Company Car Park

[Casper1]

I drove into my employers car park and when I was reversing into the area my front wheel was on full lock and it dropped down a sunken drain and it snapped my front suspension spring, do the company have to pay for the repair

[Maydup]

It should be covered by their insurance.

But no doubt it will be tricky. Is parking an entitlement or non contractual?

[Buenchico]

To be able to make a valid claim, you'd almost certainly need to be able to show that the company was negligent. (e.g. by not clearly marking a hazard in an area that an employee would normally be driving in). If you simply drove into something that you should have been aware of, it's not your employer's fault.

As an analogy, you can't successfully claim against a supermarket just because you slip on a spillage on their floor and break your arm as a result. You would need to show that they'd been negligent, e.g. by failing to clear up a spillage that they clearly should have known about. If their CCTV showed that the spillage had only occurred thirty seconds before you injured yourself, you'd have no valid claim.

So you need to ask yourself how you're going to show that your employer was actually negligent.

[Maydup]

I doubt the drain had sunk in the previous few minutes though. It should have been repaired or had a barrier around it if it was deep enough to do the kind of damage it did.

Has it been roped off now?

Take plenty of photos and make a formal but polite report to your employer.