Municipality liability for parking damage

Questioner

I suffered considerable damage in a parking lot located on a nature reserve and for which I had to pay 5 euros, After paying I received a small card which the people at the cash register said to place behind my window after parking. I had to follow the road as indicated in order to reach an area where they had created parking spaces. That day it was very hot and there were many cars in front of and behind me and many parking attendants at work. When I arrived at the area where I was supposed to park, there were 3 people standing 15 meters away, showing people where to park and then waving their arms to say that you had to hurry because it was busy. So did I, we were assigned a spot tgt with the well-known 'hurry up arm movement'. I drove my car calmly to the spot they indicated to me and I felt that I had to accelerate a bit because there was a slight sand rise on the driver's side, and while I was doing that my daughters and I heard a loud crack I stopped and got out of the car, the man who was parked next to me walked up to me, my entire bumper and the interior were loose. None of the three parking attendants came to me to see if they could help, nothing! Only the man who was parked next to me wanted to fix something so that I could drive home with a 'made' bumper. When I walked to the parking attendants in emotion because they pointed out a place where a tree stump was, I got into a conversation with them and told me that they assume that the municipality is making a parking space here that is suitable and safe for paid parkers. She told me that the municipality of Alphen had made everything maintenance and parking ready a week before and said that they therefore assumed that it would be fine, They immediately placed a pawn on the tree stump. You absolutely could not see the tree stump from your car, especially not with the view I have from my low small car (fiat punto) I took the car to the garage and the costs were 2000 euros For me as a single mother it was a slap in the face, but because of my illness I needed a car so it had to be fixed as soon as possible. The next day I contacted the municipality of Alphen and spoke to the person responsible for this. The conversation was calm and polite and he indicated that he did not know right away who was liable for this so he would hand it over to their legal expenses insurance. He also said in the conversation that the municipality was insured for this so that it could not affect him much, so to speak. I also contacted legal expenses insurance and handed over my case. In retrospect, I made big mistakes because I was in my emotions. We wanted to go home because the emotions were running high and when we were in the car I realized that I had not asked the name or telephone number of the man parked next to me or of the parking attendants who were employed by a company that was hired by the municipality, nor had I taken any pictures at the spot there. Stupid stupid stupid but the tears of sadness and anger ran down my cheeks. Now I have received a rejection because 1 ) the back of the card says 'parking at your own risk' but nobody stops while driving on the road to the parking lot to LOOK AT THE TEXT OF THAT CARD! also, YOU PAY FOR A PARKING SPACE WHERE YOU ASSUME THAT YOUR VEHICLE IS IN A SAFE PLACE, that is the purpose of a paid parking lot I think 2) there are 2 people out of 3 parking attendants who wrote a statement very briefly that I would have 'gas' ..... I did indeed gas because a vehicle does not drive if gas is not being used and that I could see the tree stump lying there...ABSOLUTELY NOT SEEN FROM A VEHICLE AS IT WAS LYING ON A SLIGHT ELEVATION OF SAND AND WAS NOT VISIBLE WHEN TURNING IN and they said there was enough space on the drivers side (it was supposed to be a big space they had indicated) that was not the case. my passenger door just barely touched the door of the person parked next to me and there was no parking space located on my left side! So the municipality is hiding behind these rules, but those rules cost me 2000 euros and I continue to believe that I suffered this damage because of those parking attendants who forced me into that spot, regardless of whether the municipality carried out nature maintenance the week before and blindly assumed that the spots were good to function as a parking space, they should not have offered this spot 15 meters away. They could have clearly seen if they were standing in the spot where I would have to park that it would not be suitable as a parking space. Since I only have my 2 children as witnesses and nothing else, I don't know what I should and can do yet, Is it true that the municipality is not liable? with kind regards

Lawyer

It is a very unpleasant event, but the municipality is indeed liable because it rents out these 'parking spaces' and must therefore also ensure that parking can be done without problems. The cone that was later placed over the tree stump should have been placed there much earlier. The municipality should also have first investigated the safety of the area.