Do most garages have insurance to cover damage to cars in their care?

My gf took her fiat 500 into a friends garage recently for a service and the brakes to be done. He is a mechanic part time and runs a small workshop (alongside his full time job where I know him from)

Sadly now I've washed it I've found this on the sill




He did the work 3-4 weeks ago and the car was filthy when he had it so I don't think he was aware of the damage- from looking at fiat forums it appears the 500 is hard to jack without causing damage and it's a common issue when someone has used a trolley jack. Both the inner and outer sill are bent with paint damage too.

Any idea what this may cost to fix? Bloody awkward as he's a friend who is spot on with his mechanical work. Should he have liability insurance to cover things like this?

The work only cost £180 and I bet this will cause more to fix!

He should definitely have public liability cover if he is doing work on other peoples cars for money. It's difficult with friends but you need to bring it up with him.

Public liability does not cover damage, it covers for injury/accidents to members of the public.

More general insurance or "professional liability" is required. He should have this anyway in case something he does impacts the safety of a customer

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That does look nasty! depends how he runs the business hopefully he does if he's doing things right either way I don't think you get him to claim on it, you need to chat with him face to face with the car and show him the damage unfortunately it's been a while so I doubt he will admit to it but you never know fingers crossed for you it's a very awkward situation, I'm no mechanic but I bet it won't be cheap to fix inner and outer seals :S

Thanks gents. He advertises it as a proper garage.

Just been to the bodyshop and he's quoted £150 cash which i don't think is too bad. He agrees it's jack damage and is clearly recent as hasn't rusted etc.

Will forward the pictures to my friend so will see what he says!

I think the biggest thing you need to worry about is that your GF has a Fiat....and you seem to be ok with that!? HA HA HA HA HA HA.