Car damaged by 3rd party. Insurance or body-shop and how?

[skip_1]

Today my wife's car (Twingo) was damaged at work. Damage is apparently 'scrape' to front wheel-arch and 'scrape' on plastic bumper below headlight. Unfortunately I am away from home and working nights so cannot check the damage myself.

The lady who did it, let my wife know and said she would pay for repair, (whilst in floods of tears). I have told my wife to get some pics of both cars tomorrow as she hadn't done so.

What is the best way to deal with this? Insurance? Offer the lady the chance to book the car in for repair at Renault? Have the lady pay us cash for the quoted amount?

Apologies for the wordy description but I haven't any experience of this situation.

Oh yeah, the lady couldn't understand how she had hit my wife's car as she has parking sensors and they didn't go off.

Edited by skip_1 on Tuesday 8th January 21:43

[AndyT77]

I would suggest that going through the insurance will rape you financially, and if the responsible party is willing to pay, i'd persue that course.

[BFG TERRANO]

Get a quote from your chosen body shop- hand to lady that hit it, she coughs up first then book it in.

[skip_1]

What is the etiquette for doing it privately, do we get a couple of quotes or do they do it? I assume there is a risk that they could change their mind and say they didn't do it.

Edit - already answered above, cheers!

I'll leave this running in case any further advice is offered.

[BFG TERRANO]

It's your car so It's your call who repairs it. Get her to cough up first or clear a cheque then get it done. If she has any sense she should realise that its better financially for her to pay up and avoid the insurance battle.
If It's only a few hundred quid of damage I'd rather pay up than loose my hard earned ncb.

[skip_1]

Cheers, appreciate the advice.

Would anyone consider using a chips away type service for this damage if there are no dents? I believe they can fix plastic bumpers too.

[AndyT77]

skip_1 said:

Cheers, appreciate the advice.

Would anyone consider using a chips away type service for this damage if there are no dents? I believe they can fix plastic bumpers too.

Depends on the damage, but don't see why you couldn't get them to quote for the job along with some body shops.