Car hit but they drove off... worth reporting?

[Ken Figenus]

Someone glanced the back end of my lad's car whilst they were changing lanes at traffic lights. Scuffed it to the primer and def a couple of hundred to fix but they just drove off. He got their reg though. Now he's 19 and this is his first car and first insurance - only had it 5 months. Is this worth reporting or will the unfair hit on his insurance despite no fault make it counter productive -even though they deserve being taught a lesson?

Cheers.

[Terminator X]

Imho the Rozzers won't care, civil matter.

TX.

[Ken Figenus]

Really? CBA over a bit of a scratch?

[Red Devil]

Terminator X said:

Imho the Rozzers won't care, civil matter.

TX.

It's not 100% clear but I think the OP means reporting it to his son's insurer.
My o/h had the same happen to her but the police informed her that the third party scrote claimed they didn't realise that any damage had been caused.
They declined to prosecute the TP for the breach of RTA 1988 Section 170.

[Red Devil]

Terminator X said:

Imho the Rozzers won't care, civil matter.

TX.

It's not 100% clear whether the OP means reporting it to his son's insurer or the police.
My ex had the same happen to her but the police informed her that the third party scrote denied that they knew there had been any contact between the two vehicles.
So they filed it in the 'too difficult' drawer to prosecute the TP for the breach of RTA 1988 Section 170.

The insurance policy will state that any event which might give rise to a claim must be notified.
However in the real world it comes down to the likelihood of TP who drives off making a subsequent claim against the OP's son.
If the repair cost is only a couple of hundred I'lll bet that is less than the policy excess.
Even a successful no-fault outcome could well increase the basic premium on renewal.

Rock and hard place comes to mind.

[Time4another]

My son is of a similar age and insurance is mental. Even if it wasn't his fault I'd be telling him to just get the bumper fixed. Even a succesful claim against the other driver is going to be a black mark on the sons insurance. It sucks.

[cliffords]

If you report to police it would follow you report to insurance. All the police will do is give you an incident number . There is a good chance the other driver does not have insurance, or a licence.

I would be advising my son to not report it .
It will be a claim on his insurance regardless of fault.

[Terminator X]

Red Devil said:

Terminator X said:

Imho the Rozzers won't care, civil matter.

TX.

It's not 100% clear but I think the OP means reporting it to his son's insurer.
My o/h had the same happen to her but the police informed her that the third party scrote claimed they didn't realise that any damage had been caused.
They declined to prosecute the TP for the breach of RTA 1988 Section 170.

Ah yes, apologies

TX.

[ro250]

cliffords said:

If you report to police it would follow you report to insurance. All the police will do is give you an incident number . There is a good chance the other driver does not have insurance, or a licence.

I would be advising my son to not report it .
It will be a claim on his insurance regardless of fault.

100% this. Your son will ultimately lose out if he reports it so whilst the scrote gets away with it, they probably still would if he reported it.

You could look up the other car on MOT/TAX checker and report if not legit. Not sure if doing the same on AskMID will leave a record of who you are etc.

[wildoliver]

In my experience unless the repair is a substantial amount of money the repercussions financially make it not worth bothering with. I'm a mid 40s male. God knows what it's like as a teenager. I suspect if he had ditched the car with no-one else involved it would be better to deal with it yourself. For a scuff? No chance.

It is galling I agree. One of our cheap old cars was driven in to by an old woman on the wrong side of the road. So far we stand to get zero money back but likely face 2-3 years of increased premiums. I should have just carried on driving and got on with the repair I'm going to have to do myself anyway.

[Simpo Two]

'Scuffed to the primer'.

That's part of the reality of car ownership; I would leave it be.

Work on building up his NCB for when he really needs it.

[Chris Peacock]

It's one of those strange situations where they've done him a favour by driving off. The worst scenario would've been them stopping and reporting the accident.

[SydneyBridge]

You can go to askmid website and check firstly if insured
If insured, contact them and report incident, they will then ask their insured for details. He/she will probably deny all knowledge

[mikeiow]

cliffords said:

If you report to police it would follow you report to insurance. All the police will do is give you an incident number . There is a good chance the other driver does not have insurance, or a licence.

I would be advising my son to not report it .
It will be a claim on his insurance regardless of fault.

Added to which it will be his word against the scrotes, unless he had another (perhaps older) witness external to his car.
Sadly not worth the bother.

[Chrisgr31]

My daughter had a claim in her first year of driving. Clashed wing mirrors and hers wasn’t damaged the other parties was. At renewal the claim was still outstanding, her insurers were seeking shared liability with the other party, whose claim was remarkably high. Several thousand.

In spite of the claim being outstanding her premium came down. She does have a black box fitted.

[Bigends]

OP, if youre a named driver on your sons Policy and he reports to his insurance, you'll also have to declare the matter to your own insurance.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Bigends said:

OP, if youre a named driver on your sons Policy and he reports to his insurance, you'll also have to declare the matter to your own insurance.

Thats incorrect.

[ro250]

SydneyBridge said:

You can go to askmid website and check firstly if insured
If insured, contact them and report incident, they will then ask their insured for details. He/she will probably deny all knowledge

General advice as been NOT to do that as it will likely impact the young driver negatively.

[Bigends]

Ham_and_Jam said:

Bigends said:

OP, if youre a named driver on your sons Policy and he reports to his insurance, you'll also have to declare the matter to your own insurance.

Thats incorrect.

My son had the cat stolen from under his car a few years back. He informed the insurance company but didnt finally claim as theyd have written his car off. Hes had to declare the theft over the last few renewals. His fiancee - a named driver on his car has had to do the same

[Ham_and_Jam]

Bigends said:

My son had the cat stolen from under his car a few years back. He informed the insurance company but didnt finally claim as theyd have written his car off. Hes had to declare the theft over the last few renewals. His fiancee - a named driver on his car has had to do the same

That still doesn’t make it correct. Sounds like they were given bad advice.