Will I have to pay if third party at fault?

Auticko1

Hello, on leaving a roundabout, a cyclist who was entering from the left did not give me way and smashed into my car (front passenger door). Luckily, he did not seem injured. He was very apologetic but refused to exchanged his details and ran off with the damaged bike in his hand! A driver behind me saw the accident and agreed to be a witness.

There is a dent in my door and it does not open properly. My question is whether I have to pay for the damage if it is third party's fault but there is no chance of me getting his details?

Thanks for your advice.

Quentin

Unless you get his details, then despite being blameless either you pay or make an insurance claim (if you have comprehensive cover).

The claim will be a "fault" claim, and will cost you your excess and impact your ncd if it's not protected.

Tilt

In addition to the above, you need to report it to the police within 24 hours. You never know, there maybe CCTV coverage of the location.

gilbert_and_sullivan

This is the ideal time to find that little one man and his dog bodyshop, preferably by recommendation.

It would be advisable to inform your insurer if you haven't already, but for information purposes...you'll have to judge what level of cost to pay yourself before actually claiming on your policy.

Problem is our dishonourable cycling fiend might just take it into his head to contact some ambulance chaser claimsRus chappie and attempt to extract some free dosh from you and that could happen months/years from now, you haven't got his details but he's no doubt got your registration number, he's already proved what sort of person he is so i would expect this.

Whatever happens your premium will (hopefully not) increase at renewal, hardly fair but not a lot you can do about that.

Make sure you write down what happened and keep carefully the witness details and pics of the damage.

Shas21

Even if you had of got his details. He is a cyclist - who are you are going to claim of? He wouldn't have insurance so can't claim from his insurance company.

If you do claim of your own insurance company if you comprehensive insurance, you will have to pay the excess and perhaps loose your no claims bonus. So is it really worth it?

Check with a local garage to see how much it costs. It may not be that expensive.

Unfortunately you may have to put this one down to experience. Dam cyclists !! (Bet if you had of knocked him off his bike, he wouldnt have scarpered so quick)

Quentin

You claim off the responsible third party if you know their details

If they are uninsured you pursue them personally.

BertTheRaccoon

If they have home insurance with "personal liability" cover, then you can pursue the claim in that direction, but there is no automatic way of finding out if they have such cover (even when they do hang around to give you their name & address details)

Prothet_of_Doom

Shas21 wrote: »

Even if you had of got his details. He is a cyclist - who are you are going to claim of?

Bring him to his financial knees, get a CCJ against him, and destroy his life, legally. He's probably got a few £10000K in the bank.

Why do you think he disappeared so quickly ? :rotfl:

Tilt

Shas21 wrote: »

Even if you had of got his details. He is a cyclist - who are you are going to claim of? He wouldn't have insurance so can't claim from his insurance company.

If you do claim of your own insurance company if you comprehensive insurance, you will have to pay the excess and perhaps loose your no claims bonus. So is it really worth it?

Check with a local garage to see how much it costs. It may not be that expensive.

Unfortunately you may have to put this one down to experience. Dam cyclists !! (Bet if you had of knocked him off his bike, he wouldnt have scarpered so quick)

So are you suggesting that just because he/she is a cyclist, that exonerates him/her from any responsibility for any damage he/she causes?

If the cyclist has no form of insurance, then you pursue them personally.

BUT in this instance, the OP MUST report the incident to the police within 24 hours.

Aretnap

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

Bring him to his financial knees, get a CCJ against him, and destroy his life, legally. He's probably got a few £10000K in the bank.

A CCJ is only a problem if you don't pay it promptly, which is unlikely to be an issue if it's for the cost of a dented door and you have the grand in the bank. You're not going to destroy anyone's life or bring them to their knees over this. Revenge fantasies aside though, there's nothing to stop you claiming from the cyclist personally - if you can find him.

As above though, if you can't find him your options are to claim off your own insurance, pay the excess and swallow the loss of (some of) your NCD, or to get it fixed yourself. Which is the better option depends on how expensive it will be to fix, how big your excess is, and how big an effect the lost NCD would have on your future premiums.

scotsbob

Most people are creatures of habit, they go to and from work by the same route at the same times.
Try waiting close to the roundabout at the same time for a couple of days, you may well spot him again.