Car park non-incident...claim intimated- help please!

creased-leach

Grrrrrr.

Just over a week ago, we called into Crawley Tesco's on the way to Gatwick for munchies for our trip. Parked in an end bay. Mooched in, mooched out after killing some time. While I was doing a last minute faff in the boot with the cases, hubby finds a note on the windscreen, the contents as follows

"Commen Courtasy (sic) you have hit my car door I have paint green paint on my door.
Please forward your insurance details to me Thanks 07***********"

OK, at this point we're a little taken aback- we haven't hit a car...and our car is blue :rolleyes: Hubby is the most careful person I know when it comes to parking- when the kids were smaller he'd park a mile away from anywhere just in case they swung their door open & dinged someones pride & joy. He did NOT open his door into whatever car it was, simple as.

Add to this the following-

his car is an old Espace. It's tall- and the bottom half of the doors are entirely covered by plastics.

When we found the note, we said we'd call them from the airport. As it was, we were caught up in the post-accident kerfuffle last friday, had to walk the last mile with our cases, only just got the flight and oddly enough, the non-incident slipped our minds.

FFWD to today, and we find a letter from our ins company saying "A claim has been intimated against you alleged to have occurred on the above date.

As we do not have a record of the incident, we would ask you to call on the above number ASAP to enable us to protect your interests and to ensure you are not in breach of your policy conditions and prejudice our rights against the policy.

Any queries....blah blah...

It's soooo frustrating- as we both have spotless driving records- not even a parking ticket between us.

Hubby thinks they had damaged the car somehow, and are just trying to pin it on someone. I think there may have been another car in the space prior to ours- it was a prime spot- and maybe that hit them.

Any advice? I'm half tempted to call the person and tell them that we'd be as helpful as possible in trying to estimate the time we arrived, and that perhaps they should see if Mr T was prepared to help with CCTV...but I guess that contacting them may not be a good idea.

Can you get into trouble with insurance companies for not declaring non events?

Would you believe- for the first time in years we didn't add the DLP? Would appreciate any advice on where we stand & what the process might be.

Yours, stressed of Tunbridge wells.


:mad:

anotherbigspender

I'd just call your insurers and explain what went on. Surely the burden of proof is with the claimant when there is a dispute such as this? i.e. they need to provide evidence that it was you and your car that damaged theirs? Unless they have witnesses or CCTV then it will be a tough job.

Your insurer should fight your corner on this one though.

All the best.

Mojisola

I hope you have kept the note. They say green paint, your car is blue. End of claim.

overlander

Forget it, they just sound like chancers they have to prove it was you. Their word is not good enough, but make it clear to your insurers it was not you.

creased-leach

Thanks guys. We just dug the note out from a cubby hole, and will point out to the insurers in the morning the disparity. The car is a turqouisey blue- but so blue that I'd be pointing anyone calling it green to a test for colour blindness. And it's blue on the doc's.

I can empathise with these people if their car was hit- I'd be angry- but I'd be looking at the car and thinking, hmm, those marks couldn't have come from that, and being rational.

I'm hoping you're right that the burden of proof is with them. Makes sense to me- and I know they can't prove it.

creased-leach

Update, of sorts.

He rang the insurance company this morning, but it was just someone to take the details- they wouldn't say what sort of damage had been alleged or any other details...so it's a waiting game.

Obviously he gave them the facts & refuted the allegation completely- so I'm hoping they'll take it on board & tell the other insurance company to jog on- metaphorically, of course.

Mojisola

An elderly neighbour had this happen to her. Two people turned up on her doorstep - a mother and adult son - claiming that she had hit the mother's car in a carpark and wanting cash from her for repairs. The neighbour called on us for help. Not only was the paint on their dent a different colour to the neighbour's car and at the wrong height to be caused by her car, the dent was rusty and couldn't have just happened! To cap it all, the son was a young policeman who had found her address through the police computers! No money for them and a short career for the son. We suspect our neighbour may not have been the first one they had
scammed like this.

The people who left you a note may not be scammers. They may have come back to their car and found some damage and just assumed it was caused by you. It may not have been done by a car door. I've seen a car swing into a space badly and hit a parked car with the bumper. If that had happened, you would have known about it!

I wouldn't get into discussions about it. Just keep saying it wasn't you. The onus is on them to prove it was you. It would probably be worth taking some close-up photos of your car to show that there isn't any damage on it.

cowbutt

Whilst queuing in traffic, I was distracted and lightly bumped the guy in front. We got out to check for damage; my car was fine, but he pointed out that his colour-coded bumper had lost some paint in the incident. At first, I was resigned to a claim, but then I noticed that the allegedly brand-new chips had dirt in them, and there was no paint on my bumper or on the road. When I challenged him, he buckled, and I apologised for bumping his vehicle.

This incident taught me that there's lots of chancers out there. Be assertive, contact your insurers to put your case and resist the temptation to contact the other keeper.