Handbrake failed and now I need a new garage door and bumper!

ceepsprice

Hi all, after some advice on what I should do regarding the title!
I parked my (newly bought secondhand) car on my sloped drive last night, after walking into my house I then heard a loud crash and ran outside to find my car halfway into my garage resting the garage door between my car and my wifes! The garage door had been taken completely off along with its wooden frame, my bumper has some damage but my wifes car was fine!
Anyway my question is do I claim on my car insurance or house insurance? I imagine my bumper won't be too expensive to sort out however a new garage door could well be over £500. Having a 4 month old baby girl and a wife who has taken time off work to look after our girl, our finances are a little too stretched to pay for the door ourselves.
Any advice please all?

agaveworm

Correct me if I'm wrong (someone will, even without my permission :T ). I recall that you can't 'sue' yourself for damage. I believe that you can't claim for the damage to your garage from your car insurance and vice versa. This is two separate claims with two separate excesses - one motor claim and one household claim.

However on a slightly different note, there was a tweak to the law that allowed you to sue your spouse - so if the car insurance is in your name and the home insurance in your 'wifes' name - you should be able to claim off the motor.

This said; I bet some mupp at the motor insurance call centre will be ignorant to this and simply allow the claim anyway.

Congrats on the four month old baby girl........

woodys_wonders

I know this has come too late, but always make sure you leave your car in gear when parked to avoid this happening.

sillyvixen

dad had a problem with a vectra like this - several hours later car hit the garage. vauxhallu
re issued their parking advice due to problems and refunded the home insurance excess a few months later after a recalled breaking inspection... prior to this my parents were considerering changing the old garage door due to security concerns.

vauxhall dont consider breaks to be a problem but advise leaving car in gear when parkin on incline.

agaveworm

????

You should have shut the stable door before the horse had bolted....didn't you know?....

nobeluk

This happened to me 12 months ago, except my car (vectra) rolled into my dining room wall. I rang my car insurance to tell them, as it was the cars fault, and they told me I couldn't be the first party and third party in an insurance claim. They asked me to phone my home insurance to see what they had to say, I rang Barclays home insurance and was totally surprised by their reply - "No Problem, you have collision cover in your policy we'll get someone round to survey the damage and organise the repair". I didn't have to provide a statement nor fill in a claim form. The repair involved a partial rebuild of the wall plus re-decorating.

My premium has since gone up and the only nagging thing is I had 'no claims protection' on my car insurance so with them it wouldn't have affected my premium.:(

No repair was needed on the car.

tomstickland

Somone at work had a problem with a newish car and it turned out that the manufacturer instructed owners to leave the vehicle in gear.

JoolzS

I can't be the only person who's read this thread that really, really hopes that absolutely no insurance will pay out for this.

I know I have to pay for insurance and I also know that part of my insurance premium goes to paying for idiots - I really hate reading about idiots getting a payout.

Julie

Quillion

My friend had a hire car a Vauxhaul Astra brand new and although they put on the hand brake it still rolled off the drive and into my other neighbours car. This did not happen till about 6 hours after he origonally parked it !!
It is something to do with the way you put on the handbrake.
You can just pull it up but i think on this car you have to press the button and pull up the handbrake or it does not work.
Sorry for your accident hope you sort this out.

keith1950

Hi, as has been mentioned by a couple of people-is your car a Vauxhall Vectra as there is a handbrake recall modification that involves fitting a new spring to the mechanism.If it is then you should be able to claim off the dealer or Vauxhall.

withabix

JoolzS wrote: »

I can't be the only person who's read this thread that really, really hopes that absolutely no insurance will pay out for this.

I know I have to pay for insurance and I also know that part of my insurance premium goes to paying for idiots - I really hate reading about idiots getting a payout.

Julie

You probably are.

Insurance is for accidents. By definition, accidents are things which happen due to a mistake or an unplanned event - something that wasn't done on purpose.

So, Julie, when you have a car accident that is YOUR FAULT, by your logic that makes YOU the idiot, so on that basis you would be quite pleased if your insurance company refused to pay out on your claim.....?

No? Thought not....