Carpark scrape

allan1983

I have been out today, and parked in a council pay and display carpark.
Cam back to the car to find that the car next to me had had its drivers side rear door opened in to my passenger side front door.
Not dented, but scuffed/scraped and with a nice vertical line of green paint that has come off the other car, so it was deffo that car!
So far, I have taken a number of photos and noted the reg, and I left a note basically explaining the situation, and adding my mobile number for them to ring and discuss the repair 'to save informing the DVLA and insurance'

However, I dont want to do anything in the wrong way, and wonder what I should do if the other person either doesnt ring at all, or rings and is in the mood for an argument or just denies it??

Thanks in advance

Quentin

Why threaten them with DVLA? What do you think DVLA will do? They are likely to be in the mood for an argument just because of that!

And as you have experienced this incident/loss you need to inform your insurer anyway!

If you want to pursue this, then make a claim via your insurer. If they are able to get the third party insurer's to accept liability, then your NCD will be preserved and you can chase the third party for your excess and other uninsured losses.

tuggy12

I've had those scuffs and paint lines before and found most of them polish away quite easily with car polish and a bit of elbow grease.
I'd try that first.

Ebe_Scrooge

Yes, if you want to pursue it then the only reasonable way is to do it via your insurance. If you have legal cover then this should help.

However, ask yourself if it's worth all the hassle. If, as you say, there's no dent and it's just scuff marks and some paint transfer, then this should polish out with very little effort. You could probably do it yourself in half an hour. I would suggest T-cut, but you need to be a little bit careful if the paint is metallic, and in any case, polish and a bit of elbow grease may very well do the trick on it's own.

I appreciate your feeling a bit upset about it, but in all likelihood it was a genuine accident and the other person may not have even realised they'd done it. If a bit of polish will sort it out, you could save yourself a whole lot of hassle.

pault123

Really gets my goat - thick people who swing there doors open as fast and far as possible without even giving a second thought for the car next to them. To add insult to injury these are normally the people which park next to my car which is at the furthest end of the car park to try and avoid this type of idiot in the first place :mad::mad::mad:

allan1983

Really gets my goat - thick people who swing there doors open as fast and far as possible without even giving a second thought for the car next to them. To add insult to injury these are normally the people which park next to my car which is at the furthest end of the car park to try and avoid this type of idiot in the first place :mad::mad::mad:

This is exactly why im so annoyed about it, although I do appreciate it was almost certainly a genuine accident.

Why threaten them with DVLA? What do you think DVLA will do? They are likely to be in the mood for an argument just because of that!

The reason I did this was because I didnt know what I WAS supposed to do.

As it happens, upon using the 'elbow grease and polish' method, the scuff has now become two quite small grazes for want of a better description, and to be honest I cant be bothered with the hassle of going through my insurance for that.

Thanks for the replies people.

Now im just interested to see whether the 3rd party actually makes contact or not!:rolleyes:

Radsteral

i had an accident 3 years ago, and as it was the other drivers fault, the insurance gave me a citron c4 till mine was repaired...
the citroen c4 came with 300 miles on the cloc .. like new
I couldnt drive it .. was too scared that i will scrat chit and my excess was 450 quid.

Since then i cant be bothered getting a car worth more than 4000 quid-- no worries of little scraches on cramped london road where even a pedestrian can damage your car any minute

goldspanners

i have had this,but unfortunatly the offending vehicle wasnt left at the scene. so i know your pain.
with my hindsight i wouldnt have left a note ive found if you try to be nice in a situation like this you often get walked all over.
i would have taken great delight in having maybe a key hanging out of my back pocket as i tried to get between my car and thiers accidently scratching the paint on most panels of their car deeply.

vaio

goldspanners wrote: »

i have had this,but unfortunatly the offending vehicle wasnt left at the scene. so i know your pain.
with my hindsight i wouldnt have left a note ive found if you try to be nice in a situation like this you often get walked all over.
i would have taken great delight in having maybe a key hanging out of my back pocket as i tried to get between my car and thiers accidently scratching the paint on most panels of their car deeply.

or just set fire to the offending car

goldspanners

vaio wrote: »

or just set fire to the offending car

yes i suppose thats another option.

Gavin83

goldspanners wrote: »

i have had this,but unfortunatly the offending vehicle wasnt left at the scene. so i know your pain.
with my hindsight i wouldnt have left a note ive found if you try to be nice in a situation like this you often get walked all over.
i would have taken great delight in having maybe a key hanging out of my back pocket as i tried to get between my car and thiers accidently scratching the paint on most panels of their car deeply.

Is there any need for that though? It may have been a genuine accident and they had no idea, or it may have been a kid in the car who did it and the parent had no idea. I don't really think damaging the car back is the way to go.