Car Claim Help Please!

saveaholic123

Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone out there can give me some advice. My 19 year old son had his first car accident last week. He was pulling into the outside lane from stationary at a roundabout as the car infront had broken down. Unfortunately at the same time a car behind him also pulled out, but faster and the drivers tyre on my sons car scraped down the passenger side of the other car as they went past. Bear in mind my son drives a 15 year old honda civic and the other car was a new Volvo 4x4. There was no damage noted on either car at the scene other than a black tyre mark on my sons driver wheel arch. Now 10 days later they have contacted us with a view to us paying a £768 bill to replace the front passanger wheel and footstep on the passenger side of their car. I have tried to speak to them reasonably and point out that I find it highly unlikely that my sons car could of caused the damage especially as it wasn't visable after the accident! They are claiming all new parts to the vehicle even though they admit these marks could be polished out. We were hoping not to involve my sons insurance company firstly because there was no damage and secondly because of his age any claim would make his insurance unaffordable next year. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Quentin

You pay your insurance to deal with things like this, so let them.

The easiest way to deal with this is first, report the incident to your insurer, then if you hear any more from the third party tell them you do not wish to discuss the matter, and they should contact their insurer about the problem if they wish.

Should they write to you about it, just pass on all correspondence unanswered to your insurers.

saveaholic123

Thank you for your reply. Yes that is normally what I would do. However, I feel the minute we inform his insurers of the accident the premium will rise to an unaffordable level. The impact of this being he can no longer travel to work. We are wondering if he could represent himself?

Quentin

If you don't inform them, you run the risk of them refusing to renew with you should they end up finding out via the third party or their insurer, and see it as a deliberate attempt to withold information. It is a condition of your policy that you inform them of every incident like this, whether or not a claim is made.

The premium will only rise a lot if a claim ensues - and if there is a claim paid out, you can always reimburse your insurer if you want and have the claim removed from the record.

He could represent himself, but if the injured party involves his insurer, then yours is bound to be contacted. (And the third party may contact your insurer direct himself).

lisyloo

Firstly it's possible there was damage that was not immediately visible on the scene.

Secondly if this can be properly polished out then the repairer should do that and not replace with new parts, however the owners are not obliged to put up with scratches etc. so it depends on whether it can be fully restored.
If you feel the claim is fradulent then express this to your insurer.
If the other party is trying to swing the lead, they probably won't get away with it because your insurer will want evidence e.g. engineers reports, assesors reports, photos etc.

Thirdly if you try to handle this yourself, then you could find yourself in deep water later on e.g. if you don't tie it up correctly legal as a full settlement then they could come back for more later. So that's a very good reason not to try settle this yourself and as Quentin has said you are obliged to inform them anyway.

saveaholic123

Thank you for your advice. We'll contact the insurers in the morning.