7yr old crashed bike into car-what happens?

cwcw

Selden wrote: »

If I was the neighbour I would certainly hope that you would - your child, your responsibility, whatever the law may say.

Hear, hear.

Inverita

i think the point that Seldon made yesterday supports my earlier statement. Dont get me wrong i was just stating the situation in regard to legal liability. I understand the view that legal liability aside some would want to look at the neighbourly or moral view and often that does prevail and we make things right that perhaps technically we dont have a liability for. i support this as much as i do the legal position. In summary...i dont think there will be a liabilty here but if its expensive best to let the insurer sort it out. If not too expensive and you think there is a moral duty then do what good neighbours tend to do which is help where you can.

lisyloo

The neighbour can sue the 7 year old for his pocket money he wants.

Wouldn't the home insurance cover the entire family and include the childs liability?

This is purely a legal/curiosity question avoiding any moral stuff.

dogbot

Home insurer covers the policyholder(s) and the permanent residents of the home (sometimes just family perm resident) - so includes the son.

They may provide cover for this BUT one things has been ignored - the owners of the cycle. They could be argued to be negligent here as they have allowed a cycle they knew to be defective to be used, which may have contributed to the loss suffered by the car owner.

Either way, the car owner (and his insurer if he claims via them to get it fixed) can expect to get the money back.

OP, you won't pay an excess on the liability section of your home insurance. Once the car owner decides if he is going to get it repaired or go via his insurer to get it repaired, and a full quote is obtained, you can make a decision on whether you are going to pay or claim on your liability section.

If your insurer feels the cycle owner was negligent they will attempt a recovery from them or their own insurer.

Your home insurer will only cover you for legal liability - make the claim and they will decide if there is liability (and where it lies). If not, they won't cover you for "moral" liability, so you might be stuck paying up. Hopefully it will just polish out?

Aletank

Similar happened to my car years ago - The girl that damaged my car, her father came to see me and had my car repaired for me.
You should sort the repair out with the lease fuss and hassle to the car owner ! :mad:

marc1

!!!!!! quick edit - I think i got this wrong - the bike is not owned by the neighbour !!!! - sorry.


Firstly, agree with all who say play the good neighbour. But your neighbour needs to be mindful that this bike was probably a MAJOR LIABILITY. The shoe would really be on the other foot if your son was in hospital due to the failure of this boy's brakes, wouldn't it now? So all those saying "pay the bill and stay a good neighbour", what would you say then?

To the OP:
If you had taken your son straight to hospital, you'd now have a medical report detailing the accident (I am shakey on UK procedures, this is my experience from living on the continent) which would (A) be of some benefit if you get sued e.g. as a key detail to give to your liability insurer , and (B) would serve to remind the neighbour either in a friendly chat or otherwise, that he has some liability (sensu lato) in this too.

In a hard core exchange of law suits, a medical/accident* report might also give you ammunition to (counter-)sue the bike manufacturer or the bike maintainer (bike shop or more likely, the neighbour).

If I was looking at 100's quid damage to neighbour's car, I'd pusue a compromise; (hand)write him a polite letter outlining the above AND that accidents do happen.

Marc1

PS *accident report: someone posted the police would not be interested as incident too minor? Again, I would have thought they have to at least take details and enter it as an accident in the records somewhere, no?

bingy_burge

Just to throw another option into the mix.

Smart repair company like chips away will paint the effected area. This should be less than £100

lisyloo

Depends how big it is.
We had a bike scratch our car all the way along i.e. 4 panels.
Would have cost something like £800 to paint front, rear and 2 door panels.
"chips away" and the like are not suitable for this type of repair certainly not on larger arears and if you have metallic paint and are fussy about your car then I wouldn't go for more than a few inches (have had actually experience here).

But for a small scratch I agree, the whole panel does not need paiting.

I can see that if you had a brand new car you'd want it sorting, but for a lot of cars T-cut or a local repair should be fine.
"chips away" are a mobile franchise that come out with a van and do it locally for about £100.