car accident - no damage and ins company has paid out over £2000

gilbert_and_sullivan

£2k is peanuts following a bump.

Hit driver rings their insurance, once they discover it's a cut and dried fault claim against the other party they sell details to accident management mobs.
Defender owner gets equivalent hire car @ £200 per day whilst the scratch on the defender's chassis is painted over the course of a week or more, there's £1400 in hire charges, £300 for painting the cross member and £300 odd for anyone else in the trough.

Its the way things are now, there was a time when the hit person and the one who caused the damage would come to a gentlemans agreement, you try and find a gentleman whose word means anything now.
Between the aggrieved who want compo (current VW Dieselgate thread), and the low life's who wouldn't pay up when the time comes we are where we are, a country where some of us feel like strangers.

walwyn1978

Exactly. Mrs Walwyn bumped another car at sub 5mph reversing in a holiday park. No one in it. Some scratches and a broken light. Total bill £1,690 most of which was hire car costs. It's the way the industry is set up now. OP sadly post 2 nails it - they don't need to inform or discuss it with you once you've put your hands up to causing the accident

TBagpuss

As others have said, just because there wasn't much damage which was immediately, visually obvious doesn't mean that the other vehicle wasn't genuinely damaged.

I know when someone drove into the back of my car, I initially thought that the damage was mostly cosmetic cracks to the back bumper. However, when it was checked out there was more serious damage to the frame and rear axle. The estimate for repairs was over £2,000.

It may also be that there was some injury - even a low-speed impact can cause an injury, particularly if the individual is vulnerable or the impact happens to be at a bad angle.

Hoof_Hearted

TBagpuss wrote: »

It may also be that there was some injury - even a low-speed impact can cause an injury, particularly if the individual is vulnerable or the impact happens to be at a bad angle.

There always is....