Broken windscreen while parked in basement

salman81

Hi,
Last week my car was parked in the underground secure car parking of my rented apartment complex.
It was fine till night, but when I checked in morning the rear windscreen was broken. There is a grill on top of my parking space which connects to outside, the grill has wide enough spaces through which stones keep falling down. there were multiple stones on the ground and some of them must have broken the rear windscreen. I took some pictures. I called up my rental agency who asked me to call the management of building. Management company will try to get the grill fixed and my car is parked outside for last 1 week as there is no extra parking space.
I got the rear windscreen changed (my insurance did not cover windscreen unfortunately)
I have sent multiple emails to rental agency and building management, but they keep pushing me towards each other. There is so far no other vacant car space.
There are a couple of questions if anyone can help me with it.

1. who is responsible for damage of windscreen?
2. Am I just suppose to wait and I cannot do anything about it?
3. If there is any damage to car while parked outside who will cover it? (when i got my car insured I mentioned in details that it is parked in underground secure parking)

(I am a tenant, apartment in maintained by a Rental agency and building is maintained by a separate management company)

Any suggestions ?

Thank you

Salman

biko

Not DIY, moved to main forum

Isambard

it would have to be a fierce big stone to break the window.

Del2005

Isambard wrote: »

it would have to be a fierce big stone to break the window.

A sharp stone thrown with enough force will break a window, all it needs is to get a enough pressure on a small enough area.

OP I don't think that there is much more that can be done other than reduce the gap in the grate. The excess for most block policies is usually in the thousands so that won't cover you and to look for compensation you'd need to prove negligence and then grates are fairly standard.

Cerco

Have you checked your insurance policy to see if you are covered for glass breakage? Fairly common now.

Isambard

Del2005 wrote: »

A sharp stone thrown with enough force will break a window, all it needs is to get a enough pressure on a small enough area.

OP I don't think that there is much more that can be done other than reduce the gap in the grate. The excess for most block policies is usually in the thousands so that won't cover you and to look for compensation you'd need to prove negligence and then grates are fairly standard.

it wasn't thrown, it apparently dropped a few feet.

testicles

This post has been deleted.

Isambard

You're suggesting that some ne'er do well picked up one of the stones that were lying around and smashed the window?

colm_mcm

It fell?


Either way, makes no difference.

Del2005

Isambard wrote: »

You're suggesting that some ne'er do well picked up one of the stones that were lying around and smashed the window?

A troubled person with "issues" if they are ever caught.

Isambard

at what size does a stone become a rock I wonder?

Cee-Jay-Cee

Try the management company one more time. Give them a date whereby if you haven't received a satisfactory reply you are initiating a claim through the small claims court for the damages. I think it's only €20 to lodge your claim and it may speed things up.

Del2005

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Try the management company one more time. Give them a date whereby if you haven't received a satisfactory reply you are initiating a claim through the small claims court for the damages. I think it's only €20 to lodge your claim and it may speed things up.

The OP would have to show where the management company was negligent and since the grates of car parks are standard, and most likely covered by regulations, they will struggle to prove it.

Marcusm

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Try the management company one more time. Give them a date whereby if you haven't received a satisfactory reply you are initiating a claim through the small claims court for the damages. I think it's only €20 to lodge your claim and it may speed things up.

There's no such thing as a small claims court in Ireland; there's a small claims procedure at the Distrct Court which is a poor relation of a small claims court. More pertinently, the OP doesn't have a contract with the management company and it's questionable what duty of care it has breached to create a liability on its part to render it liable for the OP's damage.

punisher5112

Op could always fit a net under grill to solve issue.

vicwatson

Most insurance policies have cover for that without affecting ncb

colm_mcm

For a back window?

OP already said insurance wouldn't cover it.

Henry Ford III

It'll be tough to prove how your glass was broken OP.

Marcusm

colm_mcm wrote: »

For a back window?

OP already said insurance wouldn't cover it.

My policies have covered front, side and rear windows under the often called "windscreen cover" which some correctly term"glass cover". You

salman81

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.
I agree with he fact that nothing else could be done. It is just a nuissance, i really hope they get a smaller grit on the top. Even a small stone with not much force, if it hits in right place can break whole rear windscreen. It is a small hole, but the way the windscreens are made, it crumbles completely.

ScumLord

If it's a bit of a freak accident then you probably can't get any helpful response from the management company. If it's happened before (even other kinds of damage like dents or scraped paint) and the management company did nothing to rectify the problem, then it's a different situation I think. They know something is damaging cars but continue to let it happen.

At the very least they should do something to stop it from happening again. I don't think there are any regulations that they can hide behind if they know there's an issue that could be considered dangerous. What if you had been standing behind the car about to take something out of the boot and a similar stone hit you or a child on the head?

Present it as a safety issue and don't forget to add "what if it was a child" and at the very least they'll stop stones falling in.