Non Fault Accident at Council Owned Site

[EvianBaby]

Last week one of our vans was entering a local ASM recycling centre and the entry barrier dropped down on the top of the van as it was driving through.

(the van was entering on permission of staff once our licence was checked, it wasn't tailgating or anything silly like that).

The manager immediately accepted the council/site would have to pay for the repairs and asked me to get a quote. I sent one off to him this morning and he seems a bit flabbergasted at how much it's going to cost - just over £400 + VAT, most of which is labour costs.

Can he refuse to pay this (we haven't agreed for any work to be carried out yet) and is there anything by law I have to do to comply or is the onus all on them to pay for the repairs with the quote we provided?

[ummmm]

He could ask for more quotes.

What was the damage?

[EvianBaby]

Just superficial I believe. Denting to the panel above the drivers door.

Can he insist that we get other quotes and can he tell us where to get them from or is it up to us? To be honest, we want to use the garage that has already quoted us as they're a local firm with a good rep and have carried out work for us in the past so we know they're decent.

[ummmm]

Well my insurance company insists on 3 quotes so I can't see why theirs can't.

[EvianBaby]

Really? What a pain in the arse.

We had a couple of non fault accidents last year in the vans and our insurers just accepted the initial quotes provided.

[ummmm]

Some do, some don't.

Are they not going through their insurance then?

[EvianBaby]

Not sure. I got the impression they would just pay out for it rather than going through insurers.