Small accident. Perp seemed decent but now gone awol
Discussion
So a few weeks back now, I was in a queue of cars at the lights, about 3-4 back from the front. Lights changed and traffic set off. Car in front of me set off very quickly/aggressively, then sharply braked. I was alert at the time and my brakes are decent so I stopped with plenty of gap. Unfortunately as I glanced in the mirror after coming to a stop, it became clear the car behind me was not going to stop in time. BANG
Got out and spoke to the other driver. We agreed to pull up at a petrol garage just down the road. So he followed me down. Small crack and paint damage to my bumper. Nothing on his car. I said I'd prefer not to go via insurance, he admitted it was 100% his fault, and said he'd pay for damage. We swapped details (name, phone and reg but not insurance). I didn't report the knock to police within the 24hrs.
At first, a few texts were exchanged and it all seemed fine, I got a quote, it was a little more than he'd hoped for (£250 which let's be honest is not much). Said I'd get the work done and he'd pay.
Not had the work done yet but have tried to stay in contact as it will be a few weeks before I do and I dan't want it to slide.
He's now not responding at all. In the meantime, I've renewed insurance, and replied "no" to all questions regarding being in accidents etc.
Where do I stand and what should I do? I think most likely it will be....
- Stomach the £250 loss myself
- Always report a knock, no matter how minimal
- Never trust a person in such a situation again solely based on instinct
Got out and spoke to the other driver. We agreed to pull up at a petrol garage just down the road. So he followed me down. Small crack and paint damage to my bumper. Nothing on his car. I said I'd prefer not to go via insurance, he admitted it was 100% his fault, and said he'd pay for damage. We swapped details (name, phone and reg but not insurance). I didn't report the knock to police within the 24hrs.
At first, a few texts were exchanged and it all seemed fine, I got a quote, it was a little more than he'd hoped for (£250 which let's be honest is not much). Said I'd get the work done and he'd pay.
Not had the work done yet but have tried to stay in contact as it will be a few weeks before I do and I dan't want it to slide.
He's now not responding at all. In the meantime, I've renewed insurance, and replied "no" to all questions regarding being in accidents etc.
Where do I stand and what should I do? I think most likely it will be....
- Stomach the £250 loss myself
- Always report a knock, no matter how minimal
- Never trust a person in such a situation again solely based on instinct
Edited by markyb_lcy on Monday 18th November 13:25
BertBert said:
I presume it's at or lower than your excess, so no point in claiming from your own ins co. So if the other guy has gone to ground, you either go to his ins co or forget about it.
Not sure why you'd lie to your insurance co, but as you have, you may have limited your options. If you claim direct from the other guy's insurance, then your insurance will probably get to know about it.
Bert
Yea, my excess is £750.Not sure why you'd lie to your insurance co, but as you have, you may have limited your options. If you claim direct from the other guy's insurance, then your insurance will probably get to know about it.
Bert
Having opted to fix what is a completely cosmetic problem, without involving any insurance companies, is it really so hard to see why I wouldn't mention it on renewal?
You are of course right though, in that I have boxed myself into a corner. We live and learn, I guess.
Torquey said:
I'd just text the person one last time to say you are passing it onto his insurance company since there has been no contact.
If he responds you may get your £250 if he doesn't then live with the scratch or get it done cheaper.
Yep, this has been my most recent contact with him. He doesn't know if I did or didn't make a report to police or did or didn't inform my insurance company. He's yet to respond, and that's a few days ago now. Doesn't look like he will.If he responds you may get your £250 if he doesn't then live with the scratch or get it done cheaper.
RogerDodger said:
If you are not going to pursue the money I'd certainly not tell the insurer. It has sod all to do with them and will only increase your risk to them for a while. No way is the other guy going to report this to his.
Many "dereks" on here will wail about this like insurers are some kind of legal entity to which we must all bow down to.
I'd suck it up and move on. Unless £250 is a lot fo money to you.
Yea, I think this is where I'm going with this one. Will ring around and try and get a cheaper quote. The damage is seriously minimal but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Many "dereks" on here will wail about this like insurers are some kind of legal entity to which we must all bow down to.
I'd suck it up and move on. Unless £250 is a lot fo money to you.
Wacky Racer said:
The first thing you should do when you have an accident is take a few photographs (if possible) from various angles and then the other party are on the backfoot, they can't deny they weren't there or you crashed into them etc.
I did take some photos of the damage when I got the car home.Vantagemech.. said:
Slightly different from OP, but I had a similar incident many years ago.
Post incident the chap admitted fault and offered to pay cash. I took his number and reg and we had a few conversations about the best route. I said I would repair it and it would be £350. He said he wasnt paying that as he had a mate that would do it. I told him either I do it at that price or insurance (damaged a road wheel, rear bumper and panel behind bumper.
It ends up I go through my insurance after the quote comes to £650.
I inform the other guy, who now has no leg to stand on as he offered me an amount (basically admitting fault)
But - my excess was £750 so my insurers wouldnt process the claim.
My broker then played the ace and used a 3rd party claims company against the other driver,
My insurance was not affected, got the claim sorted and paid out. His insurance company footed the bill and my car was repaired by a main dealer.
perhaps its worth looking into ??
This is certainly interesting, I will look into this, thanks!Post incident the chap admitted fault and offered to pay cash. I took his number and reg and we had a few conversations about the best route. I said I would repair it and it would be £350. He said he wasnt paying that as he had a mate that would do it. I told him either I do it at that price or insurance (damaged a road wheel, rear bumper and panel behind bumper.
It ends up I go through my insurance after the quote comes to £650.
I inform the other guy, who now has no leg to stand on as he offered me an amount (basically admitting fault)
But - my excess was £750 so my insurers wouldnt process the claim.
My broker then played the ace and used a 3rd party claims company against the other driver,
My insurance was not affected, got the claim sorted and paid out. His insurance company footed the bill and my car was repaired by a main dealer.
perhaps its worth looking into ??
Breadvan72 said:
OP, ring your insurer and come clean. Tell them you had a shunt but misunderstood the reporting obligation and did not mention this before. Say sorry. The insurer might say OK, do not do that again, keep calm and carry on. It might say pay some extra premium. It might bin the policy, and if it does that you could ask the Insurance Ombudsman to get the insurer to cut you some slack.
Policy binnage at this point might (I said might) be unlikely under the recently revised legislation on consumer insurance.
Better to 'fess up soon than to let the point hang there and potentially bite you on the bum later. If next week you have a big smash at the other end of the car, you claim for that, and the person who comes to check out the damage notices pre-existing damage or signs of repair at the other end of the car, a chain of enquiry might begin.
This is an interesting one too, I had considered it. If the damage was more than £250 worth, I'd probably go down this avenue.Policy binnage at this point might (I said might) be unlikely under the recently revised legislation on consumer insurance.
Better to 'fess up soon than to let the point hang there and potentially bite you on the bum later. If next week you have a big smash at the other end of the car, you claim for that, and the person who comes to check out the damage notices pre-existing damage or signs of repair at the other end of the car, a chain of enquiry might begin.
Regarding your point on pre-existing damage, my reply would be "Ah that little scratch? Was there when I bought it" (car is a 15 yr old sports car and only worth £3-4k)
meatballs said:
Err, you can request insurance details directly on askmid.com, don't need an "insider". Not sure if the accident details are then available to your insurer though.
From what I can tell, MID will only tell you if a vehicle is or isn't insured. I've checked his reg and it is.Breadvan72 said:
markyb_lcy said:
This is an interesting one too, I had considered it. If the damage was more than £250 worth, I'd probably go down this avenue.
Regarding your point on pre-existing damage, my reply would be "Ah that little scratch? Was there when I bought it" (car is a 15 yr old sports car and only worth £3-4k)
Lying liars gonna lie. Ever thought of standing for the Tory party? Promising career ahead. Regarding your point on pre-existing damage, my reply would be "Ah that little scratch? Was there when I bought it" (car is a 15 yr old sports car and only worth £3-4k)
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff