[Woody80]

Driving home a couple of nights ago and someone stopped randomly in front of me (on a residential street), paused and then popped it in reverse.

I was a little taken by surprise seeing as there was no indicating and she decided she was parallel parking. Started reversing straight at me so I walloped the horn (wish my reaction had been hit reverse quickly dammit). Despite me sitting with headlamps on, having followed the other car for 0.25 miles down the road, holding the horn or and her parking sensors going crazy, she ploughed into me

I then jumped out, ran to her window and asked what she was doing reversing into me (words to that effect!) and she denied it - claimed it was just her parking sensors beeping. WTF!

Luckily there were 2 witnesses walking by so I got their details.

Anywho...... Seems like she gave me a dud contact number so the insurance are struggling to get hold of her to admit liability. I also think she won't as she was adamant it wasn't her fault, despite me being stationary! They have spoken with the witnesses though who've backed me up.

Is this enough or will the third party need to hold their hand up? Also my insurance want my car to go to VW for repair - it's just made a mess of the front bumper but I guess it'll need completely respraying. Will it matter being VW? I'd guess any decent paint shop is fine and they have to do it to OEM standard so it's not worth me arguing?

Little worried that its seemingly going through the motions of being sorted but there is no liability admitted so it could all end up back on me? This would also include hire car fees with a like for like car (although there isn't currently a 335d on the market?).

Anyone with experience of similar? It's been years since I've ever had to deal with insurance other than renewals or adding mods to policies!

Pics will follow

[Kerr]

Do you have the registration plate for the car?

You can contact the DVLA or use askmid and for a small fee they will tell you the registered keeper.

[dubdemand]

Gutted and sorry to hear the 3rd party is a complete lowlife. I'd also get the Police involved as you have been given false details.

I'm sure as the policy holder/vehicle owner you have the right to insist who repairs your car... I'd push them on this one too.

Good luck!

[Woody80]

Forgot to mention that I do have the plate and she was parking outside her house so the dodgy number won't get her far!!

I'm just worried my car will go off for repair and if she denies fault I'll end up with the bill including extortionate hire charges?

[SBE92LCI]

Had exactly the same happen to me however I wasn't in the car at the time i.e. someone reversed into me and then drove off. Luckily a guy on the way to work saw the whole thing and due to having an independent witness present, the 3rd party's insurance company admitted liability and my car's currently getting repaired now.

Definitely inform the Police.

In terms of repairs - wait for the body shop to confirm it is all being dealt with between them and the 3rd party's insurer. That way you effectively just drop the car off, get the repairs done and pick it up again - leaving the whole matter of payment between the body shop and the 3rd party's insurer. If you have to pay hire car charges, make sure to keep the receipt / invoice as my insurer was adamant that should I incur any additional charges, to pass it back to them and they would reclaim it from the 3rd party's insurer. Their main point was that I shouldn't be left out of pocket based on the actions of someone else.

Do you have legal cover on your insurance?

[Josh1a1h]

If you have her plate details... and her addresss...I always take a quick picture of their driving licence.
Sounds like a slam dunk though with witnesses!

Definitely inform the police and mention that to your insurance with a case number. It looks terrible for her for giving you a false number

[MEGA]

Just contact Her insurance directly (ask yours for the details, notify them of an accident - but tell them you don't wish to file a claim at this time), explain, tell them you have 2 independant witnesses, and ask them to authorise repairs to your vehicle.

As it sounds pretty open and shut you won't have problems.

[CJPJ]

You never know, she might have got the number wrong in the panic and disorientation of the moment. I've often transposed my mobile number when distracted.

[TheCake]

Originally Posted by MEGA

Just contact Her insurance directly (ask yours for the details, notify them of an accident - but tell them you don't wish to file a claim at this time), explain, tell them you have 2 independent witnesses, and ask them to authorise repairs to your vehicle.

As it sounds pretty open and shut you won't have problems.

This sounds like good advise to me. Notifying the police is a formality too I guess these days. 2 independent witnesses is the key to a successful claim. Too easy for the other driver to deny it happened and then insurance company will just go 50/50...

[telewebby]

Originally Posted by MEGA

Just contact Her insurance directly (ask yours for the details, notify them of an accident - but tell them you don't wish to file a claim at this time), explain, tell them you have 2 independant witnesses, and ask them to authorise repairs to your vehicle.

As it sounds pretty open and shut you won't have problems.

still get hit with possible insurance price come renewal due to having an accident

good luck in getting it sorted

Alex

[Mrsammyp]

I personally would get the repairs done by your own insurer (at the approved repairer of your choice) and then they will in turn chase for payment from her insurers.

You have enough evidence to prove that she is at fault and your insurer will have more resources to reclaim the money back.

You may have to pay out the excess to start with but you will be able to claim that back also.

[SBE92LCI]

Originally Posted by Mrsammyp

I personally would get the repairs done by your own insurer (at the approved repairer of your choice) and then they will in turn chase for payment from her insurers.

You have enough evidence to prove that she is at fault and your insurer will have more resources to reclaim the money back.

You may have to pay out the excess to start with but you will be able to claim that back also.

I wouldn't.

I've been told (by my insurer) that unless you have protected no claims, having it done by your own insurer will affect it. Having it completed by the 3rd party's insurer won't.

[imygaf]

Use a third party accident management company. U dont need to involve yoiur insurance so no claim and no risk of premium increase. They will deal with everything. It wont cost u a penny.

I used accident exchange before and would recommend them but im sure there are others.

[Mrsammyp]

Originally Posted by SBE92LCI

I wouldn't.

I've been told (by my insurer) that unless you have protected no claims, having it done by your own insurer will affect it. Having it completed by the 3rd party's insurer won't.

Your no claims bonus would only be affected if the third party insurer disputed liability in part or in full and as such your insurer would have to pay out the claim. This would be classed as a fault claim against you.

However, if the third party admitted liability (which the OP has a good case for), your insurer would repair your vehicle, sort out a hire car (if needed) and charge this back to the third party. This would be classed as a non-fault accident and you would not lose any no claims bonus.

I'm sure your insurer would prefer for you to deal direct with the 3rd party as this means little or no work for them but trust me you will be in a better position dealing via your own insurance company.

[Mrsammyp]

Originally Posted by imygaf

Use a third party accident management company. U dont need to involve yoiur insurance so no claim and no risk of premium increase. They will deal with everything. It wont cost u a penny.

I used accident exchange before and would recommend them but im sure there are others.

This would still be classed as a non-fault accident and you would need to disclose it as a material fact to your present and future insurer, it may or may not incur an additional premium but if not disclosed, your insurer are well within their rights to void a future claim.

[Kerr]

Even when you aren't at fault, you still have to disclose the accident and you see an increase in your premium.

Some duff advice on here.

[SBE92LCI]

Originally Posted by Kerr

Even when you aren't at fault, you still have to disclose the accident and you see an increase in your premium.

Some duff advice on here.

Not sure if that's aimed at me or not...

If it is - I'm not saying you don't have to disclose the accident come renewal time if you allow the 3rd party to cover the cost of the repair directly, just this way, your no claims won't be affected. The number of accidents / incidents and your period of no claims are two different aspects of an insurance application and therefore independent of each other.

If it's not - please ignore the above and pretend I never responded.

[SBE92LCI]

Originally Posted by Mrsammyp

Your no claims bonus would only be affected if the third party insurer disputed liability in part or in full and as such your insurer would have to pay out the claim. This would be classed as a fault claim against you.

However, if the third party admitted liability (which the OP has a good case for), your insurer would repair your vehicle, sort out a hire car (if needed) and charge this back to the third party. This would be classed as a non-fault accident and you would not lose any no claims bonus.

I'm sure your insurer would prefer for you to deal direct with the 3rd party as this means little or no work for them but trust me you will be in a better position dealing via your own insurance company.

This isn't my, albeit limited, understanding. This being that if your insurer pays anything towards the claim, regardless of whether you claim this back in full or not, it counts against your period of no claims. Completely accept it may differ from insurer to insurer - hence why my understanding of the whole issue is limited.

OP - I'd ring your insurance company and discuss both options with them i.e. what happens if they pay for the repair and then reclaim the cost from the 3rd party v. the 3rd party directly paying for the repair.

[Frobius]

Even if you go through the 3rd party insurance you still have to declare it as an 'incident'. Shouldn't affect your no claims as its a non fault, but they can still increase your premium.

No claims bonus is just a percentage discount off your original premium, if you are involved in an incident, your original premium can go up.

Case in point, I drove into the back I someone recently. Only very lightly but here were a few scratches and so we exchanged insurance details. Now.. His car already had a hole in the back bumper skin, so I took pics and gold my insurer for fear that he'd try and claim that damage against me too, bumping up the claim.

So, if he claims against me, it goes down as a fault claim. Normally I'd lose my ncb, but I have protected so that should be ok. My original premium will still go up a fair bit though.

Second situation, he doesn't claim against me - its been three weeks and heard nothing, I'm hopeful! My insurer says if that's the case, the incident would be recorded as a non fault incident with a zero claim value. Doesn't matter that nobody had claimed, the incident is still recorded. While said non fault incident with zero claim value might not affect an ncb, it may yet increase my future premium - and his! Any 'incident' you have, regardless of fault increases your risk profile. This is the case if you go through your insurer, the third parties, or even one of the hyper claim inflating management companies! The original incident still happened and you have to tell your insurer!!

[Mrsammyp]

Originally Posted by SBE92LCI

This isn't my, albeit limited, understanding. This being that if your insurer pays anything towards the claim, regardless of whether you claim this back in full or not, it counts against your period of no claims. Completely accept it may differ from insurer to insurer - hence why my understanding of the whole issue is limited.

OP - I'd ring your insurance company and discuss both options with them i.e. what happens if they pay for the repair and then reclaim the cost from the 3rd party v. the 3rd party directly paying for the repair.

I don't mean to be rude in anyway but I work in the insurance industry (unfortunately).

I'm not sure who the OP is insured with but I know alot of people on here are insured with admiral so I will use references from their policy working to answer the OP's original questions, obviously this will vary (slightly) from insurer to insurer but may help other people out in the future...

Approved Repairer

"If you do no use an approved repairer We can not provide you with a courtesy car"

"You will need to get two estimates from (your chosen) repairers, if we think the repair estimate is unreasonable, we may arrange for your car to be moved to an alternative repairer"

In the OP's case (if he was insured with Admiral) he would be able to use an alternative garage to VW but would need to obtain two quotations, if the quotation was "unreasonable" then he would need to use somebody else. If he did use somebody else and he needed a courtesy car, he would need to rely on his chosen garage providing him with one.

No Claims Bonus

"Claims that don’t affect Your Bonus

■■ payments made for windscreen damage
■■ payments for emergency treatment fees
■■ claims which aren’t Your fault where We have recovered all of our money"

As long as the insurer was able to recover all of the money for the claim, I.e the third party insurer admitted full liability then he would not lose any no claims bonus. As others have said,although he will still receive a discount for no claims bonus, he may incur a loading on the premium due to a non-fault accident although this is normally a nominal amount.

In regards to the witnesses, the third party insurer will contact the women and ask her what happened, they will then decide whether she is to blame in part or in full. Obviously if her account varies completely from what you and your witnesses describe then they may have to look further into it. Based on the information you have provided and that you have independent witnesses, the insurer should admit liability fairly quickly.


If the OP can provide me with his insurer, I'm happy to have a look at the wording and answer any questions.

Thanks

[G82Dude]

Originally Posted by Woody80

...I then jumped out, ran to her window and asked what she was doing reversing into me (words to that effect!) and she denied it - claimed it was just her parking sensors beeping. WTF!

Just reading through the thread, interesting then that she "heard her parking sensors" (i.e. your horn) but continued reversing regardless anyway.

And as you say, if she was parking outside/near her house, it won't take too much to work out where she lives and knock on her door.

[Woody80]

Quick update, I've followed up with my insurers (Admiral as previously guessed!), they seem to have confirmed with a witness that it wasn't my fault, unsure if they've spoken with the 3rd party though.

Car has been assessed by VW, they're proposing just painting the damaged corner and relacquering the whole bumper? Is this usual rather than painting the whole thing?

I do have protected no claims so really hoping I don't get an increase on my premium as its up for renewal in 3 weeks! Poor timing!

I'm due to drop the car off on Thursday and collect a hire car, think I will check that they are definitely claiming off the third party first though! Don't want a big bill back on my insurance!

Not sure what like for like car they'll be able to provide seeing as its not a current model?