Parking on double yellows and scratched car?

[Anonpost789]

Asking on behalf of my neighbour. There are double yellow lines near her house and one of the businesses park all their cars there (Honda) she was walking home yesterday and her son fell off his bike and it hit the car.

Had the car not have been parked illegally then he would have not hit the car and fallen on the pavement. The business is saying she has to pay for the damage as its her sons fault, she is saying if the car wasn't parked there wouldn't have been a problem.

Who is being unreasonable?

How did the car owner even find out? I would have just walked off in this situation if I'm honest. The car was poorly parked over half a path and on double yellows. It's not a case of 'two wrongs don't make a right'. The double yellows will have been put there for safety reasons.

I can't see how the parent could be considered negligent in this situation from a legal point of view either. Children have accidents.

There's a very, very small chance they'll take this to court when all is considered.

Yes what @Brk said. And point out that they were blocking the pavement too, so in breach of the Highway Code, as well as being parked illegally on double yellows.

Your friend should tell the owner of the car to contact their insurance to discuss this. I wouldn’t personally just be offering to pay out without the insurer being involved. Ask them to establish liability due to the way the vehicle was parked.

So it's a car showroom? Yeah, no way she should pay. They either need to claim on their insurance or take her to court but she should be clear with them that if they try the latter she'll name and shame them on local SM like an absolute demon. Local FB groups love all that shit.

Tell them to crack on and claim through their insurance.

This. Absolutely. Cause an issue for them. They’re endangering lives and moaning about a little scratch.

I'd imagine they're too busy laughing.

This is why Germans take out 3rd party insurance. At the latest when they have children

A child under 10 is not legally responsible for their actions.

If you hit a stationary vehicle then the stationary vehicle cannot be at fault, but to seek costs from a six year old (indirectly) is ridiculous.

Report the vehicle registration to the DVLA, alleging that you believe the drivers have defective eyesight as they cannot see the yellow lines.

I had a similar issue when on holiday, my daughter fell into a car when riding her bike and scraped down two doors. Luckily, I had personal liability cover through the travel insurance and that covered the cost (minus excess of £250). So my insurance company must have agreed that we were at fault and liable to pay for the damage to the stationary car.

Not sure what would have happened here since I don’t have personal liability cover at home! I suspect the car insurance company would cover it rather than going after your child.

It's standard cover on contents policy under public liability.
In her shoes I would report to them and pass their details on to the car owner.
I did this when my 12 year old rode straight into the back of a car. In that case they paid. However given the child is only 6 I doubt that negligence could be proved. Let her insurer deal with it.

The car shouldn't have been on the pavement. I wouldn't pay the garage anything.

I would start reporting them to my local council for obstructing the pavement and drop kerb

It's not the child they would be getting the money off it's the responsible parents.

Are we saying that if a child is with a parent and the child swerves on his bike and hits your car parked on your drive, it's just at bad luck?

Pretty much yes. That's pretty much how the law would treat it

My child damaged someone’s car by dropping their bike against it. We made a claim for personal liability through our home insurance. It was very straightforward and there wasn’t even an excess for liability claims. It probably did increase my premiums in future years but it was our responsibility and it didn’t seem fair that the car owner suffered. Their car was parked appropriately on their drive however.

The company will have to claim off their insurance - you can't take a 6yo to court.

They will simply counterclaim against the child via the litigation friend. The child won’t win. It’s a parked vehicle and whoever was supervising the child should have anticipated the issue and mitigated it. Disabled drivers can park in double yellow lines. Uninsured drivers illegally on the roads can claim for a non-fault accident. Best bet is the car owner just sorts it out themselves unless the kids parents want to push it.

@Anonpost789 The son should not be cycling so close to any car for his own safety. It's dangerous - if someone in the car opens the door, he is going to get seriously injured. He (and the parent) need to be taught this now before he picks up speed.

Was there a nice wide road to cycle past the car by on? Or had this illegal parking meant that there was so little road left that the child had no choice but to cycle close to the car on the road? Was there no pavement?

I am not sure what the legalities are but think they have to report it to their insurance as an accident - even though they were stationary. I don't think they will do this, as they will have to provide photos which show them parking illegally, and it will probably get dropped.

As a side note, You can be ticketed for parking on the pavement, so repetitive photos of this to the parking wardens should help stop this

Nice response to a similar issue.

This depends on circumstances.
In London it’s an offence to park on the pavement (unless signs permit)
In Scotland a similar offence will be introduced but it not current
For the rest of the UK it is not an offence to park on the pavement - but it is an offence to obstruct

As you have noted - the correct action is to keep reporting it.
If the pavement parking is an obstruction then they will be ticketed and if parked on double yellow lines without a concession such as disabled badge, whilst loading etc then they will be ticketed

From an insurance perspective, the parking is irrelevant. The owner won't be able to claim from the child, or parent, as they have no insurance to claim from so they would have to claim off their own insurance.

Guess the argument could be if he was trying to cross and theyreblockng the ramp bit maybe that’s what caused him to wobble into it. If I was your neighbour I’d tell them I’m suing them for his injury 🤣