Damage denial suspect - where do we stand?

croslandb

Hi all,

Hoping you can help out with your sage advice!

My partner and I parked our car in our residents car park at the back of our property (shared with a few other properties), sadly with no CCTV.

48 hours later we realised the left panel of the car had been dented and scratched quite a lot. Whoever did it knew they'd scratched it as there were hand marks over the damage where they'd tried to wipe it clean.

We noticed that another resident's car (silver) had some similar damage to its right bumper, with white paint (ours) on it and we had silver on ours.

We obviously suspect it was that car, but have no witnesses. We gave the owner the opportunity to own up but he unfortunately he hasn't, saying he'd decided to park on the road over that 48 hours any way (which we know is untrue, but equally can't prove).

We have some evidence, but is there any avenue open to us? Will our insurer investigate? Should we go to the police?

Apologies if this has come up before, I had a look through a few pages but could only see hit and run incidents when people witnessed the incident.

Quentin

Assuming the claim is limited to the damage to your car then its unlikely the insurer will pay for the forensic evidence required to match the damage to the suspect.

Without a witness this will go down as a fault claim.

See what a back street bodyshop will charge and compare with the ultimate cost of a claim before contacting your insurer as it may be cost effective to pay for your own repairs.

OnanTheBarbarian

To succeed you need to establish a burden of proof that "on the balance of probabilities, your vehicle sustained damage as a result of the negligent driving of the other motorist"

The corresponding damage, assuming it is at a height consistent with their bumper etc supports this, but ultimately it is not definitive proof.

it really all boils down to how much effort you want to put into matters from a point of view of the following

1- This incident appears on the radar of insurers and therefore you need to disclose the "incident" even if you do not officially claim for the damage from your own policy or attempt to claim directly from the insurer of the other party. - Thus increased premiums over the coming years.

2- Whether you can be bothered taking this all the way to a county court hearing - if the neighbour maintains a dispute on causing the damage all the way.

On balance, you have a reasonable prospect of success and could quite likely succeed, but I expect it will not be a smooth run to achieve the outcome you want.

On the flip side, how much would it cost to get a "chips away" style paintless dent removal repair? Assuming the damage is not too significant?

forgotmyname

Get a quote for repairs and maybe try to bluff them?

After getting a quote contact them and ask for their insurance details. Say you took legal advice and you are going to claim from their insurance and let them prove they didnt do the damage.

Either that or just dig into your own pockets for the repair?

[Deleted User]

You could just ask them for their insurance details, and if they won't give you them you can get them from the askMID website. Then put in a claim with their insurer. You do of course risk then having to declare an incident on your own renewal, but it's probably a good first step and you can always go the Small Claims Court route if their insurance company fails to pay out.

Make sure you have as much evidence as possible, especially photos.

Maybe ask if any of the neighbours saw anything anyway.