Need advice

gilbert_and_sullivan

The other party sounds desperate to make a few quid, and to keep it away from insurance, wonder if he has something to hide.

Hintza

I hit someone at similar speed a number of years ago in addition to their claim for bodywork they got £1,950 for whiplash. Because that part was below £2k my insurer wasn't interested in challenging it.

moneytroll

Ok, he accepted! (surprise surprise)
I now need to cover the legal side to make sure he doesn't come after more.
Can someone advise me here? If I email him a full & final settlement letter (as linked to above) and ask him to sign, scan & return it by email, upon which I transfer the monies, will this be legally tractable and the end of the matter? Or are there skeletons in the cupboard I am not aware of?

BeenThroughItAll

moneytroll wrote: »

Ok, he accepted! (surprise surprise)
I now need to cover the legal side to make sure he doesn't come after more.
Can someone advise me here? If I email him a full & final settlement letter (as linked to above) and ask him to sign, scan & return it by email, upon which I transfer the monies, will this be legally tractable and the end of the matter? Or are there skeletons in the cupboard I am not aware of?

This is a dangerous game.

I would settle for nothing less than a paper copy with a wet signature, but I doubt even that would protect you if it went properly legal.

You should, of course, also notify your insurer of the incident even if you don't intend to make a claim 'for information only', and should also declare it when asked by any other insurer. This may well still impact upon your premiums - it is your choice whether you do so or not; but if an insurer does find out that you *didn't* declare a pertinent fact, they will not be happy and may sanction you as a result.

Retrogamer

After being in the same situation as you are, i'd suggest he claims via his insurance.

There's a good chance he won't as he'll likely get an increase on his premium also.

All sorts of things can go wrong if you try and resolve it privately.

moneytroll

Retrogamer wrote: »

After being in the same situation as you are, i'd suggest he claims via his insurance.

There's a good chance he won't as he'll likely get an increase on his premium also.

All sorts of things can go wrong if you try and resolve it privately.

Can you elaborate? (What was your situation and what went wrong?)

I made a more detailed calculation and it seems I would be paying £567 more in premiums over the next 4 years to the insurance (more than I originally thought) and perhaps £200 is not a terrible deal.
Tough choice: getting ripped off by insurance or getting ripped off by another person.
If there is a signed doc, why would there be a risk though? He agreed to sign the doc. I would prefer the insurance route but the premium hikes are scary. I would understand if this was an actual accident, but in reality, I believe my car didn't leave any marks on his car and he is just taking advantage of the system. And the stupid thing is that if I don't let him, I will suffer more.

Retrogamer

In my situation i rolled into someone at a very low speed. No damage to their car. I took lots of HD video and high res pictures.

Informed my insurance company of the accident and he had no damage.
My insurance company contacted him directly and offered to assist.

Other driver got a quote from a dodgy garage for £499 respray costs to a bumper that didn't have a single mark on it and £1000 hire car charges.

My insurance paid out as if they didn't, it opened the doors for personal injury.

Reading this will probably make you wonder why you would want to do the same.
I've read a few posts on here and other forums where someone settled privately and paid out their own pocket.
A few months / years (varies) they get another claim landing on their doorstep for either further damage that was discovered later and / or personal injury. This is even with people who had the third party sign a document to say it was all done.

Insurance were notified so they ended up with the insurance claim against them anyway as well as more stress and being out of pocket for paying out initially.
This doesn't always happen but for the risk involved i wouldn't do it.

moneytroll

Wow. Ok, I guess the lack of incentive to pursue a further claim against my insurance co would be the fact that their premiums would be affected as well plus with a signed agreement, this may be a further deterrent.
I understand it still risky though.
I am still unsure of the legal position with regards to these sorts of private agreements and under which circumstances they could be invalidated.
I don't suppose it is illegal to settle things privately in general?
Perhaps I should put into the agreement that no damage was caused to their car (which there wasn't) and the money is purely for inconvenience (in order to protect myself against insurance)?

edit: though he may not accept it plus, presumably, ANY incident is supposed to be reported, even if it is just inconvenience I presume?

Retrogamer

I've never heard of anyone being charged for not advising their insurance company of an accident they tried to settle privately but it's very much frowned upon. You may (but unlikely) get a cancelled policy that will mean high premiums for life.
At the very least they'll be distrusting of you and in the result a claim comes their way months / years from now relating to something you never told them, they'll likely just pay out as you'll have demonstrated you can't be trusted by keeping it from there.

This above is purely speculation after reading dozens of claims over a few years on here and other sites.

Strictly speaking you have an agreement with your insurance company to inform them of all accidents even if there's not much / no damage.
Whether you do or not is up to you though.

If you hand over say £300 to this person to settle it outside insurance. They sign a document to say it's over and done with.
2 years later your insurance company at the time gets a claim against them for personal injury and they pay out.
What do you do at that stage?

angrycrow

moneytroll wrote: »

I called a body shop garage and showed them photos of car and damage and they quoted me £110+VAT for a full rear bumper spray so I added £50 for car hire and a bit for his inconvenience and came up with £200.

At this price you will almost certainly not get a quality respray. You say it is a merc so will be metalic paint. On this basis the whole panel will be sprayed and clear coated off the car.

Please can op post up the photo of the damage with the registration obscured so we can see the level of damage.