Partner bumped into old lady

andydunf

Hello,


My partner was driving our car around a round-about and bumped into the old lady in front. She wasn't going any faster than 10MPH. Our number plate suffered a crack down it which was the only damage on our part.


Her car suffered a little dent in her bumper. The woman is quite old (75+) and said she had to go speak to her Grand Son before deciding what to do.


We obviously want to settle this without involving insurance companies as we thought the damage was minimal. We phoned her yesterday and she said she would take £200 'to make life easier'..


Obviously this is outrageous as I'm not handing over £200 to someone because of a little dent in her bumper on an old 2002 Nissan Micra.


We then asked her to take it to a garage to tell us the actual cost of the damage and she phoned us back today saying the damage will cost £300 to fix as apparently the Spare Wheel has become wedged in with the bumper due to the high speed collision at under 10 MPH.


Do I just bite the bullet and phone my insurance and get it dealt with this way and face the increased cost of insurance for the future?


Nothing worse than someone trying to rip you off this close to Christmas?

Apples2

Offer her £100 and a bottle of sherry...or let the Insurance company deal with it.

Balance what they are asking against your excess and increased premiums.

Daz2009

A low speed impact can often cause more damage than you think.
The bumper would more than likely been pushed in and then popped back out again.In doing so there could be damage you can't see unless you look inside the boot or from underneath.
I have seen cars with very little visible damage to the rear bumper but with the rear panel and boot floor crushed

ACG

Also, its likely her premiums will increase in future.

This happened to me, a neighbour bumped into me, completely his fault which he admitted and my insurance is more now because of it.

His choice to report it, not mine.

mcjordi

she knows she has you by the short and curlies.. tbh i think i would get her to sign a full and final settlement agreement and give her the 200 after all she could claim allsorts from the insurance

gilbert_and_sullivan

Fair enough, now following the advice of her son she'll probably get on to a firm of accident solicitors and have a nice little £3k compensation claim for personal injury, whiplash, plus a new Micra on credit hire whilst her car is being repaired.

10mph isn't a nudge, it usually ends up in unseen damage.

Expect your insurance to be paying out £5k+

dacouch

Apples2 wrote: »

Offer her £100 and a bottle of sherry...or let the Insurance company deal with it.

Balance what they are asking against your excess and increased premiums.

You only pay your excess if you're claiming for damage to your own car

McKneff

Your partner was 100 % to blame for this accident.
Have you seen this 'little dent' in the bumper or has your partner just told you it was a 'little dent.'


Personally, I would be going through the insurance, as someone pointed out, she has 3 years to bring a 'whiplash' claim.


Just also as an aside, it is in every insurance companies terms and conditions that you should inform them of any incident. Otherwise, if they find out in the fullness of time, you could be deep in the doo doo.


If she contacts her ins. company and gives them your partners details, then you have no choice but to ring them.


It has to be up to your partner.

captainawsome

TBH I think the £200 she asked for originally was very reasonable given what she could claim for from your insurance and the inconvenience to her having her car fixed. Maybe by you being greedy for something that was totally your fault she change her mind.

(Your = Your partner)

straighttalker

OP, are you some kind of a troll? How can £200 in settlement of a claim arising from a rear end shunt be outrageous???!!!

Your partner drove into the back of the old lady's vehicle so she's at fault.

Do you really have any clue whatsoever of how much things cost? An engineer's report to assess the third party vehicle would be around £80. The accident repair centre would be charging the insurance company around £50 - £100 an hour for their services. A like for like hire vehicle would be around £40 a day whilst the third party vehicle is being repaired. Then you have the cost of the parts, paint and materials.

Furthermore, if the third party decides to claim for whiplash you're looking in the region of £3000 for a 12 month prognosis.

You're trying to settle this claim without involving your insurers and you turned your noise up at the chance to settle in the sum of £200?!?!?! You'll be paying more than that in increased premiums next year! Good luck.

colin79666

It doesn't matter if her car is only worth £200. She has every right that you get her car back into the state it was before you damaged it. If that costs more than the car is worth then do be it. You are lucky she isn't suing for whiplash or loss of earnings. This is why we have insurance, if you don't like the thought of paying up then feel free to make use of it.