying my car was expensive. It wasn’t even in great condition, but they took photos and upon inspection found the boot had trouble closing and the lock on the boot was cracked. There were minor scratches caused to the back, but I’m not fussed about that. I’m more worried about the structural damages and the boot not closing properly.
I immediately called the RAC to make a report. They requested a garage report, which cost me £80 and told me they aim to get back to me, no later than 8 weeks. They didn’t of course, so I got in touch again and they told me they would escalate the situation. Week 9 I finally heard back. They said the C&S tow driver reported it as a “minor bump”. They requested CCTV footage from the garage, but they didn’t have any. I requested the footage from C&S as the driver should have filed a report and kept the footage from his vehicle, but they responded with “they don’t save footage after a certain amount of time”. I told them it should have been saved along with the report they didn’t file.
Anyway, after some back and forth, they told me the garage report of £3500 was more than the cost of the car and it wouldn’t be economical to repair it. So they instead offered me £1000 as a final settlement. I did some research, my car, which is a Honda Covic 2008 mileage 99,000 is currently worth £3500 on auto trader secondhand. I told them, I would be happy to have them fix the car, as long as I have a courtesy car while it’s being fixed or pay to have the car replaced. I just want it fixed. They have concluded that the car had sufficient signs of wear before the incident and that £1000 is all they are willing to payout.
Should I take this to court? I haven’t filed this with my insurance company yet as I don’t want my claims to go up.
Any advice would be much appreciated. All I want at the end of the day is for the damages they created to be rectified.