Neighbours fence fell on new car...

roar349

So we got hit by a storm on Saturday for all of about 5 minutes and next doors back fence panel swung out and hit the front wing of my less than 2 months old car

From what I can tell it was the last post that swung down (they were lifting the fence back into place when they came round to tell me). Looks like the bottom of the post was rotted through, they're going to see if their house insurance will cover it but reading around I'm not too confident.

Thought we'd left all the bad luck back in 2013 (broken boiler, our fence falling down, weekly trips acros the country to see seriously ill relatives), but looks like 2014 wants some as well.

newbutold

As far as I am aware you will have to claim off your car insurance. Then it is down to your car insurance to recover the money from the neighbours insurance co.

Quentin

Before claiming, or contacting your insurer, make sure the cost to repair makes claiming worthwhile.

Unless negligence by your neighbour can be proved it is likely this will be a "fault" claim if you do claim off your car insurance - meaning excess to pay, NCD lost (unless protected), and premium loading.

chanz4

They are likely to treat as act of god, in which case dont claim. Your neighbours insurance will say the same.

roar349

As predicted the neighbours insurance have refused to payout, and the neighbour who had previously offered to pay for the damage is saying they're not prepared to do that anymore either as they've got no money after fixing the fence (one post replaced, re-use of old panel cost her £300 she reckons), doesn't want bad feelings though...

OH is going to take it to the garage today to get it looked at.

flutterby_lil

This happened to my friend last year - they paid out on the neighbours insurance for her car!

chanz4

Take it a body shop will be so much cheaper

roar349

Waiting for the official quote but ballpark figure is £350-400 to repair the damage.

Spoke to my insurance and this would go down as a fault claim and they're not prepared to even try and recover the costs from her house insurance.

Not happy.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

chanz4 wrote: »

Take it a body shop will be so much cheaper

you cant just take a 2 month old car to any body shop yourself, youll at the least invalidate the anti corrosion warranty if its not a main dealer approved one.

flutterby_lil

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

you cant just take a 2 month old car to any body shop yourself, youll at the least invalidate the anti corrosion warranty if its not a main dealer approved one.

My partner has a bodyshop and repairs numerous brand new cars.

roar349

It does have some fancy scratch guard coating on it, and it was the approved body shop the OH took it to.

I kind of knew what to expect from the posts on here, but seeing as she had initially told me to let her know what it cost and she'd sort it out but has now gone back on that I wasn't overly fussed.

Looks like I'll have to take the hit