Bump on country Lane, who is liable?

[cb31]

My wife had her wing mirror knocked off yesterday. Just about 2 car wide country Lane with no markings, she stopped when seeing another car coming. Lady coming the other way barrelled through and knocked both mirrors off and caused a few scratches.

The lady initially took the blame then retracted it. Her son came and then she admitted fault again but nothing in writing. She wanted my wife to get a quote so she could pay rather than go through insurance. She was happy with £275 but now suddenly wants to go through the insurance.

I've been told that if there are no markings then insurance companies automatically say equal blame, is this correct? May explain why she now wants insurance?

I would prefer to stay away from insurance as my wife already has a no-fault claim from 6 months ago which the other side are now disputing. She is on my policy and we have 2 cars so any increases get us twice.

I can buy a second hand mirror for £65,fit myself and have a go at polishing the scratches out but have a moral problem with her 'getting away with it' and then also getting a insurance hit if she now reports it to her insurance.

Any advice?

[Mave]

cb31 said:

My wife had her wing mirror knocked off yesterday. Just about 2 car wide country Lane with no markings, she stopped when seeing another car coming. Lady coming the other way barrelled through and knocked both mirrors off and caused a few scratches.

The lady initially took the blame then retracted it. Her son came and then she admitted fault again but nothing in writing. She wanted my wife to get a quote so she could pay rather than go through insurance. She was happy with £275 but now suddenly wants to go through the insurance.

I've been told that if there are no markings then insurance companies automatically say equal blame, is this correct? May explain why she now wants insurance?

I would prefer to stay away from insurance as my wife already has a no-fault claim from 6 months ago which the other side are now disputing. She is on my policy and we have 2 cars so any increases get us twice.

I can buy a second hand mirror for £65,fit myself and have a go at polishing the scratches out but have a moral problem with her 'getting away with it' and then also getting a insurance hit if she now reports it to her insurance.

Any advice?

I think you already know the answer from what you've written. Do you want to pay the increased insurance premium to be morally "in the right", or pay £65 to minimise costs to all parties? How about you ask the other party for £65 for the secondhand mirror to avoid going through the insurance?

[itcaptainslow]

cb31 said:

I can buy a second hand mirror for £65,fit myself and have a go at polishing the scratches out but have a moral problem with her 'getting away with it' ...

This is what I'd do-for the sake of £65 and an hour of my time versus many hours and potentially much more expense, it's got to be worth it. Any insurance claim in this situation without witnesses/dashcam footage is destined for 50/50.

[Momentofmadness]

Definitely as above, you pay for yours, she pays for hers... just playing Devils' advocate but just because your wife stopped doesn't mean she was tucked to the nearside as well as you could have been? Who knows? But for £65 I'd not think twice and get on with life

[vikingaero]

cb31 said:

My wife had her wing mirror knocked off yesterday. Just about 2 car wide country Lane with no markings, she stopped when seeing another car coming. Lady coming the other way barrelled through and knocked both mirrors off and caused a few scratches.

The lady initially took the blame then retracted it. Her son came and then she admitted fault again but nothing in writing. She wanted my wife to get a quote so she could pay rather than go through insurance. She was happy with £275 but now suddenly wants to go through the insurance.

I've been told that if there are no markings then insurance companies automatically say equal blame, is this correct? May explain why she now wants insurance?

I would prefer to stay away from insurance as my wife already has a no-fault claim from 6 months ago which the other side are now disputing. She is on my policy and we have 2 cars so any increases get us twice.

I can buy a second hand mirror for £65,fit myself and have a go at polishing the scratches out but have a moral problem with her 'getting away with it' and then also getting a insurance hit if she now reports it to her insurance.

Any advice?

What car is it? Some wing mirrors are horrifically expensive especially if they are heated and retracting. Do you have protected no claims?

This sort of problem/person/driver is exactly why some of us have dashcams to protect ourselves from the Chavscums.

[cb31]

It's a golf mk6, heated and body coloured. I haven't seen the damage yet but apparently the colour coded bit is fine. I've seen primed non oem ones on ebay.

I'm happy to pay £65 and be done with it, I replaced one a few years ago when a council lorry knocked one off. I'm just worried that we will still get an insurance hit if she reports it to her insurer, in that case it can get repaired properly.

Definitely getting dash cams for both cars, sick of incompetent drivers. Apparently the other woman was blind as a bat

[MKnight702]

If you can get the third party to admit that your wife was stopped then the blame should only go one way. A stationary vehicle cannot hit anyone, only a moving vehicle can do that so the moving vehicle should be 100% to blame. If the driver didn't think she would fit then both vehicles could have shuffled over, instead the third party decided to go for a gap that turned out not to be large enough.

Having said that, insurance companies are a law unto themselves when it comes down to assigning blame. My insurers told me that they were going to go 50/50 even though the third party had admitted liability, I had strong words with them about that and they backed down. Although, they still tried to show it as a fault claim when I renewed the policy, again strong words were required.

[Alucidnation]

Surely the excess would be more than the cost of diy?

[Hoofy]

Momentofmadness said:

Definitely as above, you pay for yours, she pays for hers... just playing Devils' advocate but just because your wife stopped doesn't mean she was tucked to the nearside as well as you could have been? Who knows? But for £65 I'd not think twice and get on with life

I agree, sounds like the cheapest option, although even if she was parked blocking the road, the other driver should be able to stop in time.

[catman]

If your Wife was stationary, then it's the other driver's fault. Proving it is a different matter, though.

Tim

[Dixy]

Living in a rural area I frequently meet women who when faced with oncoming traffic just randomly stop in the most inconvenient spot, expecting the other driver to squeeze through a difficult gap.

[cb31]

Dixy said:

Living in a rural area I frequently meet women who when faced with oncoming traffic just randomly stop in the most inconvenient spot, expecting the other driver to squeeze through a difficult gap.

I know what you mean but my wife, while not exactly Michael Schumacher, is quite handy on country lanes having grown up on them.

[SimonTheSailor]

Bloody rural women !!

[df76]

catman said:

If your Wife was stationary, then it's the other driver's fault. Proving it is a different matter, though.

Tim

Exactly why dashcams will become increasingly popular...

[98elise]

itcaptainslow said:

cb31 said:

I can buy a second hand mirror for £65,fit myself and have a go at polishing the scratches out but have a moral problem with her 'getting away with it' ...

This is what I'd do-for the sake of £65 and an hour of my time versus many hours and potentially much more expense, it's got to be worth it. Any insurance claim in this situation without witnesses/dashcam footage is destined for 50/50.

This is what I would do, or possibly say to the other party that as they admitted responsibility would they like to pay for a S/H one, which you will source and fit.

[TooMany2cvs]

cb31 said:

The lady initially took the blame then retracted it. Her son came and then she admitted fault again but nothing in writing. She wanted my wife to get a quote so she could pay rather than go through insurance. She was happy with £275 but now suddenly wants to go through the insurance.

I can buy a second hand mirror for £65

So a second hand one's fine if you're paying, but she's going to be paying full whack?

cb31 said:

but have a moral problem with her 'getting away with it'

And how much are you willing to spend on that "moral problem"? £65...?

[saaby93]

Hoofy said:

Momentofmadness said:

Definitely as above, you pay for yours, she pays for hers... just playing Devils' advocate but just because your wife stopped doesn't mean she was tucked to the nearside as well as you could have been? Who knows? But for £65 I'd not think twice and get on with life

I agree, sounds like the cheapest option, although even if she was parked blocking the road, the other driver should be able to stop in time.

It's not as easy as that though is it?
If you pay the £65 to fix your own mirror while there's another claim outstanding with insurers you've almost admitted it's your fault
Surely so long as the other side is pressing you for the cost of their mirror you need to press them for the cost of yours and convice them you were stopped at the time, although stopping in just a place where someone isnt able to to avoid you isnt too much of a defence either.

[cb31]

TooMany2cvs said:

So a second hand one's fine if you're paying, but she's going to be paying full whack?

ps off.

Full whack would be going to VW to get a genuine mirror and proper bodywork sorting, not getting the local garage to fit a Chinese copy and try to polish out the scratches and minor dents.

My moral problem is nothing to do with money, it is to do with an incompetent and possibly half-blind woman get away with no penalty so she can do the same to someone else with possibly worse consequences next time.

If I am paying then I'll be doing it as cheap as possible as it is our beater car.

[TooMany2cvs]

cb31 said:

TooMany2cvs said:

So a second hand one's fine if you're paying, but she's going to be paying full whack?

ps off.

Full whack would be going to VW to get a genuine mirror and proper bodywork sorting, not getting the local garage to fit a Chinese copy and try to polish out the scratches and minor dents.

My moral problem is nothing to do with money, it is to do with an incompetent and possibly half-blind woman get away with no penalty so she can do the same to someone else with possibly worse consequences next time.

If I am paying then I'll be doing it as cheap as possible as it is our beater car.

Yet you want the other woman to pay more than four times what you'd pay if you were doing it yourself.

[cb31]

saaby93 said:

Surely so long as the other side is pressing you for the cost of their mirror you need to press them for the cost of yours and convice them you were stopped at the time, although stopping in just a place where someone isnt able to to avoid you isnt too much of a defence either.

She isn't asking us to pay for her mirror, she is still saying it was her fault. Best case my wife gets another no fault claim on my policy, worst case the other woman changes her story and it goes 50/50.

Now I have found a mirror for £65 it is worth forgetting the whole thing as the excess would be far more anyway, I just want to be sure I won't get stung for a claim anyway if she reports it.