Car Park Accident :(

wingnut1_2

Dear All,

My first post. Please be gentle!

Today I was reversing out of a car parking space having noticed another car opposite me with people in it but not moving (behind). So, first point, I was reversing (moving) first.

Unfortunately he then decided to reverse, at a rather quick pace, not giving me anytime to react (pull forward). BANG! He crumped into my rear bumper. So, second point, he moved after me and should have checked his mirrors!

It doesn't help that he was in a huge Audi 4x4 and probably had a poor rear view. The damage to his car is minimal compared to the huge crump in my bumber but may cost more to repair as it is an expensive new Audi "v" 3 year old Focus.

Initially he apologised but then having gone to the car to get paper and pen changed his mind and send this will be "50/50" as he had done it before!

I would be happy to get my car repaired privately as it will probably be less then our £400 excess and not get the insurers involved at all. However if he gets the insurers involved and goes for 50/50 then we will inevitably have to pay the £400 and have a black mark against our insurance record despite having a protected NCB.

What can I do in this situation? Could I prove him at fault if I can get some CCTV footage? Also, if we both agree to go non-insurance and I get a private repair done, could he change his mind at a later date?

Help please!

Life, don't you just love it sometimes!!!

Thanks.

nearlyrich

Don't accept any of the blame as you were moving first presume no independent witnesses? Let your insurance company sort it out.

wingnut1_2

Thanks NearlyRich. No witnesses, well none that I know of, but there might be some CCTV footage as I think I have spotted some CCTV cameras in the Car Park whilst examining google street map! Mission tomorrow is to try and track down some CCTV, otherwise I think I am stuffed! I would prefer to avoid insurance company unless I can get CCTV as they will not fight my corner and it will cost me £400 (excess) rather then £200ish repair. I'm not even sure I understand 50/50 anyway. Flip.

AndrewSmith

If it's 50/50 you only pay 50% of your excess.

The key is to prove liability. That will be difficult without independent witnesses or CCTV. Even with such evidence it may still end up as a split liability decision which I have seen before in a similar case even with witnesses. It depends on the risk to your insurer of disputing the claim. What I mean is if the total settlement cost to your insurer for both your damage and the other car on a 50/50 basis is say maximum of £2500 all included then it would be unlikely they would want to dispute liability without conclusive evidence as the costs of taking it to a courtroom would far outweigh this.

See if there is any CCTV, the owners of the cameras have an obligation under the road traffic act to release footage but this will have to be requested in writing from your insurer to comply with data protection act 1998 restrictions. It's unlikely that you will get to see the footage until much later on if at all.

Report it to your insurer (as per the terms of your policy) and let them fight it for you.

StanVanDamn

Hi Wingnut,

Have a run through these points they my be useful for you:

1) The claim will definitely go 50.50 -regardless of who reversed when you both reversed into each other so you both have to accept some blame.

2) Check your excess on your policy. You normally don't have to pay this unless you claim for your own damage - are you aware of this?

3) Do you have legal expenses cover? If so you could pay for your own damage and send the bill to your legal expenses to claim back eg if the repairs cost 300 you pay this yourself, send the bill to the legal expenses and if it goes 50.50 they will claim 150 back for you. At least that way you haven't personally claimed against your policy.

Hope that was some help for you please ask further questions if you have any.

rs65

AndrewSmith wrote: »

If it's 50/50 you only pay 50% of your excess.

I think the OP would have to pay the full excess. 50/50 settlement means they will be able to recover 50% of uninsured losses ie half of excess, half of hire car etc.

Same outcome but it does mean paying £400 and waiting for a recovery.

AndrewSmith

Not always, if the other insurer will confirm at outset it's a 50/50 decision then they may take a view and only take 50% excess at any point.

Trust me I've dealt with many hundreds of motor claims in the past

rs65

AndrewSmith wrote: »

Trust me I've dealt with many hundreds of motor claims in the past

So have I and the excess is the excess - its uninsured.

AuntyJean

As there were no witnesses it will be one word against the other and your insurers will probably suggest 50/50.

This would mean you get half your excess back IF you have your vehicle repaired through your insurers. If you don't have your vehicle repaired through your insurers then there is no excess to pay (excess only applies to own damage usually).

However, if the other party goes through his insurers they will claim back half the repair costs from your insurers and he could claim back half his excess. This would affect your no claims discount/bonus (NCD or NCB).

If you don't have any protected NCD then why not suggest 'each bears own cost'. As you have the greater damage they may go for this because the other party would be paying out more than they get back (half your repair costs). By each bearing own costs you could deal with the repairs at your own cost instead of going through insurance if he agrees to do the same.

Hope this helps.

System

The one point that may not have been made clear in previous replies is that even if you and the third party agree to settle without going via the insurance companies, you MUST still inform your insurance company of the accident but tell them it is for information purposes.

Your policy is a contract and in that contract it will have some words which state that you must inform the insurance company about all accidents, losses even if you do not intend to claim.

Also, at renewal, you must declare this incident for the next 3 to 5 years, when asking for quotes from other companies.

aliasojo

StanVanDamn wrote: »

1) The claim will definitely go 50.50 -regardless of who reversed when you both reversed into each other so you both have to accept some blame.

Not in my case.

Exact same thing happened to me in a Tesco car park. Because the person opposite had reversed further over the 'halfway point' than I had, it was decided she had started reversing first and therefore I had caused the accident.

(Speed of reversing didn't come into it, so if we had both started reversing at exactly the same time but one was very slow and one was quick, obviously the quick one would get further out first, but that wasn't something that was looked at.)