Damage to my garage door

[Mark72]

I recently have new fascias and gutterings at my home and the job took 3 days. The company wanted to do it on the 3 days we were going to be away at my family - but I let them do it in my absence.

When we came back, the job was finished ok and I signed the form to commence the payments, but I did raise with the 2 workers, there and then, that before I went away, my garage door did not have the scuff and 3 dents in it that it now had. They denied damaging the garage door but they did use the garage umpteen times to store their tools etc. My neighbour also confirmed this and they admitted this.

Whilst I cannot prove 100% that they damage our garage door, the road is a small quiet close with 5 houses and ours is the 2nd from the end. No-one comes into the road hardly and my garage door is away from anyone else. I know the door was fine before as I only bought it a year ago from new.

I did not give any permission for the fitters to use my garage and thus, if I came back and found they used my car without permission, I would expect them to be responsible for the damage incurred, so, what should I expect to be able to gain from this? The garage door cost me £600 last summer.

Thanks,

Mark.

 

[becker]

Have you spoken to the company concerned? have they denied all responsibility for the damage? if not, start negotiating with them for some sort of compensation/good will gesture payment. If they are refusing to accept any responsibility for it, then you could be in for a long hard fight to get anything and will have to decide if its worth the aggravation?

Before entering into this negotiation, have a think about what you are prepared to accept as a minimum - then at least double it - for example, do you want the door replaced? IMHO thats probably un-realistic, you're more likely to get a few hundred quid off the cost of the job as inconvenience.

Also, if you haven't already stopped the final payment, do so asap - until this is resolved - it will motivate them to talk to you.

These are just my opinions and tactics I would use.