Car dented by child who pays?

borkid

I just want some ideas on this, sorry for the long post I’ll try to condense it without leaving out any important details.

Friday evening my OH and I went out in the car. The road was blocked, someone had parked on the right handside and made it too narrow to pass, there were other cars on the left hand side which is where they usually park. We didn’t recognise the RHS parked car. My OH, who was driving, hooted the horn ( in total 3 times with time inbetween to allow someone to respond) another neighbour came out to check it wasn’t her causing the problem.
No response then we noticed that there was someone in the passenger seat of the parked car so OH tried talking through the closed window, it was raining so they possibly couldn’t hear so he opened the door a little. There was a child in the passenger seat who said her mummy was in number 3. OH closed the door and hooted the horn yet again. Suddenly from the back of the parked car the door opened and hit our car, there was another small child in the carwho had opened the door.
The mother then came out apologising, we knew her from somewhere else in the village. We told her about the door hitting the car. Again apologies and ‘ don’t worry I’ll pay for any damage’. In all from stopping to being on our way again was about 5 minutes.

The following morning we saw there had been damage to our car a small dent and top layer of paint. OH went to see the people involved. They denied they were responsible apparantly it was our fault as we had asked the child to go and get her mother ( we had not) this made the littler one afraid so she went to follow her sister! They are refusing to pay and claim that there was plenty of room to pass. I didn’t hear this conversation it’s OH report back. Needless to say I am not happy. We haven’t done anything else so far I need to calm down.

The really annoying thing is she could have parked off the road outside of her friend's house thereby not making the road impassible.
At least 2 young children ( one not yet at school and the other about 8) were left in an unlocked, unattended car after dark in the torrential rain for at least 5 minutes.

Thanks for reading. I know I can make life uncomfortable for the family if we reported this but until this incident we liked the family a lot.

Quiet_Spark

borkid wrote: »

I know I can make life uncomfortable for the family if we reported this but until this incident we liked the family a lot.

Reporting it won't make any odds as it will be nothing more than a civil matter.

Although you know that the kid did the damage, you won't get anywhere unless you can prove it (noticing the damage the next day isn't proof of who was responsible).

In this particular instance, you are probably better off sucking it up and moving on with life.

Retrogamer

Normally if a child caused the damage on their own or with a toy / bicycle your claim is against the child but you would have a hard time enforcing any payment from the.

As the child was in a car which opened the door then hit yours, you can claim off the other vehicle's insurance. The other vehicle came into contact with yours, by no fault of your own and caused damage.

Claiming may be difficult.
if you do it via your own insurance, your insurance will attempt to recover the costs via the other insurance company. If the woman denies it happened, or denies liability your no claims bonus and premium might be affected as they wouldn't be able to recover the costs.

You could contact the third party insurance company for the other vehicle and try and claim via them directly. If the woman denies the accident happened or disputes liability, then they might refer you to your own insurer then you're at the point above again.

borkid

Quiet_Spark wrote: »

Reporting it won't make any odds as it will be nothing more than a civil matter.

Although you know that the kid did the damage, you won't get anywhere unless you can prove it (noticing the damage the next day isn't proof of who was responsible).

In this particular instance, you are probably better off sucking it up and moving on with life.

It was too dark in the evening to see it. The car is nearly new and we heard aloud bang. The mum has admitted on 2 occasions that the door hit. I thought we'd just have to suck it up.

borkid

Retrogamer wrote: »

Normally if a child caused the damage on their own or with a toy / bicycle your claim is against the child but you would have a hard time enforcing any payment from the.

As the child was in a car which opened the door then hit yours, you can claim off the other vehicle's insurance. The other vehicle came into contact with yours, by no fault of your own and caused damage.

Claiming may be difficult.
if you do it via your own insurance, your insurance will attempt to recover the costs via the other insurance company. If the woman denies it happened, or denies liability your no claims bonus and premium might be affected as they wouldn't be able to recover the costs.

You could contact the third party insurance company for the other vehicle and try and claim via them directly. If the woman denies the accident happened or disputes liability, then they might refer you to your own insurer then you're at the point above again.

We had decided that it wouldn't be worth claiming.

Mark_Mark

When your oh hooted the horn three times what response was he hoping for, the 8 year old to move the car?

borkid

Quiet_Spark wrote: »

Reporting it won't make any odds as it will be nothing more than a civil matter.

.

I wasn't thinking about the money side here but leaving 2 young children in an unatteneded car that was unlocked for at least 5 mintes after dark is not good parenting and they need to be reminded of that. The children were able to get out of the car and wander around. The mother couldn't see the car wasn't even out side of the house she was visiting and didn't respond to the car horn, another neighbour did so it was loud enough to be heard inside of the house. We do actually know, as friends, people in the police and child services so a word in the right place might get a visit from social services.

Not even considering that at the moment we'll see what happens when we next meet.

borkid

Mark_Mark wrote: »

When your oh hooted the horn three times what response was he hoping for, the 8 year old to move the car?

We didn't know that there was a child in the car at that time. It was dark with no street lights and raining heavily it was only when we saw movement in the car we realised there was someone in. We were hoping someone would come out of a house and move the car. One neighbour did come out to check it wasn't her car in the way. If we had recognised the car then we would have knocked at the door.

Retrogamer

If you don't wish to pursue it via the insurance route, then there is no legal way to force the child to pay for the damage.
You're at the mercy of the mother's generosity (or lack of)

Mark_Mark

borkid wrote: »

We didn't know that there was a child in the car at that time. It was dark with no street lights and raining heavily it was only when we saw movement in the car we realised there was someone in. We were hoping someone would come out of a house and move the car. One neighbour did come out to check it wasn't her car in the way. If we had recognised the car then we would have knocked at the door.

OH needs to learn what a horn is for, it isn't to summons people out of the house. I bet this has wound them up and now they're not playing ball.

As said you didn't check or see damage at the time so you'll struggle to prove it was them. With a loud bang heard above the noise of torrential rain on a car roof I'd have been checking.

dacouch

You can claim directly from the other drivers insurance, their details can be obtained for a small charge from https://www.askmid.com

Do you have any witnesses?