I Hit A Dog With My Car - Advice On Court Action

propaintballa

sarahg1969 wrote: »

I really don't see the point of the posts from MollyCat and others of her ilk.

The OP has said that the dog owner accepted responsibility. The only matter in issue is how is the OP going to get the dog owner to cough up for repairs.

The OP's speed, the potential presence of mothers and small children, and all the ridicuous 'what ifs' are entirely irrelevant.

The OP just needs to know how to fund the repairs to his car.

OP, I suggest you ask the guy if he has any household insurance that might cover him – he could make some enquiries into that.

Otherwise, it might be worth finding out if he owns his own home, does he run a car, does he work, etc? That way, you may be able to gauge if he can get his hands on some money.

If he has no money, there's probably no point in pursuing him through the court, because you'll get nothing back.

Thanks for the reply, i'll definitely get onto him about the house insurance, he has a car, whether he owns it or not is another matter. When the incident happened, he gave me his business card, which had "Wine Sales" on... Then was saying on the phone that he's a pensioner, so not really sure what to believe really.

blue_monkey_2

I've not read all 7 pages but now you have reported it to your Insurance company you will have to report it for the future if you decide to change insurers.

Most Insurers will now ask whether there have been any 'reported' incidents so for the future you will have to to declare the accident for the next 5 years even though you did not claim. The thing is that your CURRENT insurer will not increase your premium and this is what you asked them.

propaintballa

blue_monkey wrote: »

I've not read all 7 pages but now you have reported it to your Insurance company you will have to report it for the future if you decide to change insurers.

Most Insurers will now ask whether there have been any 'reported' incidents so for the future you will have to to declare the accident for the next 5 years even though you did not claim. The thing is that your CURRENT insurer will not increase your premium and this is what you asked them.

Yep that's fine, if it makes a massive difference with another company after stressing what actually happened, then i'll just stay with them. There is a good chance i won't be insured for the next three years at the end of this year anyway because of Uni. Thanks

blue_monkey_2

NO worries, not getting involved with all the arguements, I broke our new TV earlier this year and thought I would find out whether it wass worth claiming but I had already reported it and so most of the quotes aked me about reported incidents, not claimed, so I had to add it at a price of £0 but it still hiked the price up with some of them.

A pheasant hit my car 3 years ago and caused over 2k worth of damage and now I am tied to Esure for another 2 years because I claimed (it is what it is there for). They have not increased my premium but most of the others do. They were the cheapest for me anyway.

As an afterthought, your own insurance company might not increase your premium if you claim because it was not your fault. Have you asked them about that?

Also, how much is the car worth? They might also decide not to pay for the repair and to write it off so there is that to consider too. They did that to my friend recently, her hubby skidded on the ice and they would not repair it and wrote it off and it was not that old. I am guessing they go for the cheapest option these days.

propaintballa

blue_monkey wrote: »

NO worries, not getting involved with all the arguements, I broke our new TV earlier this year and thought I would find out whether it wass worth claiming but I had already reported it and so most of the quotes aked me about reported incidents, not claimed, so I had to add it at a price of £0 but it still hiked the price up with some of them.

A pheasant hit my car 3 years ago and caused over 2k worth of damage and now I am tied to Esure for another 2 years because I claimed (it is what it is there for). They have not increased my premium but most of the others do. They were the cheapest for me anyway.

As an afterthought, your own insurance company might not increase your premium if you claim because it was not your fault. Have you asked them about that?

Also, how much is the car worth? They might also decide not to pay for the repair and to write it off so there is that to consider too. They did that to my friend recently, her hubby skidded on the ice and they would not repair it and wrote it off and it was not that old. I am guessing they go for the cheapest option these days.

Thing is, being young and male, losing no claims wouldn't be ideal, even if i stayed with the same company because i don't even have age to slightly balance out the increase. The car is worth about £3000 now i would say. But as i said, i have all of the parts and i'm looking at about £700 in the end, so would just need that amount.

Dr.Shoe_2

The thing is the owner was not negligent if the dog slipped it's colar. If he had let him off deliberately for training say then he is negligent.

The thing I'm thinking is that you shouldn't have been driving at 60 even if the speed limit is thus. If there are loose dogs, children or even normal, sane looking pedestrians around you should kill a bit of speed. If you didn't see the dog until it was too late then you shouldn't have been doing 60 because this means there wasn't clear visibility. What if it had been a small child? Were there parked cars around? Why didn't you see the dog in advance?...

propaintballa

Dr.Shoe wrote: »

The thing is the owner was not negligent if the dog slipped it's colar. If he had let him off deliberately for training say then he is negligent.

The thing I'm thinking is that you shouldn't have been driving at 60 even if the speed limit is thus. If there are loose dogs, children or even normal, sane looking pedestrians around you should kill a bit of speed. If you didn't see the dog until it was too late then you shouldn't have been doing 60 because this means there wasn't clear visibility. What if it had been a small child? Were there parked cars around? Why didn't you see the dog in advance?...

Can you please go back a few pages, you will see why i was doing 60... If it were a road with children etc on then i wouldn't have been doing 60 would i... I don't mean to sound rude, but i'm getting a bit fed up with people questioning my driving judgement for whatever reason it may be. It doesn't mean there isn't clear visibility, there is a ditch at the left from which the dog sprinted from. Some people seem to be thinking this dog kinda stood by the side of the road for a while (long enough) for me to see, and then kinda plodded into the road. Thanks

EDIT: I'll put the pictures here

propaintballa wrote: »

Why would a pregnant mother be pushing a child whilst walking a dog across that road?

People seem to have it in their head that this was just some normal 30mph road in a build up town, let me post a picture.

blue_monkey_2

propaintballa wrote: »

Thing is, being young and male, losing no claims wouldn't be ideal, even if i stayed with the same company because i don't even have age to slightly balance out the increase. The car is worth about £3000 now i would say. But as i said, i have all of the parts and i'm looking at about £700 in the end, so would just need that amount.

The thing is, if it means a rise of £700 for the premium for a year at least you'll have the work done professionally for you by a bodywork garage and it'll be guarenteed work too. I do understand what you mean but although you have the stuff you'll have to do the work so it might work out the same amount anyway. At least this way it is done and the car is not sitting around getting rusty and needing more work while you figure out whether he can pay.

Even Small Claims action would take 2-3 months and the car would be getting ruined more in that time. Just a thought really but I do understand as I've been in an accident that was caused by an animal and intially I was not going to claim as I could have got the parts cheap enough but this way it was done nicely and to a good standard.

I'd ask your car insurance people whether they can find out if he has a house insurance policy that you can claim for negligance on and take it from there.

Hope all works out for you in the end.

sarahg1969

Dr.Shoe wrote: »

The thing is the owner was not negligent if the dog slipped it's colar. If he had let him off deliberately for training say then he is negligent.

The thing I'm thinking is that you shouldn't have been driving at 60 even if the speed limit is thus. If there are loose dogs, children or even normal, sane looking pedestrians around you should kill a bit of speed. If you didn't see the dog until it was too late then you shouldn't have been doing 60 because this means there wasn't clear visibility. What if it had been a small child? Were there parked cars around? Why didn't you see the dog in advance?...

All entirely irrelevant. The dog owner has admitted negligence, and the OP just needs to know how to get him to pay for the damage.

Do you have anything of use to add?

propaintballa

blue_monkey wrote: »

The thing is, if it means a rise of £700 for the premium for a year at least you'll have the work done professionally for you by a bodywork garage and it'll be guarenteed work too. I do understand what you mean but although you have the stuff you'll have to do the work so it might work out the same amount anyway. At least this way it is done and the car is not sitting around getting rusty and needing more work while you figure out whether he can pay.

Even Small Claims action would take 2-3 months and the car would be getting ruined more in that time. Just a thought really but I do understand as I've been in an accident that was caused by an animal and intially I was not going to claim as I could have got the parts cheap enough but this way it was done nicely and to a good standard.

I'd ask your car insurance people whether they can find out if he has a house insurance policy that you can claim for negligance on and take it from there.

Hope all works out for you in the end.

To be honest with you, i'm not being big headed here, but i would much rather do this work myself anyway, even the way some professionals treat clients cars is just a joke. A friend of mines car came out of the workshop with scratches etc all down it... Which is a shame. They also want a further £200 for labour...

Thanks for the good wishes, i have a day off tomorrow so i'll be in contact with the dog owner