What to do when someone says they'll pay for car damage privately then won't

Mojisola

levyuk wrote: »

Just before Christmas someone scratched my rear bumper. They left me a note with name and phone number. In the note they admit guilt. After contacting them they said they'd pay without going to the insurance company.

I had the work done to fix the problem but now they want to go through their insurance. The work was less than £200 so it seems odd to me as the excess and change in insurance price would surely make this not worth while.

What do I do? I don't want my insurance to be affected.

The other person is hoping you'll just forget the whole thing because of the effect on your insurance.

neilmcl

levyuk wrote: »

I did think about small claims court as he admitted guilt.

The TP would simply pass on any correspondence to their insurer and they'll deal with it. You may as well contact them yourself.

Spicy_McHaggis

levyuk wrote: »

I did think about small claims court as he admitted guilt.

I'd contact his insurance first, don't mention the repair.

If the policy number is wrong and he denies this how will you proceed?

Where will you serve the papers?

If he turns up at court, denies everything and provides a different phone number what evidence have you got?

colino

Not a problem, ask for your bill to be paid (as agreed) within seven days and if it is not forthcoming, small claims.

dacouch

Marktheshark wrote: »

Your insurance company could cancel your policy if you report it this late as you breeched the contract in not informing them of any accidents or incidents.
If they do, it will cost more than £200 in the long run.

Personally I would send a letter before action and then court papers.

Incredibly unlikely for a non fault accident such as this

harveybobbles

I was in this position a few years ago and got quotes from several garages before asking the person to cough up the money.

She then refused, saying the quotes were too high and invited me to get her mate to do the work.. So I went to see him and he gave me a quote, which was inline with the quotes I got.

She then still refused to pay.

I then said I would happily get a 2nd hand bumper to kee pcosts down and get her mate to spray and fit. But she still refused.

So I went to her insurance company direct and got paid nearly £700 to get the repairs done.

OP - why did you get the repairs done before they coughed up?

gilbert_and_sullivan

Yes i would go small claims too, can't abide people who's word means nothing, at same gutter level as politicians who utter cast iron guarantees of zero value.

Whether you'll get any money out of this low life is questionable, but getting a judgement against them should give them a headache in due course when they want to borrow money, hopefully they'll end up having to go to the sharks @ massive interest rate.

trailingspouse

If you've got comprehensive cover send the claim for the damage to the car to your own insurers, and any other out-of-pocket expenses (mileage to the garage, hire car, bus/taxi fares, excess, whatever) to the third party insurers. They'll then sort it all out between themselves. No need for small claims court.

I would always, always go through insurers.

Aretnap

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Yes i would go small claims too, can't abide people who's word means nothing, at same gutter level as politicians who utter cast iron guarantees of zero value.

Whether you'll get any money out of this low life is questionable, but getting a judgement against them should give them a headache in due course when they want to borrow money, hopefully they'll end up having to go to the sharks @ massive interest rate.

Sorry to spoil your revenge fantasies but if you issue a claim against him he will (or should) just pass it on to his insurers who'll settle the claim for him with no effect on his credit rating. There'll then be a record of the claim and accident in insuranceland so you'll have to declare the accident going forward, or risk the non disclosure coming back to bite you in a big way.

OP - you basically have two options. If you really don't want to tell your insurer then take the repair costs on the chin, and hope he hasn't told his already. Or make a claim through his insurance company and be prepared to declare the accident going forwards. There's nothing you can do to force him to pay without involving insurance companies.