Damaged Wingmirror & man gone AWOL - what can I do ????

mummylonglegs

A few months a go I was parked outside school collecting one of my children when another mum ran up to me and said someone had hit my car. Apparently a circle of chatting mums had seen it happen and the driver had stopped a bit further on.
I went to have a look. He had damaged my wingmirror. I saw the chap, got his reg number, we had fairly friendly chat and we exchanged contact details. He tried to say I was parked where I shouldn't have been (which was not true) and pleaded a sick father but (rather reluctantly) did agree that he was responsible and would cover the cost of repairing the wingmirror "as long as it's not too much" !
(The mum who had alerted me later told me she thought he was not going to stop but saw that he had been 'witnessed')

He called me later & left a message to say that he had a mate who could fix it cheaply. I tried to call him back - no answer. This went on. I explained I was preferred to get repaired at my local garage. I emailed. No reply (although no undeliverable mails came back...) I called. No reply, no reply. I got a written quote from my local garage (£162) and sent it to him, and said that if I didn't hear from him by X date I would take it in and send him the bill. No reply. I took it in and incurred the £162. Sent the bill. Still nothing.

What should I do now? Small claims court? Does anyone have any experience of this?

Any pointers or advice would be gratefully received!
THANK YOU

CHR15

You should have reported it to your Insurance company and let them sort it.

Can't see how you have a leg to stand on now.

mikey72

Get the claim against his insurance now, you have his registration, name, address, and witnesses.

anewman

Go round his house and have a bit of revenge. Since his mate can fix it all so cheaply sort both his mirrors out. HTH!

Inactive

CHR15 wrote: »

You should have reported it to your Insurance company and let them sort it.

Can't see how you have a leg to stand on now.

Agreed, the damage has now been repaired, you should have contacted your insurers straight away, you still need to notify them anyway.

Kurtis_Blue

Not sure why every one gives up so quick.

Recoded letter giving 10days to pay, then county court through moneyclaim.

DirectDebacle

mummylonglegs wrote: »

What should I do now? Small claims court? Does anyone have any experience of this?

Any pointers or advice would be gratefully received!
THANK YOU

Exactly. Go to the small claims court. If you win your case you have every chance of being awarded the cost of repairs plus your court fees and expenses. Write to the other party and demand payment within 7 (working) days otherwise you will commence court proceedings which will further increase his costs. If payment is not received within this time send a further letter which will be a Letter Before Action. This will simply state that as you have not received payment you will now be applying to the county court for a summons. In 80% of cases a LBA is sufficient for a claim to be settled before court action is taken.

County court claims (Small Claims Division) are about as simple, informal and user friendly as court proceedings will be. Your local county court will be helpful in guiding you through the process but will not give legal advice.

Make sure that any letters you write to the other party are sent recorded delivery and print out the delivery receipts when they appear on the Royal Mail website.

Not sure why every one gives up so quick.

Recoded letter giving 10days to pay, then county court through moneyclaim.

Posts crossed:)

CHR15

From HERE.

I still feel this is a lost cause without informing the insurance company whose job it is to pursue these kind of incidents.
The OP has already paid for the damage so it could get messy claiming retrospectively.

£165 for a Wing Mirror ??!!!! it could have been repaired MUCH cheaper than that. If I was defending I would source one and present the quote, probably more like £40.

Failure to respond to claim letters

If someone does not reply to a claim letter holding them liable for damages following a road accident, you should take one of the following courses of action:-

• if you have fully comprehensive insurance, let the insurance company pursue the claim. If the insurance company does not manage to recover damages from the other person you may lose your no-claims bonus, unless you can successfully sue the liable person
• if you have no insurance, or have only third party insurance, you will have to pursue the claim yourself. If the other person does not respond, you may have to take court action (see under heading Taking court action). However, if the other person doesn't respond, it may be hard to prove the case in court unless you have independent witnesses
• if the police were involved, they can be contacted to ask whether they are following up the accident and whether they have heard from the other person.

If someone fails to respond to claim letters you should consult an experienced adviser for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on the nearest CAB.
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Taking court action

Court action in England and Wales

In England and Wales, if you do not have an insurance company acting for you, you may have to sue the liable person, for example, to recover uninsured losses. Where this is the case, bear the following points in mind:-

• if the claim is defended and is allocated to the small claims track (that is most claims of £5,000 or less), you will not usually be entitled to claim solicitor’s costs, and will therefore have to deal with the case yourself, or pay for a solicitor.

For more details about small claims, see Small claims.

• if the claim is defended and allocated to either the fast track or the multi-track, you will be able to make a claim for your legal costs against the other party, although there is no guarantee you will get them all back
• whether the case is allocated to the small claims track, fast track or multi-track, you may be able to get some help with legal costs.

For more information about help with legal costs, in England and Wales see Help with legal costs, in Scotland see Help with legal costs and in Northern Ireland, see Help with legal costs.
If a claim form has been issued against you, you need to respond quickly, as time limits for entering a defence are quite short. Even if you admit you are liable for some or all of the damages claimed, you may have a good counterclaim to make and this must be done quickly.
Someone involved in civil court proceedings should consult an experienced adviser for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on the nearest CAB

Kurtis_Blue

Without knowing the damage nor the car stating £40 is very strange, £165 for getting some one to repair seems reasonable.
Paint? heated mirror? motors? mounting damage?

It would be very hard to argue in court you could have done it cheaper when you had ignored every oppertunity to resolve before action of repair.

This quote deals with ignored court letters, in my experience this would be very unlikley possibly less than 10% even with this drivers history of ignoring letters, not many people want the risk of CCJ.

Of cause if the insurance (legal cover?) wish to pursue then great stuff.

blued

CHR15 wrote: »

If I was defending I would source one and present the quote, probably more like £40.

£40?! Good luck! However £165 sounds a little steep unless it had to be painted. My parents had their door mirrors vandalised and were quoted £75 (Honda Civic) and about £80 (Audi A6). Obviously fitting and painting (if required) on top of that so add an hours labour. I ended up getting the mirrors for £20 each from ebay and a breaker and fitting them myself.

CHR15

Breakers yard, Ebay, manufacturers member forums for sale pages etc etc. depends what is broke... £40 seems reasonable to me

Unless it is a weird colour, like you said £20 from ebay.