Advice please: avoiding insurance claim when car hit in car park.

[RedPillGuy]

I was at Sainsbury's last week and sitting in my car in the car park, reading my emails before I went into the shop. Engine was off and I was stationary. Suddenly an almighty thump from behind.

 

I jumped out thinking someone had reversed into me, but found that the car that had hit me had no driver.

 

Turns out the dozy bint had parked her 4wd without putting on the handbrake, or put it in gear and just waked off into the shop.

 

Plenty of witnesses, and video. The lady came back and admitted fault, but asked to send her the quote to fix to avoid having to claim on insurance. Got quote - about £1k. now she says thats more than she thought, so is "thinking about" claiming on insurance.

 

Now, in the past I was a bad boy and have a drink driving ban (now finished) but my insurance is very expensive already because of this, and I don't want to make a claim, both because my excess is high and also because it will further hit my premiums. Also I AM NOT AT FAULT!

 

Anyone have any advice on how I can proceed with this? DOnt report t omg insurance company, and instead do it through small claims court?

 

Any other suggestions.

[BazzaS]

You are obliged to inform your insurers, but can tell them you are only informing them and do not wish to make a claim.

What do you plan to do if you don't inform your insurers, and the other person decides she wants to put it through insurance due to the value, and then her insurers discuss it with yours, who wonder why they aren't aware of the incident?

 

If you tell your insurers that you are only advising them & don't wish to make a claim, you can deal yourself with the other driver and their insurers: you'd need to ask them to arrange the repair and/or set out your losses and ask them to settle them before leaping to issuing a claim in the small track of the county court .....

[king12345]

You still have to report it to your insurance.

Your no claim bonus won't be affected if you claim from the third party insurance.

Unfortunately there's nothing you can do.

Your insurance will go up but not by a lot because it's a non fault accident.

Get in touch with your insurance and make a notification.

Follow up with an email just in case they play the silly games and they say you never called.

Then claim entirely from third party insurance.

Do not get involved with accident management companies.

If the third party insurance doesn't offer a rental car while yours is repaired and you can't do without it, rent it yourself and let the insurance know.

It will be much cheaper and they won't be able to say that you didn't mitigate costs.

****e happens.

[unclebulgaria67]

I was at Sainsbury's last week and sitting in my car in the car park, reading my emails before I went into the shop. Engine was off and I was stationary. Suddenly an almighty thump from behind.

 

I jumped out thinking someone had reversed into me, but found that the car that had hit me had no driver.

 

Turns out the dozy bint had parked her 4wd without putting on the handbrake, or put it in gear and just waked off into the shop.

 

Plenty of witnesses, and video. The lady came back and admitted fault, but asked to send her the quote to fix to avoid having to claim on insurance. Got quote - about £1k. now she says thats more than she thought, so is "thinking about" claiming on insurance.

 

Now, in the past I was a bad boy and have a drink driving ban (now finished) but my insurance is very expensive already because of this, and I don't want to make a claim, both because my excess is high and also because it will further hit my premiums. Also I AM NOT AT FAULT!

 

Anyone have any advice on how I can proceed with this? DOnt report t omg insurance company, and instead do it through small claims court?

 

Any other suggestions.

 

Should be easy.

 

Just contact the lady saying that you want to claim against her Insurance directly, as you have a large excess and if you went through your own Insurance it might include issuing a court claim against her which you want to avoid.

 

Advise her that all she needs to do is phone her Insurers to advise them what happened and that you want to claim directly against her policy. Tell her to ask her Insurers to contact you to sort out the repair to your car. Ask her to confirm to you that she has spoken to her Insurers and to confirm what number you have to chase up if you don't hear anything,

 

If you do it this way, then you have no excess to worry about., but the ladies Insurers might want to get a quote from their own garage to repair the car. Also if the repair cost is close to the current value of the car, you might face a write off. Come back for more advice if relevant.

 

As advised you should also advise your Insurers anyway for info only.

[BazzaS]

Did you:

a) exchange detail (including details of insurers)

b) check on the askMID roadside service that there is some insurance in place for her vehicle ....

[BankFodder]

Try to do everything in writing – but if you do have to use the telephone then read our customer services guide first and make sure that you have fully implemented our advice. This is essential. Do not use the telephone unless you are recording the call

[RedPillGuy]

Thanks everyone.

She just emailed me to confirm she will pay, and to go ahead with booking in my car for repairs. Guess even though its only £990 its better for them to avoid insurance companies as well.

 

Given its getting sorted do you all still advise me to tell my insurance company? Us ex-DrinkDrivers get shafted left right and centre on insurance, so hoping to avoid if at all possible.

[reallymadwoman]

Given its getting sorted do you all still advise me to tell my insurance company? Us ex-DrinkDrivers get shafted left right and centre on insurance, so hoping to avoid if at all possible.

 

You must tell your insurance company, if not now then you would have to when you renew so probably best to get it over with. As you have her agreement to pay, you can copy that to your insurance company to prove it's non-fault.

[BazzaS]

You must tell your insurance company, if not now then you would have to when you renew so probably best to get it over with. As you have her agreement to pay, you can copy that to your insurance company to prove it's non-fault.

 

I agree. The only advantage of not informing the insurers now is if the OP intends not to mention it on renewal.

If they do that, if the insurers find out (which is possible if the other driver has informed their insurers), the OP may well find their insurance gets cancelled.

 

If the OP finds insurance expensive after a drink-driving conviction, I doubt they'll be happy with the cost with both a drink-drive conviction and an insurance cancellation occurring after they'd served their ban .......

[BazzaS]

Us ex-DrinkDrivers get shafted left right and centre on insurance, so hoping to avoid if at all possible.

 

Yup, car insurance is expensive.

Putting aside the misery drink drivers can cause by killing people or injuring them in accidents, the cost of car insurance has many factors increasing it. (I almost said 'driving it', but well, you know what I mean ...)

 

One of those factors is the cost caused by drink drivers.

So, sympathy for those affected by high premiums, but I doubt those with convictions for drink-driving will be high up on the list for sympathy.