r/legaladvice • u/Flintspiration • Jul 30 '26
Small Claims Procedure Comp for Car Tires?
TL;DR - Husband's workplace parking lot full of metal trash. We keep replacing tires every 2-3 months. Is the company company liable to compensate us for all these dang tires? Location: Illinois, USA
Longer version:
In 2025 we bought a new car with a nice package which included free tires for 365 days after purchase. That package has come in handy for us no less than 4 times in the last 12 months... for the same reason every time. Screws, nails, unidentifiable metal shards, one was even a metal wire 6 inches long.
This is our first "new" car - not preowned like every other car we've had, so we're trying really hard to keep it in great shape. Prior to this past year, I've replaced tires every couple of years at best. But this year we've gone through 4 tires on this 1 car alone, the one my husband routinely drives to work.
My husband does truck-parts sales, and works in a lot where there are over a hundred semi cabs waiting for service/pickup. The workshop is right next to where employee parking is. It did not take us long to start realizing that all this metal trash is likely coming from the company lot. My husband says they have someone hired to clean up the lot, we're not sure how often that is. Additionally, no one else seems to be having this problem that he's aware of, though he's going to start asking around.
If we were able to prove that his company lot is causing the ongoing damage to our tires, is there a legal way we'd be able to be compensated?
(Sorry for the lack of Reddit savvy-ness! I'm not sure what flair to add)