Hit and run - insurance

[Dhirajk]

Hi all, hope this is in the right place, new on here, so I purchased a new car on Thursday last week, best part of 20k, on Tuesday morning had a knock on the door, a private bin lorry went into the side of it and drove off, I have the reg plate but no owners details, my insurance is claiming it may need to be claimed from my insurance as we don’t have driver details, the company may deny liability, secondly my alloy was scratched, the wing had some scratches and the front bumper was ripped out about 30-40% no air bags went off, the problem i am facing is I didn’t even have time to think about gap insurance and adding it, so I am hoping they don’t write the car off, it’s a 2017 plate BMW 420d convertible, I can’t see there can be any structural damage as it was a side scrape and pulled the bumper along as he was trying to let a car pass, any advice would be welcome, thanks all

[mike9009]

Any CCTV in the area that may have picked it up?

IME most larger vehicles nowadays have dashcams on board to help prove or disprove these type of cases. I recently got hit by some earth from an unsafe load on a local truck. Scared me more than damaging the car, but reported to them and they had a word with the driver after checking footage.

If it was a hit and run and you have an independent witness, it should be reported to the police too. They will be able to track the owner from the registration plate.

Good luck...

[Limpet]

Driving away from the scene of an accident where injury or damage has occurred, and failing to report it, is a serious offence. If you can't find the owner, I'd be reporting this straight to the police. They will be able to trace the owner from the registration number, and you may well find that police involvement encourages them to do the right thing.

Mrs Limpet's old MINI Clubman was hit when parked outside the house a couple of years ago by a delivery truck from one of the major supermarkets who had just delivered to our house. According to my neighbour who witnessed the whole thing from his kitchen window, the driver got out, checked both vehicles (knowing full well it was ours), looked around to see if anyone was watching, and simply drove off. The MINI had a deep crease in one of the rear doors, and it had pushed the bumper off its mount on one side. Luckily for us, the neighbour popped over with the reg number of the truck and said he'd be prepared to make a statement if needed.

The supermarket were non committal initially, and after speaking to the witness (who collaborated the story) went radio silent and stopped returning calls. When we mentioned that our next step was to report their driver to the police for leaving the scene of an accident, the change of attitude was remarkable. The car was repaired by their insurer 2 weeks later at no cost to us.

If you do end up fronting the cost of the repair, ask around locally for a bodyshop recommendation, and then go and talk to them about options. Many charge a different (lower) rate for privately funded work, and will source secondhand panels etc to keep costs down.

Edited by Limpet on Thursday 1st April 17:08

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

Firstly, how did you get the reg of the truck, did you see it, did you have a witness, CCTV?

Secondly, you would claim from your insurance and they would then look to recover the money back from the Third Party, this may take a while, and dependant on how you obtained the reg, and wether they dispute or not, will depend on wether your claim is succesful.

Your insurance will be able to get the details of the Third Party Insurers, or the handling agents, chances are the bin company will be self insured, so either the company will handle their own insurance, or have a company that does it for them.

You can report it to the police, but chances are they wont do anything.

[Dhirajk]

Thanks for your reply, I have reported it to the police, my reply from them was at the moment we don’t have resources due to COVID to be able to investigate anything, I have given the reg plate to the insurance, I also have an independent eye witness who saw the accident, I have supplied her details to the insurance company too, I don’t even mind them taking my no claims, I just don’t want them to write the car off, the car has been taken by the insurance now, so have to wait and see what they say

[Dhirajk]

The witness took a picture of the bin lorry, that’s how we have the reg plate, the picture isn’t overly clear, but you can make out the plate, I have supplied this to the insurance and they have confirmed the truck as assumed to be a company vehicle is insured, so they are writing to the company, thing that concerns me is the driver may not even know he caused damage to a vehicle, as he was turning to let the car pass on his right the back left of the truck has probably hit my car, and he’s driven off

[dibblecorse]

Crap luck OP, the chances they will write the car off are very slim if your description of the damage is accurate, damage would normally need to exceed 60% of the cars value, so c14k in repairs, its also unlikely to end up on any register in the future ..

[Mo28]

With how you've described the damage, I doubt they'll write the car off. Do you have any pictures of the damage?

[Dhirajk]

[Dhirajk]

The light is still intact, I checked nothing is wrong with that, the liquid on the floor I believe is screen wash or put out the rad

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

Dhirajk said:

The witness took a picture of the bin lorry, that’s how we have the reg plate, the picture isn’t overly clear, but you can make out the plate, I have supplied this to the insurance and they have confirmed the truck as assumed to be a company vehicle is insured, so they are writing to the company, thing that concerns me is the driver may not even know he caused damage to a vehicle, as he was turning to let the car pass on his right the back left of the truck has probably hit my car, and he’s driven off

From your description, you dont sound too sure on what happened, did your witness see the accident, or did they hear something and then see the truck and assume they caused the damage to your car?

[bencollins4]

If there's a witness then they are going to struggle to defend. It is up to them to prove they didn't cause the damage.

It certainly doesn't look like a write off but I don't know why that should be a serious concern? As you have only just bought the vehicle you should be reimbursed for exactly what you paid, but I very much doubt it will be written off.

I presume you have been offered credit hire? Take it if you need it, but not if you don't. I have seen a similar incident this week in my work(occurred several months ago) which resulted in a £30k hire bill for a '64 plate Z4. Yes, really.

[Dhirajk]

The witness was on the road and saw the lorry hit my car, there is no confusion about that, the witness then pulled her phone out, took a picture but by that time along with writing the reg plate down had to zoom in to the lorry, so that was what I meant by the picture not being clear.

So my issue is, in the big bin lorry, the driver may not know he caused the damage and completely deny it.

Then my concern is I owe about £18,500 to Bmw, I didn’t have time to purchase gap insurance, so my concern with them writing the car off is.

£18,500 is owed
Insurance may give me £15,000 for that car if they write the car off, I will then be £3,500 out of pocket.

I maybe wrong, I don’t mind the claim going against me, and me loosing my no claims, but I don’t want them dramatically decreasing the value of a car I still have to pay for.

That is my issue

[C350Akra]

Dhirajk said:

Then my concern is I owe about £18,500 to Bmw, I didn’t have time to purchase gap insurance, so my concern with them writing the car off is.

£18,500 is owed
Insurance may give me £15,000 for that car if they write the car off, I will then be £3,500 out of pocket.

I maybe wrong, I don’t mind the claim going against me, and me loosing my no claims, but I don’t want them dramatically decreasing the value of a car I still have to pay for.

That is my issue

You can argue for the full price paid since it was within a week or so of the purchase. That does not look anywhere near a write off anyway.

[Dhirajk]

Thank you

That has been my only concern, I don’t want to be getting a lower amount if in the off chance they do write the car off, but I will argue, I wouldn’t be able to buy another car if I got short changed, just been stressful.