Car damaged as passenger in their car opened door

barneysl51

Hi, I'm just looking for a bit of advice for my daughter aged 22. Whilst sitting in her car at a service station a passenger in the car that parked next to her opened the door onto my Daughters car when the wind caught it. The passenger just got in the car and said nothing, my Daughter got out and saw a mark in the paint which goes down to the metal albeit not very big but it is deep. The driver said how sorry he was and it was his wife's fault and asked for some paper to exchange details. He asked my daughter to get 2 quotes and send him them and he would decide if to put them through his insurance or just pay it. My Daughter got 2 quotes the same day tried ringing him but he never answered so she sent him the prices in a text. 2 days later nothing. She rang him today still no answer. She rang back to leave a message but he answered and said after taking legal advice he's not to blame as it was windy so classed as "Act of God" and anyway the quotes were to much which they will be as the car is only 12mths old and it goes down to the metal. He also stated in was 50 50 as my daughter was parked in a car park. The trouble my daughter has it has taken her 4 years to get to a point where her insurance is a reasonable price so would prefer not to go through her insurance as this will put hers up even though she didn't cause the damage. I think he his trying to bully my daughter as she is only young into not claiming, as he will know it will affect her payments, thus he gets away without paying anything. It is only £240 of damage but that'a not the point it will cost my daughter more in bulked up insurance for the next few years. Does anyone know if he is right by saying "Act of God" and 50 50. Thanks for reading hope this all makes sense x x

bryanb

Claim directly from him or his wife using the small claims court, he will probably settle when he gets the court papers.

Quentin

bryanb wrote: »

Claim directly from him or his wife using the small claims court, he will probably settle when he gets the court papers.

As this will cost you, this should be your last resort, not your first one. (And the courts take a dim view of claimants issuing summonses before trying to resolve the issue, and will side with the defendant if he points out you haven't followed protocol, meaning that if you win you will still have to pay all the court costs of the case).

See if his insurer has an innocent third party claims department. If so see if they will sort this out for you.

If they refuse the claim, then realise that issuing proceedings against the driver will end up with his insurer defending the case, so get legal advice on your chances before proceeding.

In any case, you still need to inform your insurer (and future insurers you approach for quotes), and premium loadings usually get applied even if you are blameless.

N1AK

I'd still suggest pursuing this further. If your daughter has an address then the next step would be writing laying out the facts, what he offered to do in reparation at the time, that you hope he will decide to honour this and that if he is not willing to do you will pursue this through his insurance or the courts as required.

The premium for a blameless claim is pretty marginal (unlikely to cost more than the repair) and if she doesn't then she is allowing someone to benefit from behaving in the way this man and his wife have.

martinthebandit

£240 to repair a scratch?

No wonder he has changed his mind, I would too for that amount. I would suggest your daughter gets a more reasonable quote but I expect its too late for that

InsideInsurance

barneysl51 wrote: »

Does anyone know if he is right by saying "Act of God" and 50 50

For a start he is contradicting himself as he cannot deny liability due to it being an act of good and it also be that each party is 50% responsible each.

On the 50/50 part, that is simply rubbish if he admits that your vehicle was stationary at the time. Of cause one problem can be that people lie about what happened so if he says you were reversing into the space at the time then things get more difficult.

Wind is an Act of God however it doesnt automatically absolve someone of blame. Was it overall a fairly windy day? Could you see bushes/ trees moving in the wind? etc. If it is then clearly you need to hold on to the handle strongly enough. If however it was 1,000% calm and a freak gust of wind caused it then there may be an argument of it being an Act of God

ILW

At that price I would suspect he thinks he is being conned.
Your usual scratch man would want less than £100 if the damage is as described.

McKneff

If he is not playing ball, just send everything to your daughters insurance company. That's what she pays them for.

In any event, your daughter has to inform them anyway.

barneysl51

martinthebandit wrote: »

£240 to repair a scratch?

No wonder he has changed his mind, I would too for that amount. I would suggest your daughter gets a more reasonable quote but I expect its too late for that

Sorry should have made it clear. It may be a pretty small piece of damage but it has taken the paint back to the metal and has dinted the fold in the door thus having to have the whole door rubbed down, The door fixed then repainted. That quote was the cheapest my daughter had the other where much dearer. She also told him that she was quite happy to have the cheapest body shop to do the work.

Thanks for all the replies so far x x

zeon999

The repair costs seem way over I would expect a smart repair to only cost £50 or so to be honest.

As for blame, unfortunately for this type of situation it really not worth pursuing IMO, I would just get a smart repair done.

You could go down the road of letting your insurance legal team deal with it, but that's risky for such a small amount of damage.

bryanb

Quentin wrote: »

As this will cost you, this should be your last resort, not your first one. (And the courts take a dim view of claimants issuing summonses before trying to resolve the issue, and will side with the defendant if he points out you haven't followed protocol, meaning that if you win you will still have to pay all the court costs of the case).

See if his insurer has an innocent third party claims department. If so see if they will sort this out for you.

If they refuse the claim, then realise that issuing proceedings against the driver will end up with his insurer defending the case, so get legal advice on your chances before proceeding.

In any case, you still need to inform your insurer (and future insurers you approach for quotes), and premium loadings usually get applied even if you are blameless.

To answer your points
!, Costs can be included in the claim
2, She has attempted to get the claim paid amicably
3, All insurance companies deal with 3rd party claims
4, An insurer defending a private claim in the small claims court? I don't think so.
5, Agreed she must inform her insurer. Premium loadings can also be claimed from the guilty party.