If Your Car Gets Stolen At A Car Park, You Can Now Sue The Management And Win!

In a landmark ruling on December 7, the Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that the management of Sunway Parking Services Sdn. Bhd was indeed liable for negligence. 

In the case of Euro Rent A Car Sdn. Bhd vs Sunway Parking Services Sdn. Bhd the Court of Appeal confirmed that the parking management of The Pinnacle at Bandar Sunway was liable for negligence and ordered to pay damages amounting to RM117,000 + damages as reported by Free Malaysia Today. 

Now if the above is all Greek to you, first allow me to refresh your memory: 

Euro Rent rented out a French citizen, Hemici Sofiane, bearing number plate BNS 9066 on April 25, 2016. 

Sofiane then proceeded to park the car at The Pinnacle in Bandar Sunway at approximately 2.30pm on April 27 only to find the car stolen when he got back to it at about 7.00pm on the same day. 

He informed the security of what had happened and later went to check out the CCTV footage to ascertain how the car was stolen. 

The thief had managed to steal the car by tailgating another car out of the parking lot. The barrier gate was apparently too slow in preventing the thief from following the car in front out. Smart Tag pun sama kan? 

So now that you're caught up on what happened way back in 2016, let's bring you back to the present. 

Euro Rent sued Sunway Parking for negligence on the grounds that the parking operator did not take steps to prevent the theft. 

Sunway Parking responded by saying that it was only responsible for providing the parking space and that it had taken 'reasonable precaution', they also further explained that the exemption clause that "vehicles were parked solely at the customer's own risk" should exempt them from any claims of negligence. 

Long story and legal jargon short, the Sessions judge said that Sunway Parking must be held liable and ordered them to pay RM117,000 + legal fees to Euro Rent A Car Sdn. Bhd. 

Now, this is big news for the rest of us who park our cars at shopping malls, conference centres, LRT/MRT stations because it now means we have precedence to sue and win if our cars get stolen from locations such as these. 

But one does have to ask the question, wasn't the rented car from Euro Rent covered under insurance anyway? Why not just claim it from the insurance company? Isn't that a lot more hassle-free? Or were they trying to make a point? 

For us the people who frequent and park at these car parks, this is indeed a landmark judgment. It gives us an added avenue to seek redress in cases of theft. I also hope this now means that car park operators will be more vigilant with improved security processes. That in the long run is a win for all parties. 

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