[ruzbehxyz]

On July 19, 2021, in Mumbai, a whole parking lot with 400 cars drowned in the monsoon floods. Here are the visuals of the same.

https://youtu.be/gDNQX-urD_Y

The incident happened in Kandivali underground parking lot at Thakur Complex. According to the reports, more than 400 vehicles were parked in the facility when the rainwater entered the complex. The exact number of vehicles remain unknown but it is more than 400 vehicles for sure.

The parking lot was constructed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). However, a private contactor operates the parking lot. BMC has not commented on the flooding incident yet. The locals reported that the rainwater drowned the underground parking lot within a few minutes. The footage shows the level of rainwater on the wall. It seems like that the water level reached as much as 15 feet.

Local corporator Sunita Yadav has said that in the past, water used to enter the underground parking lot but it never went past a level. This time, the water level was too high. She also has asked the civic body to compensate the owners of the vehicles.

BMC, on the other hand, is currently inspecting the structure and how did the water enter the facility. The BMC will decide on the compensation for the owners after investigating and coming to a conclusion. The reports also claim that the motorists were not allowed to park their vehicles outside the parking facility and cops always kept a close watch on such vehicles.

Insurance covers natural calamities
Flooding is a natural calamity, even though it can happen due to poor planning of the region and the structure itself. Most comprehensive insurances will provide you with cover from natural calamities like thunderstorms, floods, cyclones and more such things. So the vehicles parked inside the structure will be covered under the insurance even if they are completely damaged.

Source: https://www.cartoq.com/400-cars-drow...umbai-parking/



Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/cities/mum...169-2021-07-20

[Axe77]

Aside from the obviously regrettable loss of the vehicle owners, this is quite interesting from a legal / contractual perspective as well as how it plays out practically.

Some points from me.

1. Will BMC compensate:

When I read the extract posted above, it seems to contradict the heading. It appears that BMC will investigate and decide while its the local corporator who seems to be pushing for BMC to compensate. So there are bound to be some political undercurrents to this issue.

2. Parties involved:

Now there are three parties, BMC, the private contractor running the lot, and the car owner.

I would be curious what kind of liability the private contractor assumes when agreeing to run the parking lot, both in its terms with the customer as well as the BMC.

This will also come down to the discussion around insurance. Will the car owner's insurance come to the rescue for the loss or will there be some business insurance from the private contractor that would get triggered to cover the losses (not sure how sophisticated these contractors are in their business practices and whether they have such business insurance at all).

3. BMC liability:

If indeed BMC is agreeing to be liable, I am curious whether there is any precedent for assuming such obligations. I can think of numerous instances where BMC inaction / incompetence has exacerbated the loss caused from natural causes. This could create quite frequent claims against BMC for similar inadequacies by them.

I suspect if the corporator tries to push BMC, they in turn will try to arm twist or muscle the private contractor to pay up.

[RedTerrano]

I have seen enough parking tickets with a footnote "Park at your own risk" to think BMC will cough up zilch. In all probability they will shrug their shoulders, declare it act of God and ask the vehicle owners to approach their respective insurance companies.

It's sad to see the richest municipal corporation in India unable to tackle annual flooding. But then Mumbai has crossed the limit of civic service threshold decades ago. Still hordes of new people continue to arrive and settle there every day.

[ninjatalli]

I'm surprised to see the lack of mention of the contractor - I guess the one coming on news know it very well that going after the vendor/contractor is of no use. Even if BMC agrees to compensate, I doubt they will pay up the requisite amounts and probably might only provide some fixed amount for repair of the vehicles.

On a side note, used car buyers in Mumbai need to be quite vary over the next few months for sure. For sure, some of these cars are potentially going to turn up on OLX and other classifieds for sure once they are cleaned up and refurbished.

[Sridhar C E]

The richest corporation in the country or not, it is unlikely that BMC will compensate anyone. A couple of years ago here in Bangalore, on Bannerghatta road, a lake/ water body breached its shore even as a BBMP contractor was working on it. This resulted in basements of nearby apartments flooding and many vehicles got submerged. At that time, too, BBMP did nothing for the unfortunate owners.

Most Civil bodies extract money from us hapless vehicle owners in the name of road tax. In reality, many of our suburbs in major cities have very bad road infrastructure. The problem is that our corporators have no accountability. At a deeper level it boils down to " we deserve the governments that we elect"?

[IamNikhil]

Highly UNLIKELY that BMC will even lift a finger to compensate the loss of vehicle owners. Every parking receipt at public parking lots always mention "Park at owners' risk" etc, which will be enough for them to hide behind. The concerned car owners will have no option but to approach the respective insurance companies for compensation under the natural calamity clause. Hope insurers don't play dirty.

[abhishek46]

Whenever I park my vehicle in any parking lot (Supermarket, Shopping Mall or Govt. Owned), the ticket agent has always issued a ticket which says "Parking is solely at the Owner's risk".

I don't think BMC/Contractor will pay even a single rupee.

The amount will come from Car Insurance.

[locusjag]

If BMC compensates the car owners, they won't be able to seek recourse via claims from their insurance companies.

Or, the insurance companies can compensate the car owners and then recover costs from BMC.

But you shouldn't have a scenario where a car owner gets compensation from BMC and then gets an insurance claim payout as well. That would be against the law of indemnity, which is central to insurance; upon a claim settlement, a policyholder shouldn't earn a profit. At most, the policyholder can only be restored to their former economic condition.

[Raghu M]

If anyone thinks the BMC would compensate for the loss, it would be their mistake. Even if they compensate, it will be like the regular government comp. 2 lakhs for death and 50k for injuries. Irrespective of the person, when the government just quotes some amount for death and injuries, cars will be treated the same. Maybe 1 lakh for total loss and 20K for repairs. I still think, it is highly unlikely that they will shell out even 1 rupee.

[GTO]

No chance the BMC will compensate. The only thing the BMC compensates people for is fatalities, not cars which anyway have comprehensive insurance.

A serious problem in Bombay though. I'm building ramps for all my cars. Keeps them well clear of the flooding in our seaside lane (flooding is a given once or twice a year). WIP picture, but you get the gist.

[ruzbehxyz]

Originally Posted by GTO

A serious problem in Bombay though. I'm building ramps for all my cars. Keeps them well clear of the flooding in our seaside lane (flooding is a given once or twice a year). WIP picture, but you get the gist.

Having a stilt, closed parking or a garage in older buildings in Bombay is a luxury. Flooding is a serious problem in Bombay and many cars have been destroyed because of this. It really pinches when you see your beloved possession under water. For the same reason, when I was buying a place in New Bombay, my first criteria was stilt parking and that too on a first floor or elevated area. I rejected many good flats solely because of this reason. I finally bought a flat with stilt parking. Now my Endeavour handsomely stands parked in the first floor area stilt parking, away from rain, sun and other elements.

[Hayek]

Would be shocked if BMC compensates for this. Would raise the question of whether they should compensate others as well. I did research the topographic map when booking my flat (back in 2004) - we are surrounded by areas which are low lying but our own building does not get flooded. Of course, I can’t leave the building on any day which is flooded badly (though the recent link between the Parel TT and Hindmata flyovers may have helped).

[SnS_12]

The only way one can try and save themselves from monsoons besides staying away from low lying areas is to stay away from rivers and sea.

Last week the Dahisar river flowing from National Park overflowed again and this was the situation of buildings/complexes next to it.



Also, last year with high tides Marine Drive in Mumbai witnessed flooding.

In monsoon the sea facing properties turn to facing the sea

[anandavinash]

Extremely unfortunate to see this happen. Back in the flood of July 2005, I had to abandon our FIAT Palio when the water level inside the car rose above the gear stick. I later read that if I had waited any longer, I may not have been able to open the car doors due to the difference in pressure inside and outside the car.

Went back the next day only to see that I had left the car over a drain and in line with 4 other cars so people had climbed over the roof to save themselves. The entire car insides were covered in silt and the roof had caved in. Towed it to the FIAT ASS nearby and then began an ordeal of 6 months before we got back the car. FIAT cancelled the contract with the ASS leaving our car without help 1 month into the incident. Eventually we got back the car but it drove nothing like before. Sold it and since then to this day, if I drive in the rains and end up in water that splashes against the bottom of the car, it makes me very uncomfortable.

Funny coincidence about my father losing his vehicle to the floods. Back in a similar flood in the mid 1970s, his Bajaj Scooter drowned in the compound of the factory he worked in. Only difference was that two days later, he went back to the factory, took out the spark plug and threw it in an industrial oven for some time, put it back in and the scooter fired up. :-) I suppose not having electronics wasn't such a bad thing.

[fulcrum29]

I'm sure many of these cars will end up in the second hand car market with ad captions reading the usual adjectives "showroom condition, next to new, scratchless, no work required". I'm just wondering what are the ways in which we can know whether a used car that we're buying is flood damaged or not?