car prang etiqette

voodooesque

I was driving granny's giant old rover recently and, as I was parking in a doctor's surgery car park, felt the car make contact with the one next to it. I was going extremely slowly, and granny's car is rubber from the waist down. I stopped as soon as I felt the touch, got out, and saw that the rover's left rear rubber clad wheel arch had met the wheel arch of the car next to it. rather than try to move the rover, possibly making it worse, i went into the doctors waiting room to find the owner. there was plenty of room on the other side of the little car - so he could easily pull away to the right without making it worse.

I was obviously very apologetic and gave the man all my details - it was his wife's car.

There was a black line on his wheel arch from the rubber on granny's car. It was about 0.5 wide and 3cm long. He said not to worry, that it would easily polish off. Because I was by now late for my appointment, and because i was in a bit of a flap over the whole thing, I didn't think to take a picture.

That was a couple of months ago. This afternoon an invoice it put throguh my door for £350 from a local garage.

I've never been in this position before. Surely if there was going to be a significant amount of work involved he should have let me know?

What should I do next? I know that little mark was my fault, but there was no indentation or any other damage.

hewhoisnotintheknow

i would find that a bit cheeky as you bothered to go and find him rather than just drive off, he should of at least contacted you to say he was doing it

Quentin

As you didn't instruct the garage, they have no reason to invoice you.

You may want to settle this direct - taking into account the loss of NCD.

Alternatively, if you aren't happy about the bill, send it back to the garage telling them you are not paying and they should invoice whoever instructed them. Then pass the matter over to your insurer to deal with. Then when the matter is closed, reimburse your insurer to get the claim removed and the NCD reinstated.

(£350 is cheap if respraying has been necessary.)

MX5huggy

What does the invoice say was done? does that match with what you saw?

Silk

Quentin wrote: »

(£350 is cheap if respraying has been necessary.)

:eek:
What to spray a wheel arch ???
If the only damage was a rubber scuff .5cm by 3cm that would have braised out there would be no way I would be paying £350 unless it was Alan Sugars Roller :rolleyes:

Out of interest Voodoo who is the invoice made out to ?

Quentin

Usually you can't get away with just spraying the affected area - but with labour at its current rate, £350 for any job in a bodyshop is cheap these days!

Silk

Quentin wrote: »

Usually you can't get away with just spraying the affected area - but with labour at its current rate, £350 for any job in a bodyshop is cheap these days!

I would agree if it was a panel or a wing however in this case it was the wheel arch and although depending on the car it was most likely the exteme lip of the wheel arch that can usualy be localised very easily indeed.
Even allowing that was the case its odds on it would have been polished out. I think if it was me I would be wanting to see this £350 repair to see if there has been any paint applied

Quentin

The bill does need itemising - it's surprising it wasn't.

But irrespective, the op needs to get this sewn up - otherwise another bill might turn up unexpectedly.

voodooesque

Thanks for all the responses. Here are the answers to your questions -

The invoice is made out to the owner, not to me, so he must have been round this afternoon to post it through my door. The car is a suzuki splash.

it is itemised to the extent that it says

"remove and refit items as required
Prepare and respray N/S/F bumper and N/S/F wing
paint and materials as required"

I'm not sure why they had to take it apart, since I'd run my fingers over the mark and am certain there was no indentation.

mcjordi

remove items:
1. headlights to get a bumper?
2. indicator lens on wing?

it depends on how bad the scuff was tbh as to the painting a whole pannel but as its a newish car then it would have to be seemless repairs to not void bodywork warrenty from suzuki

£350 isnt a bad price given my local body shop charges about £100 for a wing, £120-£150 for a bumper, then theres a chance he has to blow in the paintwork. and the labour for removal of trim etc

Quentin

voodooesque wrote: »

The invoice is made out to the owner, not to me, so he must have been round this afternoon to post it through my door. The car is a suzuki splash.

At the moment, all you have is a bill wrongly posted through your door. Possibly now swept up and in the bin, or chewed up by the dog!

Legally you can ignore it.

But although you aren't just going to pay it, you know what it's all about and need to decide your response when you are inevitably contacted about it.

If not already reported, the incident now needs reporting to your gran's insurers.

If you intend paying the bill, (to avoid losing any NCB at risk), then get a correctly worded receipt for the third party to sign saying you aren't admitting liability, and the payment is in full and final settlement etc.

If you don't intend paying, then do nothing until you hear from the third party, and then pass on any correspondence unanswered to the insurers, and let them deal with the matter.