Vehicle damaged by common property

A couple of weeks ago we had a passing rain squall that had locally strong wind gusts. One of those gusts blew off the top decorative lantern enclosure of a street lamp (gated community, HOA owns the street lights and the roads). After being blown off it fell and struck an owner's car that was parked in her driveway (HOA also owns the driveways) causing dents and paint damage.

The owner claims that the top of the street light was held in place by only 1 screw instead of the 3 or 4 present on most of the other (identical) street lamps, and that failing to maintain the street lights properly constitutes "negligence" of some sort and whe wants the HOA to pay the bill for the damage to her vehicle. The association does maintain liability and property insurance.

Even if all of that is true, shouldn't she still file a claim through her automobile insurance? Everyone here is confused. There's a Special Meeting of the Board of Directors on Tuesday to discuss the issue of whether or not the HOA should just agree to pay. Admitting negligence doesn't seem prudent to me, even if it's true. I'd want to see pictures and hear firsthand from whoever is claiming there was only one screw where there should have been 4.

I think she should go through her car insurance and if they have any reason to go after the HOA's insurance carrier they will do so.

Thoughts?

To add: even if all screws were in place the owner likely could still find the HOA at fault since it was the HOA's property that caused the damage.

I'm pulling for the owner in this one.

Auto owners are not required to have collision (or comprehensive) insurance, so it can't be a required step for being considered for reimburesent. Without collision insurance, she can't even make a claim. For that matter, a car owner does need to have insurance at all.

My understanding is that "strict liability" usually does not apply, meaning that the car owner can't get damages just because it came from HOA property. She would need to show that the HOA breached a duty of care by not maintaining the light (which they may have breached) to establish regular liability. Am I missing something?

I find it interesting that the car owner came up with the negligence argument. Maybe she knows how this works.

Geno, Mark is right. Ya gotta look at how much is your deductible vs how much in damages to the OP's car. It is not worth the whizzing match.
Contact your council on how to proceed, but just settle and walk away. You don't want to take the insurance hit for a measly amount of money.

I agree. Find out the cost of the repairs prior to proceeding. Take your own pictures of the damage. It may not need to be an insurance claim but a pay out of damages. However, if it's significant enough to meet the deductible, then the cost of the deductible needs to be factored into the expense.

It doesn't sound like a light hitting a car is enough to meet a deductible. The HOA needs to also consider it's own loss of the light fixture. Is that going to be need to be covered by the HOA?

This is an "act of God". Did this person run around taking pictures of all the street lamps and the number of screws before the storm? Certainly they brought up the issue at a meeting or at least an email to the PM? C'mon.

This person is a jerk. Tell them to go pound sand and file a claim with their insurance company.

I would be inclined to outsource the determination of responsibility by calling in the HOA insurance company.

Fixing dents and repainting could be small change or it could run up to a thousand or so if taken to a dealership that ends up replacing panels.

Let’s look at this in reverse:

If a person’s lamp broke off and damaged HOA property, does anyone think that the HOA would just fuel a claim on its own insurance?

Of course the HOA wouldn’t. It would go after the person for the full damage.

Geno,
This message is regarding your last post. The insurance carrier is not going to send out a team of investigators for a $1200 claim. They will charge you the deductible (Probably $1000) and pay her a couple of hundred dollars and raise your rates the next chance they can. Totally not worth it I can promise you. Regarding her parking in the garage I would definitely have her come to the next board meeting and ask her to bring her pictures so the board can review and make a decision how to proceed. If her vehicle is only worth $1000 dollars she will probably settle for that. I do not see her going out and getting it repaired and painted. If she wants to go that route make her provide 3 bids.

Still I would advise settling this without either insurance company being involved. That means you need to play nice and be willing to write a check if the board agrees. If you go the insurance route and you get another claim in the next year you can bet they will drop your coverage and then you have real problems.

Now that you added that additional information. My next guess is she's going to spout out lawsuit threats. (If not already). Your right about the value of the car vs the repairs. Insurance most likely wouldn't cover it. Sounds like they are trying to get a new paint job. It's not going to raise the value of their car if they do.

They most likely can't go to their own insurance company because deductible is just as high as the claim. Plus sounds like they are trying to get their whole car painted. They are entitled to the repair of the dent/paint NOT the whole car being painted. I'd get my own quotes and pictures.

Worst case, offer to pay their deductible. That's all this is worth. If they don't want to file a claim, then you know they are up to something else...