Rear ended advice please

[Brewer86]

I was rear ended about 4 weeks ago, I was on the way to a family emergency at the time and as such I wanted to get on my way as soon as possible. Stupidly, I didn't take pictures. The bloke was apologetic etc, I got his phone number, name and wrote down his reg. He asked if we could settle cash. All I wanted was my car fixed in the simplest way possible to I agreed.

The car sat for 3weeks before my body shop guy could inspect it, it appears that the damage is far worse than expected (estimated 2-2.5k) I've tried calling the bloke who hit me, he answers then when he realises its me he hangs up.

What is my best route now? I am worried that if I tell my insurance, he will deny all knowledge of the accident, as theres no CCTV in the area and I didn't get pictures I am worried that I will be screwed, with an accident against my record and still have to fork out for the damage.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Blue Oval84]

Call his insurance company, you can get their details from the askmid website.

[Brewer86]

Blue Oval84 said:

Call his insurance company, you can get their details from the askmid website.

Do I pay £4 and they give me his details?

[Northernchimp]

Hard lesson to learn, but never agree to settle in cash. Unless somebody has taken your mirror off are hit your car at very low speed whilst it was stationary. Just had one back after some young stupid knobhead on their phone went into the back of it, looked superficial but had actually damaged some of the structural st behind the bumper. There's no way you can tell at the roadside.

[Brewer86]

Northernchimp said:

Hard lesson to learn, but never agree to settle in cash. Unless somebody has taken your mirror off are hit your car at very low speed whilst it was stationary. Just had one back after some young stupid knobhead on their phone went into the back of it, looked superficial but had actually damaged some of the structural st behind the bumper. There's no way you can tell at the roadside.

Lesson learnt. That's exactly what has happened, the car has structural damage. The body shop guy noticed that my brake light didn't have the panel gap around it that it should.

Annoyingly the bloke who hit me thinks he is simply paying for a rear bumper, and he still won't answer the phone... Some people.

[Northernchimp]

Sounds similar, ours was an reasonable presumption of a rear bumper that turned out to be a £1500 job, bumper, diffuser thing, various beams, brackets, bolts, etc, very labour intensive.

I'd text them saying you're progressing down the insurance route and don't need to contact them directly from this point forwards.

Did they come across as a person of reasonable character? Did they have teeth missing or excessive jewellery? I know it's not fair to judge (I'm a law abiding professional person that mostly drives a 20 year old st heap and dress in Tesco clothing).

Hopefully their conscience (if they have one) will prevail.

[Brewer86]

I asked around and found out about the bloke, apparently I won't get anything from him. He's a dishonest scumbag.

This is what is worrying me, if he knows how to play the game and vehemently denies the accident I could be up sts creek without a paddle.

[spooderman]

Northernchimp said:

Hard lesson to learn, but never agree to settle in cash. Unless somebody has taken your mirror off are hit your car at very low speed whilst it was stationary. Just had one back after some young stupid knobhead on their phone went into the back of it, looked superficial but had actually damaged some of the structural st behind the bumper. There's no way you can tell at the roadside.

It's amazing how these rolling bumps cause so much damage; you'd almost think the grease monkey inspectors are making it up to generate work for themselves.

hmmmm..

[Northernchimp]

Funny you should say that. One of the rear lamps had a small chip in it, always been like that. They attributed it to the accident and repaired it as part of the work, even though it wasn't really near the point of impact (not at my request and without my prior knowledge).