Parked car hit

utab007

Hello

I need some advice. Someone hit my parked car at the local park on Sunday. I have a witness who has come forward with a registration number.

It looks like they hit the car when they reversed out of the space next to me.

I have reported the incident to my insurance company, but obviously not happy to claim from my own insurance.

1. As I have a witness is my claim likely to succeed?
2. Do I require the other party to accept it is there fault before my insurance can claim from them?
3. Should I report this to the police?

Thanks

rich13348

I don't know about whether you claim will succeed but if someone left the scene of an accident without leaving details or reporting it that is against the law and if they were unlucky enough to have been seen and the witness is an impartial witness then yes report to the police. Also your insurance should be able to track down the driver through the reg. plate and claim off their insurance company.

Quentin

utab007 wrote: »

Hello

I need some advice. Someone hit my parked car at the local park on Sunday. I have a witness who has come forward with a registration number.

It looks like they hit the car when they reversed out of the space next to me.

I have reported the incident to my insurance company, but obviously not happy to claim from my own insurance.

1. As I have a witness is my claim likely to succeed?
2. Do I require the other party to accept it is there fault before my insurance can claim from them?
3. Should I report this to the police?

Thanks

1. Yes (assuming you mean are you likely to be found blameless). If you have comprehensive cover your claim will succeed irrespective of who is to blame.


2. Yes


3. You should have reported to the police ASAP and within 24 hours


Why not track down the third party insurer via askmid and see if they will sort out your claim without you claiming off your own insurer?

utab007

I meant claim from the other persons insurance. I only have third party fire & theft as it's a 10 year old car.

I don't understand why I need the other person to accept liability as I have an independent witness. Does that not mean the have to accept liability? I don't see how they can deny it.

Sure, I can report it to the police, but what will they do? I suspect very little

Cuilean

The same happened to my husband. Use your witness, because thanks to them, you’ve got a pretty good case. In our case, a third party reversed into my husband’s ten year old car in a car park. Witness wrote down their car reg plate number, and took a photo of them. Hubby phoned the insurers, who said he must report it to the police as the third party left the scene of an accident. Duly did so.

Within a week, our insurers got in touch to say the third party admitted liability and their insurers would pay for repairs. Our NCB was not affected. Our car went into the accident repair centre and emerged cleaner and shinier than it had in years. Worth it just for that :laugh:


4 months (!) later, the police wrote to us to say they weren't taking their investigation any further. We never expected them to investigate at all, but it's a box which needs ticking for the insurers, by the looks of things.

InsideInsurance

utab007 wrote: »

1. As I have a witness is my claim likely to succeed?
2. Do I require the other party to accept it is there fault before my insurance can claim from them?
3. Should I report this to the police?

1) It depends. Assuming no illegal activity was going on then it most likely will be fine unless they can convince others to commit fraud/ lie in court. It can be a case of cloned plates, an uninsured driver, stolen vehicle etc which could all cause issues and may impact your prospects of success

2) If you have comprehensive insurance then no, assuming they are insured then their insurer is legally entitled to deal with the claim as they see fit. Most insurers will deal with a claim on a without prejudice basis if they cannot get any response from their insured or they basically think they dont have reasonable prospects of success. If you have TPO or TPFT then you arent covered for your own damages and either need to deal directly with the TP or instruct someone to assist you. If you have LE cover then your insurers will do this for you or if not then you can approach an accident management company.

3) Up to you. Chances are they will fob you off saying its a matter for your insurers and at most they will send the other party a producer to confirm ownership of the vehicle and insurance. Only if there is something else wrong with the vehicle/ driver may they decide to do anything else.

Quentin

utab007 wrote: »

I meant claim from the other persons insurance. I only have third party fire & theft as it's a 10 year old car.

I don't understand why I need the other person to accept liability as I have an independent witness. Does that not mean the have to accept liability? I don't see how they can deny it.

Sure, I can report it to the police, but what will they do? I suspect very little

In your OP you said you weren't happy about claiming off your own insurance (but in fact you have no cover for damage to your own car) - though if you have legal cover you can use that to pursue your claim against the third party.


If not you can either DIY by contacting the third party insurer (#3) and seeing if they have an innocent third party claim department you can deal with. If not you can write in with your claim and quote for repairs and ask them to reimburse you.


Otherwise your options are to see if an accident management company will deal with this for you (at no cost to you), instruct a solicitor or take it up directly with the cars owner if you can trace him.