Telegraph advice on common airport parking problem
01.08.06
The Daily Telegraph newspaper has reported on a common airport parking problem, damage to a car only spotted after it has been driven away from the airport car park. Because this is something that happens all too often, we though it made sense to reproduce the relevant parts of the article as guidance.
Peter Warrilow, Ansty, Warwickshire wrote to the newspaper telling them: I booked secure parking at East Midlands Airport on the Holiday Extras website. When I left my car and keys with Prestige Parking, the office was too busy to give me a legible receipt or check the car's condition.
On my return, I collected the car after dark and was driving onto the M1 when I noticed that the nearside wing mirror was cracked. I stopped at the next service station and reported the damage to Prestige. Subsequently, I noticed that the mirror housing was also cracked and there was minor damage to the nearside paintwork.
I pursued a claim for repairing the damage with Prestige Parking and its insurers but they have denied responsibility as I cannot prove that the car was damaged by Prestige staff.
The cost of the remedial work is about £100 - not a large amount, but it is the principle of the thing that annoys me. Why won't Prestige take my word that the damage was caused by its staff ? After all, I had only driven a few miles before reporting it.
Gill Charlton, the Telegraph's legal expert, replied: I notice that your Holiday Extras booking confirmation for the Prestige Parking clearly says: "The car will be checked over and signed for." It is essential that this is done, as it is your only proof that you did not have a broken wing mirror when you handed over the car. Of course, at busy times, parking companies may sign cars in without checking, but that is their risk.
The reason that the company can refuse your claim is that you collected your car and drove off without inspecting it. I contacted Holiday Extras, and its view is that drivers should always check the car carefully before driving away.
"Unless the driver can prove that the damage was caused while the car was in the care of the company, the insurers will not pay out," says a spokeswoman for Holiday Extras.
"In this case, the driver accepted the car without comment and only reported the damage after driving for some time."
What happens in many airport car parks and with valet-parking services, where you hand over your keys, is that the cars are parked very close together or even driven to cheaper, off-airport sites and shoehorned into gaps. While cars are parked in roughly the order in which they will be collected, there is inevitably some juggling around, which means it is all too easy for staff to clip a wing mirror or scrape the paintwork.
As you have discovered to your cost, it pays to walk around the car before signing for it and driving off - and especially in the case of valet-parking services.
To book east midlands airport hotels or east midlands airport parking at the lowest price, click on these links to two great east midlands airport parking and east midlands airport hotel price comparison pages.
