How long after RTC can you claim from a 3rd party??

misterbarlow

On 13/05 this year I was driving slowly about 15-20mph along a very narrow road lined with parked cars when heard a loud bang, looking in the mirror to see a car poking out, roll back into a space..
A girl in a parked car on the wrong side parked against the flow, was creeping out with steering on full lock trying to see up the street, and hit me as I went past her.

The point of impact was her fully locked front wheel onto my front alloy, so I suppose both the rubber of her side-on tyre flexed, as well as both our steering/suspension gave way and reduced the impact..
I had a rubber streak across my front alloy from the impact, and all down the side of the front door..

We swapped details, and I then went to a hand car wash, got it washed and had all the rubber removed, then spent about half an hour checking the side but couldn't see any dents or damage at all to the body, so rang her and said to forget it...

I don't drive the car much, its my wifes, and its only now two months later I have noticed when accelerating in first and the suspension lifts slightly, when the suspension drops again between gear change to second, there is a loud clunk from the suspension of the same wheel, and when driving between about 30-50mph there is also a loud repetitive knocking noise also coming from the same wheel, possibly the driveshaft or CV joint...
Its not from other wear or tear etc, as its a 63 plate with just 5k on it, and I can only think it could have been caused from that impact...

I already rang her on the day and said she did no damage..
but I still have all her info in my phone...
Can I now just ring my insurance and give her details even though it was two months ago and I had told her forget it???

arcon5

You can but after 2 months I very much doubt you'll get a payout. They'll ask why you didn't report it sooner, why you told her there was no damage two months ago and why you think the da$age was caused by her now.
They'll probably want proof she caused the damage and it'll be near impossible to proof or even pursuade it to be probable that she did it.

She'll probably have her policy cancelled though if you told her to forget about it and she never reported the accident to them for info purposes. Can't see your own insurer being happy either if you also didn't report it.

Aretnap

In theory the limit is 6 years for a property damage claim, or 3 years for an injury claim, though in practice obviously the longer you leave it the more difficulty you might have proving that the damage was caused by the accident. As well as wear and tear you'd also have to rule out a manufacturing defect, and the possibility that someone else whacked your car a fee days ago and drove off

If you try to make a claim you'll have to report it to your own insurer even if you intend to try to claim directly off the third party and even if you don'tnsucceed, and so it would have to be declared in future and might affect your premium for the next 3-5 years. So if it was cheap to fix you might be better off forgetting about it. However if we're talking a lot of money it's probably worth a punt. I doubt very much whether either of you would have your insurance cancelled for failing to report an apparently innocuous bump at the time.

facade

If there is no sign of any damage to the car, why not simply take the car to be looked at under warranty, and say nothing about what you think may have caused it?

misterbarlow

yeah i'll just say I hit a pothole or something...

Mankysteve

misterbarlow wrote: »

yeah i'll just say I hit a pothole or something...

Your warranty won't pay out if you say you hits a pot hole as that would be your fault and amanufacturing failure.

They may well look at the damage and says it from a impact not part failure.

You shot yourself in the foot by not claiming straight away as your meant to report every accident regardless of if you claim or not your insurance company could cancel your insurance as you will have broken the t&c.

I would take it in try a warranty claim and go from there.

facade

Like I said say nothing about what you think may have caused it.

It is not your place to "think" for the dealers technicians.

Simply report the fault and let them think about what caused it.

lesalanos

I think that she would have claimed off you by now if she was going to

InsideInsurance

misterbarlow wrote: »

Can I now just ring my insurance and give her details even though it was two months ago and I had told her forget it???

Yes, though they may tell you off for waiting 2 months to report the incident. Most insurers require you to inform them as soon as reasonably possible of any incident even if its just for information purposes.

I agree with others though, in the first instance take it back to the dealer and say that the cars started doing this and see what they say.

My AC stopped working in my last car immediately after an RTA, turned out to be pure coincidence and one of the valves had failed so was replaced under warranty by VW

If the dealership say that the issue is clearly impact damage and not a part failure then thats when the claim may come in. Of cause the other consideration is what her version of events is. If she says she was static and you hit her vehicle then you'd be the one liable. If you say she was moving and there are no witnesses to prove one version over the other then its probably 50/50

arcon5

I suspect she'd also be very motivated in adapting her version of events to support you hitting her stationary vehicle or at least push for 50:50 if 2 months after you tell her she hasn't caused damage and to forget about it you lodge a claim compromising her policy being cancelled which will seriously mess up future premiums.