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Making a claim against Council for loss or damage arising from an incident.
Please read the information below and if you wish to proceed a public liability incident report form will need to be completed to ensure your report is properly assessed. The form can be found at the bottom of this page.
Please be advised that the circumstances surrounding the incident will be investigated and a Claims Handling Agent will take appropriate action.
All reports will be considered on a “without Prejudice” basis. While Council sympathises with anyone suffering injury or sustaining loss, the acceptance of the completed incident report form by the Council in no way infers negligence on the part of the Council or binds Council to provide compensation.
Once a completed “Public Liability Incident Report Form” is received, an investigation will be carried out by Council, a Claims Handling Agent or it may be referred to a third party. Standard investigation time is a period of four to six weeks, this will however depend upon the circumstances and complexities of your report.
Before Council is obliged to pay compensation for any injury, loss or damage suffered, it must be established that this injury, loss, or damage was caused through negligence on the part of Council, employees or agents of Council.
The proof required to establish negligence can be onerous and quite often you may be better served seeking compensation through your own insurance. Should your insurance company then consider the Council to be negligent, it may seek reimbursement of its costs and any excess that you have paid from Council.
Consideration needs to be given to claims associated with roads and footpaths as the Civil Liability Act 2002 and amendments set out several principles to be employed in determining whether an authority has a “duty of care” or has “breached a duty of care” in Section 45 and 42 as stated below:
The same consideration needs to be given for injury, loss or damage being caused from trees or branches falling. While trees may be situated on nature strips or reserves that are Council owned, if there have been no prior reports of problems with the tree(s) in question and they have fallen and caused injury, loss or damage then other factors (e.g. disease, damage by a third party, severe weather etc may need to be taken into consideration to determine if Council can be held liable for the injury or damage.
Zingel Place
PO Box 492
Bega NSW 2550
Monday to Friday 9.00AM to 4.30PM
Administration building Zingel Place Bega
Australia
ABN: 26 987 935 332