On Thursday I had some building materials delivered. The young driver asked if he could park partially onto my neighbours driveway to unload the building sand and slabs and gravel. When he was dropping the bag of gravel his hose pipe burst on the hydraulic crane lift and spurted out hydraulic oil all over my neighbours driveway and part of mine, and also allover my neighbours PVC wall cladding at the top of her house, I told him that I didn't think my neighbour would be too happy when she comes home from work and saw the driveway and the stains on her cladding, He then asked if he could use some of the sand from one of the bags he had delivered to me to try and soak up the spillage and told me to leave it down for a couple of hours and then it should be OK to clear the sand away, I ask him it was OK to put the sand back into the bag and he told me this would be OK and if I was short of sand to call the office and they would bring out another bag of sand and that if my neighbour wasn't happy they could come and pressure clean the driveway. So after 2 hours had passed I cleared the contaminated sand and put it back into the sack of sand he had delivered to me, I also poured boiling hot soapy water onto the driveway to clean the marks left on driveway, but this has not made any difference. When my neighbour came home from work she was not happy to see what had happened and we both rang the company to complain so they sent a guy out to assess the damage, he is coming on Monday to power wash her wall and the driveway, but I don't think this will help as the oil spill has started to eat away at the tarmac.
Do you think it is their responsibility to repair or even replace the driveway if it came down to it. I believe that their should have Public Liability Insurance for such cases. Also it is a shared driveway and she owns her property and I am with the local Housing Association, so how would that also affect me.

Thanks

I am not sure of the legalities.

Your reference to public liability insurance.. ANY company that delivers heavy loads like sand and building materials is supposed to have insurance, they are operating heavy lift trucks, cranes(as you stated), the liability of ONE incident would put them out of business forever, much less the owners paying for it for life(possibly)I would believe they have insurance.

General liability should blanket cover anything like this spilled hydraulic fluid,but first they need to try and clean the problem up by themselves,it makes sense not to turn in a claim if it can be done without causing a claim to be filed,right?

Let them do their job.If they can't fix it to YOUR satisfaction(and your neighbors),then ASK them what the next step is.

Remember,this was an accident,the operator didn't do this on purpose,ACCIDENTS DO HAPPEN.. (in other words,don't condemn the machine/worker,I'm sure you have had a few accidents that you would rather not discuss or have made public, neither would this outfit)

A little understanding goes a long way,especially for those of us who do this type of public contact.Delivering materials isn't a cut and dry,in and out situation every time.Sometimes things just don't work out to everyone's satisfaction, but all can be remedied with both parties working together, not against each other.)

If the fluid is dissolving the drive,yes,they are liable for the repair.. I would be VERY surprised if they claim otherwise.

I have a difficult time understanding the putting the sand back in with untainted sand,why would you mix them?. the sand left in the bag was still good.You could have had a new full bag brought and the other one as a free bag(what was left in it).. sorry,makes little sense to me.

The driver made an error IF he said this.. but that's neither here nor there.

Please don't be too quick to jump the gun as to the clean-up.. the company who made the spill will most likely do a very good job cleaning up, their reputation is on the line.

Stupid lawsuits result from 2 parties lacking understanding and patience.If something isn't done to you(and your neighbors) satisfaction,allow the management of the supply company to do their job,, THEN if it's not right to your's(and her's) standards, you can make an issue.

Moved to legal section.

1. stay out of it, don't YOU try to clean or do anything. The minute you start taking responsibility, you could be held responsible. Let the company do it, a hot water steam cleaner ( high pressure) with the right chemicals could well clean up a fresh oil spill. If not, the legal issues will or should be between that owner and the oil company delivering.

In fact if they got some of the spill on your drive way, require them to clean yours also.

If they don't have insurance, who cares ( except them) they will just have to write a check to cover the problems. Them having or not having insurance is not your problem.

You offer to be a good witness against the delivery truck to your neighbor.

Also I hope you did not tell the driver it was OK to park on neighbors property, first you don't have that right or legal ability. So if you told the driver he could park there, guess what you just became liable for part of the damages.

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Originally Posted by immistyblue

Also it is a shared driveway and she owns her property and I am with the local Housing Association, so how would that also affect me.

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Hello I:

The Padre is RIGHT. Since you don't own anything, it only effects you IF you are found to have been negligent for giving permission to the driver, that you had NO authority to give. The fact that you're a local bureaucrat has nothing to do with it.

excon