Can I request your opinions before insurance claim

wifeforlife

Hi everyone

I'm hoping for some advice please. With the gales yesterday, a fence surrounding the building site where I live blew down, although blew in towards the site on my left and not on the development entrance on my right, where people had also parked cars outside their homes. As an aside it states in our deeds we are not allowed to park on the roads, we must use our drives with ample parking for 3 large cars. The mesh part of the metal fence however had fallen at a diagonal outwards and wasn't visible from the car.

I've drove in to my home and not seen this part of the fence and have a massive scrap the entire way up the side of my car from the front to the back. I genuinely didn't see how I had done it, however walked up the hill again to see what it could have been, it was only when I was standing at the fence that I noticed this.

My question is though before I call my insurance provider, can they tell me no? Is the builder responsible for maintaining the fencing, or is this an expensive lesson learnt for me

Mark_Hewitt

Depends how bad the scratch is? It might be cheaper in the long run to get it fixed yourself than to make a claim. Consider your excess and then probably losing 2 years no claims + increased premiums for 5 years. If it's going to cost less than £500 to fix then don't bother.

Strider590

Your only hope in hell is if the fence fell down while you were driving past
Otherwise they'll blame you for not being observant. Just like the guy that drove into a broken lampost recently and made an ar5e of himself on this very forum.

wifeforlife

Thanks, I've spoke with a friend who works as a mechanic although not car body repairs and he said it would cost the guts of £800 as it's the whole side of the car. I'm going today to get a few quotes, I've over 5 years no claims discount but I hadn't protected it as normally so careful.

It's still a lot of money considering insurance for the year is less than £400, it would take me a month or two to save it

I know strides, I feel like an eejit all ready, but I brought the other half out to see it last night and he never noticed it either.

Think I knew it was an expensive lesson before I posted lol

mcjordi

what car is it and what colour.. if its metallic then its possible to cost in the region of £800 for the whole side to be resprayed.. your best of asking bodyshops as a "private job"

Mark_Hewitt

For £800 I'd be swaying towards insurance on that one. But it'll be an 'at fault' claim.

wifeforlife

It's a navy Toyota avensis, in fairness its all along the passenger side so I said sure I cant see it, but my better half said it has to be fixed as it's so badly into the metal it will rust and wear badly, thank goodness I worked overtime last month

Your all very helpful, was afraid of getting sarky comments

mcjordi

the insurance may write it off dependant on the age of the car.. have a chat to some local body shops and see what they say..

Strider590

cathy2702 wrote: »

Your all very helpful, was afraid of getting sarky comments

You've been lucky I think
It's all very dependant on the first few replies, because the majority of people follow the "popular opinion". If <inset username> had replied 1st or 2nd, this thread would have been a prize teeth kicking constest.

If this goes via insurance, I strongly suggest you tell the truth, in that the fence fell as you drove past

Hammyman

LOL. I think we'll let people off for not seeing mesh in the dark. Now if it had been the posts ....
:p

Lum

Yes, bit of a difference between not seeing fallen mesh in the dark vs seeing a bollard, as that's effectively what the broken lamppost was, then getting into the car, driving into the bollard anyway and then coming here stating that the car park operator must be liable.

That said, the onus is on the OP to prove negligence. If she can't prove that the fence was poorly installed then the site owners will not be liable.