Car damaged in office car park - insurance advice please!

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Boo-hoo!

My car was parked in the office car park, and one of the company's vans has slipped its handbrake and rolled into the front of my bonnet:



As you can see, there's some paint damage, but more seriously the fibreglass cross-member onto which the front of the bonnet is attached is fractured through and that side of the bonnet has pushed back a few mill.

I have already contacted the TVR specialist who normally look after it, and they'll be collecting it a week on Friday.

I'd really appreciate some advice on how to proceed, because there are several possible ways forward.

Should I:

• Talk to my insurer (Admiral) and explain the situation, and let them handle everything. They will presumably talk to my employer's insurer and claim against them. The risk with this approach is if the repair bill is a few grand and they value my car at only a little bit more then it could end up as a Cat C/D, which would wreck the value of a car that should be worth £10-12k (and possibly more). This would seriously piss me off. I would also presumably pay increased premiums even if they don't write it off, which would also piss me off.

• Talk to Admiral and tell them about the circumstances for information only, then talk to my employer and find out what they intend to do. They must have their own motor insurance or other liability insurance, or they may choose to simply reimburse me once we know what the bill is. (Update: the facilities manager, who is a decent chap who likes TVRs, has emailed indicating that the latter is likely, but he may be underestimating the cost of the fibreglass repair...)

• As above, except not talking to Admiral at all.

• Some other approach?

I will send Str8Six a picture to see if they can give a ball-park quote, which might help the company decide on their approach to reimbursing me. At least the company I work for is thoroughly decent.

If I tread carefully and do the right things, I might end up in a better situation because the paint damage might necessitate a front-end respray, which would get rid of the myriad stone chips. But if I do the wrong things and I'm unlucky, I could end up with a Cat C/D car worth a lot less than it should be.

Any advice gratefully received!

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

agtlaw said:

An insurance claim does not mean that your car is a Cat (anything) unless it is written off.

[Waits for eyes to recover from the blaze of bleedin' obvious. Yep... Vision slowly returning...]

Er... Yes, I know that. But if the repair cost is 60% or more of their valuation of the car (which won't be its market value; it'll be the "trade" value) then it will be written off. That's the risk I'm worried about.

Chrisgr31 said:

I suspect its likely that your employer may want to do it outside insurance anyway. Companies tend to have a very high excess.

Yes, the email I've received from the facilities manager suggests that's what he's thinking, but I suspect he's thinking of hundreds of pounds, whereas I can imagine a few grand by the time the fibreglass repair and respraying is done.

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Wednesday 12th March 19:05

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

agtlaw said:

Involving my own insurer would be a last resort, personally speaking.

Apologies for my brusqueness - I know you're being helpful.

Yes, ^^ that is my instinct as well.

So should I tell my insurer for information only, or say nothing at all?


ETA: I should have pointed out, in case nobody's noticed... I own a TVR! Go me!

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Wednesday 12th March 19:14

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

I guess a few grand is nothing really, especially given that I know our company is in almost embarrassingly rude health. It may also help that (and I flatter myself, I know) I am a long-standing and well valued employee, and the company treats its employees well IMHO.

Oh, and the facilities manager likes TVRs. Did I mention that it's a TVR? Admittedly it's not an SLS, but maybe one day...

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

So if I declare it for information only, does that mean I've had a "non fault incident" and must declare it as such when getting insurance quotes in the future?

Can anyone comment on whether I'm obliged to tell them, even if I get reimbursed by the company or their insurer?

I quite agree it would be wholly wrong for my premiums to go up over this, because parking in the office car park should be a risk that's covered by the premium I already pay (I'm covered for commuting to work). The fact that this has happened is just an unlucky roll of the dice - if I'd parked in the adjacent space the van would have missed!

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Thursday 13th March 06:14

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

General Fluff said:

Think about it, you'd be telling them that you regularly park in an area with a history of vans rolling about unaided. I'd push your premium up if I were your insurer.

That is precisely the kind of flawed logic that I suspect abounds in the insurance industry.

Freak occurrences happen. Therefore they have to happen somewhere. The fact that a freak occurrence has happened in the car park of my employer does not establish any kind of history or trend of it happening here, and it does not imply any increased risk of it happening again, either here or to me.

The fact is that vehicles of many different kinds do very occasionally roll away after being parked, sometimes due to failure of the handbrake and sometimes due to the ratchet not being engaged properly. There was nothing special about the van that hit my car; there was nothing special about the person who parked it; and they could have parked it with the wheels pointing in any direction. There was also nothing special about the space I parked in. As insurable events go, this was about as random as it gets.

I acknowledge that many insurable events do indeed indicate an increased risk of recurrence, such as crashes caused by the driver's own bad driving. But it is ludicrous to suggest that a vehicle rolling into my car makes it more likely to happen again.


ETA: Ironically, despite the good advice that I've received on this thread, in hindsight what I really should not have done was post this thread on PH, because now there is public evidence that an "incident" has happened and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's somebody's job to spend half an hour a week trawling motoring forums for threads like this. I reckon I've given myself no choice but to inform them, or risk cancellation in the future.

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Thursday 13th March 10:37

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

The car is currently at the TVR specialist that normally looks after it, and they should hopefully be looking at it today. Depending on the size of the bill, the company will either reimburse me out of their own purse or do an insurance claim - but probably the former.

Assuming things go alright I'll take the manager in question out for a lunchtime spin when I get it back because he's a bit of a fan of the marque.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Not much progress, as such - except that I have a quote for the repair and the manager at work has told me to go ahead and the company will pay me back.

The bodyshop* is too busy to do it for a week or two more, so for the time being I've taken the car back so I can use it for our holiday in the Dales.

The bodyshop say it'll need pretty much a full front-end respray, so it'll end up looking fantastic with all the stone chips gone.


* I think it'll be going home to Blackpool to Surface And Design.