So someone hit my car... to work it out or claim.???

[smurph323]

hey all, in a bit of a quandry.

my mrs was in taunton the other day parked up and walked away, as she was heard a crunch to turn and see some bint on full lock giving my beloved old beast a nudge.




after she got it home i took it off and inspection shows all the plastic trim holding it on is broken/snapped and the 2 metal brackets have been pushed/bent sideways slightly. ive managed to fix it to the point of it being on the car but i know its broken and needs a new whole bumper really.


so heres my problem, i don't want to rip the lady off but i don't want a bodged on bumper and these arent the easiest to find. (i have found one at £100 but its scuffed up and thats without delivery or fitting) so all in £200 would be my best guess. i spoke to her earlier and suggested absolute max would be 250 to which i got a reply thats more than the cars worth.. (she clearly isnt worried about my feelings here )
and now she is contemplating insurance, which leaves me worrying are they going to just write my car off over this, market value would be anywhere between £500-1000 but easily 800-1k to me. and then id be left having to buy back my car and have cat write off left with it, because lets face it any insurance company isnt going to repair it for what thier designated repair companies will charge.

so should i just suck it up and go through ins or keep trying to work with her on price, i don't want to be left with a broken bumper. I'm assuming her excess is £250 anyway. ive left it with her to find a better quote including replacement bumper. (good luck)
how long should i leave it before notifying teh ins company.?? don't want to miss my chance or should i let them know we are trying to sort things out amicably.? first time its happened to me tbh.

[composimmonite]

AFAIK Third party (other persons insurer) can't write your car off so don't worry about that. At worse they will limit what they will pay out for repair to the value of the car but can't put it on the HPi register etc as a CAT D.

Good luck.

Paul H

[dodgerover]

If she doesn't come up with a sensible repair cost ASAP to avoid going through her insurance then just tell her you will be making a claim against her - you should be put back into the position you were before the accident - and its going to cost the other person a lot more anyway in the long run for having a fault claim against them.

[THE_Liam]

As an innocent 3rd party, they can't refuse to return your car to the condition it was in. They can't write it off if you refuse to let them, but they'll probably try it on and hope you don't know that.

[welshpug]

Jul 28, 2014 19:20:11 GMT composimmonite said:

AFAIK Third party (other persons insurer) can't write your car off so don't worry about that. At worse they will limit what they will pay out for repair to the value of the car but can't put it on the HPi register etc as a CAT D.

Good luck.

Paul H

unfortunately they can and will.

[smurph323]

Jul 28, 2014 21:00:41 GMT welshpug said:

Jul 28, 2014 19:20:11 GMT composimmonite said:

AFAIK Third party (other persons insurer) can't write your car off so don't worry about that. At worse they will limit what they will pay out for repair to the value of the car but can't put it on the HPi register etc as a CAT D.

Good luck.

Paul H

unfortunately they can and will.

i was starting to feel confident untill then haha.


cheers for replies guys mostly all saying the same thing, i think if the damage exceeded the cars value they will really push write off but actual repair cost 250.. insurance garage repair will be 3 times that as they charge what they want.
if i report it to my insurer will it then have to go through ins or will they allow me to follow up amicable solution first.?

[ohdearme]

Jul 28, 2014 18:42:36 GMT smurph323 said:

I'm assuming her excess is £250 anyway.

That's the most important bit I think. If you let her know that you will be making a claim and she will have to pay "whatever her excess is anyway" and her premiums will go up, then surely any right minded person will be happy to come to an agreement.

[smurph323]

spoke to my insurer today as havent heard from the other party. they gave me the details for her insurance and told me to phone them and quote how much it will be to fix. he says if its low enough they are likley to throw a cheque out to me and move on (she will not have to pay her excess in this case, only if she wants her insurer to fix her own car)
didnt realise this till now, but ofcourse her premiums are likely to go up.

so things on track to being sorted, my only worry is if thier insurer doesnt co operate nicely they may end up writing my car off and giving me buy back option. unfortunatley the guide price of my car is much lower than its actually worth.

[composimmonite]

That is normal - no excess for third party claims. The excess only applies to own damage, theft, fire etc claim. If she has protected no claims then her premium will probably be the same next year as long as she stays with the same company.

Paul H

[smurph323]

Plot twist. she is a total curse word.

i gave them until friday to find a better quote than i had given them or i would have to go through insurance as i want the car roadworthy again. explaining that all fixings are broken and i don't particularly want my girlfiend driving down the motorway with a bumper that coudl potentially fall off and go under the wheels.

her reply was " i don't like being threatened your car wasnt roadworthy in the first place, go through insurance why do you make your girlfriend drive such a curse word car.. nice"

to which i replied that i understand in her opinion my car isnt worth much but it is to me and all i want is my car how it was before she drove into it. she then told me to stop contacting her or she would tell the police I'm harrassing her.. wow people like this actually exist.
what has the world come to.

as I'm writing this she is now texting my girlfiend threatening her and telling her it was her fault. ie, badly parked car. I'm sorry but she drove into a empty/parked car. and she thinks its my mrs fault. mental

[THE_Liam]

She's gone on the defensive, pretty common, she was apologetic when it happened but now she's calmed down she's got angry about the money aspect and convinced herself she's the victim. Tell your lass to save the texts, and if she contacts you again, explain that your lass could not be at fault as she wasn't at the wheel.

Not being funny, but I wouldn't dare get angry at someone if I'd hit their parked car, I'd be mortified.

[rod6e]

Hi,

I work in Law, so I know a little bit about this.

You should no longer contact her as she has expressed a wish for you to go to her insurers, although it is clear you were trying to help her. Any further contact could be construed as harassment. Keep the texts off her.

She will not have to pay an excess on your claim, but her premiums will go up.

There is a difference between claiming through her insurers, and claiming off her insurers.

If you claim through her insurers they will arrange for an independent Engineer to come and assess your car. If they think it is repairable (repairs being less than 60/75% of the value of the car) then they will arrange the repairs. If they think it is uneconomical to repair, then they will write it off. It is the Engineer's duty to register your car as a write off, not the insurer and so I am confused about the previous posts saying you cant let them write off your car.

To avoid any chance of it being written off, you ought to repair the car yourself and then present the bill to the insurer. If they do not pay it, then you can issue a Small Claim in the County Court.

Dave,

[smurph323]

Aug 1, 2014 7:16:42 GMT rod6e said:

Hi,

I work in Law, so I know a little bit about this.

You should no longer contact her as she has expressed a wish for you to go to her insurers, although it is clear you were trying to help her. Any further contact could be construed as harassment. Keep the texts off her.

She will not have to pay an excess on your claim, but her premiums will go up.

There is a difference between claiming through her insurers, and claiming off her insurers.

If you claim through her insurers they will arrange for an independent Engineer to come and assess your car. If they think it is repairable (repairs being less than 60/75% of the value of the car) then they will arrange the repairs. If they think it is uneconomical to repair, then they will write it off. It is the Engineer's duty to register your car as a write off, not the insurer and so I am confused about the previous posts saying you cant let them write off your car.

To avoid any chance of it being written off, you ought to repair the car yourself and then present the bill to the insurer. If they do not pay it, then you can issue a Small Claim in the County Court.

Dave,

thanks, that last part is especially helpfull information. there is always a risk they wont like it being done that way but had it have been my pride and joy (the rx7) i really wouldnt want a write off marked on it and would probably take this route.

they got back to me today and are sending an assesor round, so fingers crossed they will accept my pricing to get it fixed rather than write it off.

[smurph323]

Aug 1, 2014 7:04:50 GMT THE_Liam said:

She's gone on the defensive, pretty common, she was apologetic when it happened but now she's calmed down she's got angry about the money aspect and convinced herself she's the victim. Tell your lass to save the texts, and if she contacts you again, explain that your lass could not be at fault as she wasn't at the wheel.

Not being funny, but I wouldn't dare get angry at someone if I'd hit their parked car, I'd be mortified.

innit just, i woudlnt have the cheek to be rude to someone fter causing damage to thier property.

i shoulda just punched her in the face and say it doesnt matter she was ugly in the first place haha. !

[THE_Liam]

Aug 1, 2014 15:07:19 GMT smurph323 said:

Aug 1, 2014 7:04:50 GMT THE_Liam said:

She's gone on the defensive, pretty common, she was apologetic when it happened but now she's calmed down she's got angry about the money aspect and convinced herself she's the victim. Tell your lass to save the texts, and if she contacts you again, explain that your lass could not be at fault as she wasn't at the wheel.

Not being funny, but I wouldn't dare get angry at someone if I'd hit their parked car, I'd be mortified.

innit just, i woudlnt have the cheek to be rude to someone fter causing damage to thier property.

i shoulda just punched her in the face and say it doesnt matter she was ugly in the first place haha. !

Common decency isn't that common. I was lucky, when this happened to me, it was a scrape about 3 feet long right down the side of my Citroen AX GTi, just got a note with a phone number stuck under the wiper. Wasn't very optimistic but I phoned it and the lass apologised for driving away but she waited 20 minutes and then had to pick her son up from nursery which is understandable. Anyway she told me to go to her dad who runs a garage and he'd sort me out. Turns out it was a bodyshop, he had a look and said he wouldn't be able to get a good match on a partial spray, so he'd do a full respray. What colour did I want? Awesome, top bloke!

[smurph323]

damn that is lucky, i suppose the lady knowing her dad could fix it was more likely to be honest.

my mrs came out and stood infront of this lady, stopping her from being able to drive away she would have done otherwise.

[smurph323]

Wow! her insurance company after sending an independant assessor around to view the car have said its uneconomical to repair and are offering me £250 for the value of the car.
ive phoned them and asked to be sent the assessors reasons for that valuation and the car is not in the guide books, and there are 323's currently for sale on the market at 900mark.

I'm thinking maybe making the repairs and sending them the bill, if they refuse to pay i can take them to a small claims court. but this is a much more longer winded option. and ill have ot pay 120 for the court fees which isnt garaunteed in my favour.

[MrSpeedy]

Unfortunately, when it comes to older cars, they always come back with a stupidly low offer unless you have agreed value on your policy.

I had a claim once after bending my Golf. A MK1 GTi, freshly restored and they offered me £550 for it as a total loss settlement!!! Can you guess what I said?!

Collect as many adverts of comparable cars, both in magazines and online, to back up your valuation. They can't argue against what the market shows it to be worth rather than what some nob jockey assessor 'thinks' it's worth

[sarkie83]

sounds like a similar situation (although the other way around). My mrs reversed into someone in a car park which caused a minor scratch to his bumper. She gave him her details, etc... I spoke to him he said he would prefer to settling it out between us. then after i spoke to him he said that it needed a new headlight, bumper + spraying, etc.. I refused to pay what he was asking and told him to claim on insurance in that case. after all he's the one who'll have to stump up the excess (unless he's got legal protection and claims it back).

for me part of good thing about running older cars is that i don't have a heart attack everytime i see a new dent i didn't notice before :-)

[smurph323]

yeah i see what your saying if it had been me or the mrs who damaged the car i woudlnt have been upset. but regardless of it being a new or old car it should be put back to how it was before othe rperson hit it. and this womans attitude was it was curse word before so who cares. and i even gave her the chance of settling outside of insurance which would have been better for all parties.

just more awkward and were all losing out in long run for it. shame really