Hi, I had my brand new Honda at the Honda dealership during Sydney's hailstorm last month. The car was there for a warranty repair, so Honda's fault. The car sustained substantial hail damage but the dealer refuses to cover the damage.
Any advice on what to do is appreciated.
Claiming through your own insurance will have an excess/potentially impact future premiums though.
True, but they will be far more knowledgeable about what is and isn't possible than the average punter here. And don't forget it will be in their best interest for the dealer to be liable if that is possible.
OP might not have a choice - there is a potential Act-of-God element here. And this is what you have insurance for. Having insurance and never claiming on it also defeats the purpose.
What a stupid question.
They obviously said that they did not know and that OP should post their query on Australia's foremost bargains website.
Difference here is that OP gave their car to Honda dealer. They have a duty of care to look after it.
At work or at shopping, you park your car at your own risk, the onus is not on them because you didn’t give your car to them to park. So, unless work or Westfield offer a valet service, these two situations are completely different.
What did Honda do to cause the damage though? Nothing, just like the other examples, they were not negligent.
Claim it on your insurance.
They have a duty of care to look after it.
A business have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent damage to their customers property. The dealership may have done that during the hail storm. It's on OP to provide evidence that the dealership was negligent and failed to take reasonable measures to prevent the damage.
Calm down, you pair. I was not saying that the Honda dealer in OP’s case is to blame or not. My comment was to do with the “Westfield/work parking” example and how totally different to OP’s example it is.
OP gave over their car to the dealer with the expectation that it would be handled carefully and with all due care while at the dealership. The dealership may have done all it could to protect as many cars as possible.
This example is about just parking your car at work or in a car park. You are not giving your car to anyone. There is no duty of care to look after your vehicle, because you have parked it at your own risk. The duty of care here falls to you, not to Westfield or your employer.
I didn’t take sides and I didn’t tell OP what they should do, I was merely pointing out that a bad example is a bad example.
My initial impression is that they are likely to be at fault, assuming that they had possession on your car at the time (ie. you handed over your keys and left your car with them).
If they really want to fight it however, claiming through your own insurance could be cheaper and easier than issuing a complaint in the Magistrates' Court.
IMO they had possession of the car at the time of the damage, so they are responsible for it. No different to where they crashed it or someone keyed it, etc.
They are probably just being pricks and trying it on to avoid claiming on their insurance.
You are right. Same thing if car was stolen from their car park. Dealer should responsible for it.
Call your insurance company - this is what you pay them for. Or did they tell you to post here?
Hahaha. Awesome. I want a job in an insurance call centre, so when people call in I can say.. “What did OzBargain say when you asked them?”
Book a test drive next time it’s predicted to hail and then you can call it even Steven
Watch "The Man Who Sued God" starring Billy Connolly.
Pretty sure the answer is in there.
Followed by man yelling at cloud.
Escalate it to Honda corporate first. Then your own insurance.
I'd keep following up both avenues - claiming through the dealer and claiming through your own insurance.
I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out the dealer wasn't responsible, this isn't negligent damage after all, but I also wouldn't take their word for it ;)
As long as Honda was taking reasonable steps to protect your car - not leaving it on the roadside unlocked, or denting it themselves with a golf club then i don’t see how they’re liable for an act of god.
Act of God. Just go through your insurance and maybe try and get your excess refunded from the dealership under their goodwill.
"Act of God"? - I wasn't anywhere near Sydney on that particular day.
Busted. Everyone knows God is omnipresent as well as all that other omni stuff.
then i don’t see how they’re liable for an act of god.
That's what I was thinking, it might come under act of god thing. sue god .
I'm thinking, what could the dealership done to prevent damage, but they all would require a good amount of notice that the hail storm was coming, and that it was going to be a bad one (causing damage);
-Move all the vehicles undercover carpark, would have to be a paid carpark I think, even then, they would need to hire security guard to watch over cars, else they would be liable if any were stolen from Wilsons carpark or whatever.
-Cover car with blankets and/or doonas, to soften impact of hail. Depending on how many cars they had there, this could be practical perhaps. But if they have 100, or even just 10, cars outdoors that need covering, to source that many thick blankets or doonas on short notice may likely prove difficult.
-pray to god/buddha for cars outdoors not to be damaged by thy giant icey stones from the sky ?
As others have wisely mentioned. Check with your insurance company, as they should be able to give you a more definitive answer on liability here. Especially since they have a significant interest in cost-saving, by the dealership being liable. So they would be sure to tell you if that is the case.
Any advice on what to do is appreciated.
Call your insurance company.
A couple of ways to think about this:
- If you parked the car on the street and it gets hail damaged, you'd claim from your insurance. No dealership in Australia has the capacity to keep every car indoors during storms.
- If you lent the car to a friend and they bang it up, you would claim from your insurance too.
Your insurance is there for your convenience, so you don't have to worry about taking the other person to court or claiming from their insurance. It's definitely going to cost your something to claim it (Excess, increased premiums) … but you already know that.
Good luck.
Next hail storm, I'm going to go to a service centre. I heard it has protection from elemental damage.
What if you're driving dealerships car while your car is getting repaired, then the company's car gets hail damaged. Who should pay to fix it? Just wondering.
What did your insurance company say when you called them?