Touched other car by opening door

butch_dingle_2

lolarentt wrote: »

You need to go through your insurers if they have gone to theirs. Supermarket car park scrapes are invariably settled on a knock-for-knock basis ie your insurer pays for yours and they for theirs - presumably you have a very small quantity of paint missing from your door edge, as they had a small piece of your paint on their car, so you would need to get a quote for (obviously non-essential) repair and your insurer will counter-claim..

how can it be settled on a "knock for knock" basis if the other party wasnt even anywhere near their car at the time ?

bottom line, its their car and they can choose to have it repaired in anyway they see fit. You have already admitted liability so it ends there.

There are also an amazing number of "tcut" experts on here who can tell how to fix a problem without first seeing it. if this was a new car and the OP's wifes carelessness has caused the skin to be broken on the damaged car, it could cost several hundred quid to put right. I know where I would be telling you to shove your tcut in that case.

Wig

butch_dingle wrote: »

bottom line, its their car and they can choose to have it repaired in anyway they see fit. You have already admitted liability so it ends there.

They can't actually, legally they have to mitigate their losses. And if that means it can be wiped off with petrol + polished and if after that it leaves no indication of it ever having happened then that's all they can claim for - legally.

There are also an amazing number of "tcut" experts on here who can tell how to fix a problem without first seeing it. if this was a new car and the OP's wifes carelessness has caused the skin to be broken on the damaged car, it could cost several hundred quid to put right. I know where I would be telling you to shove your tcut in that case.

Which is why people are best off just driving away if this happens. If you want someone to blame, blame the companies who pack us in like sardines into spaces too tight.

Idiophreak

Wig wrote: »

If you want someone to blame, blame the companies who pack us in like sardines into spaces too tight.

Bad drivers will still park 2" from the car next to them, so how does that help?

Wig

Idiophreak wrote: »

Bad drivers will still park 2" from the car next to them, so how does that help?

I have been in a space where I was only given 2" either side of my car but my car was still within my own marked bay. How did I get out? Before I drove in I opened the hatchback and I climbed out through the boot.

But that was of course not normal, however it can be quite normal to only be given 8" - 12" either side of your car. Clearly not enough room. So you ask me

"How does it help to complain to companies who provide sardine spaces?" Well I would have thought that was obvious, it makes them increase the size of the spaces. If everyone has large bays no one is going to park near the border of their bay so no one will have a 2" gap.

lisyloo

They can't actually, legally they have to mitigate their losses. And if that means it can be wiped off with petrol + polished and if after that it leaves no indication of it ever having happened then that's all they can claim for - legally.

The quotation for the repair will have come from the insurers recommend/accredited repairers.

If the repair is being blown out of all proprtion then it's up to the OP to prove it.

Do you have any practical suggestions as to how they could do that?

I don't think any of us can categorically state whether the £300 quoted is fair or not or whether it can be wiped off with petrol or T-Cut as none of us has examned the car.

Wig

lisyloo wrote: »

The quotation for the repair will have come from the insurers recommend/accredited repairers.

Not neccessarily.

If the repair is being blown out of all proprtion then it's up to the OP to prove it.

Yes

Do you have any practical suggestions as to how they could do that?

If the OP was (or knew a friend who was) a qualified accredited consultant engineer or vehicle bodywork specialist, OP could arrange for an inspection of the damage to be done before agreeing to any work done. Of course the claimant could do the work before and then OP would have to prove retrospectively which would be impossible.

I don't think any of us can categorically state whether the £300 quoted is fair or not or whether it can be wiped off with petrol or T-Cut as none of us has examned the car.

We can only go on what the OP has said so far, that the paint on the car was the size of this dot * and had not caused any dent.

lisyloo

If the OP was (or knew a friend who was) a qualified accredited consultant engineer or vehicle bodywork specialist, OP could arrange for an inspection of the damage to be done before agreeing to any work done. Of course the claimant could do the work before and then OP would have to prove retrospectively which would be impossible.

Helpful advice.
I think the OP needs to ask questions or get an inspection arranged ASAP before the evidence has dissappeared.

Idiophreak

Wig wrote: »

If everyone has large bays no one is going to park near the border of their bay so no one will have a 2" gap.

At work we've got plenty of space either side of the cars. There's always someone who parks right on the line...Always.

lisyloo

At work we've got plenty of space either side of the cars. There's always someone who parks right on the line...Always.

I know it's annoying but however stupid they are you sill have a duty of care.
That means you should take care to avoid damage.
This might mean climibing across, trying to find them to ask them to move or moving the car before getting passengers in or out.

In extreme cases you would need to get home another way and ask them to pay your train fare or taxi fare.

You are not justified in damaging their car.

I fully appreciate this is very annoying but you STILL have a duty of car, even to complete numptys.

Just also wanted to add that my husbands car was recently damaged in a car park. I would say damage to the bumper (scrape on the corner) is about a foot square.
The costs to get this fixed are £230 including about £70-£80 worth of paint.
I presume the costs for removing the part, use of the oven, minimum paint order and re-assembly are fairly fixed costs regardless of the size of the area.
The person that damaged our car did not leave their details which personally I think is quite annoying.
I know my husband would not have parked ridiculously close to anyone else's car. Not least because he is rugby player proportions and get's very annoyed when people only give him the room of a size zero super model to get in and out.
This was on the corner of a bumper so done when someone was manourvering.

Wig

Idiophreak wrote: »

At work we've got plenty of space either side of the cars. There's always someone who parks right on the line...Always.

:rotfl:There's always one!

Calling them to move their car might encourage them to park properly in future. Problem occurs if it's the boss.

However, just had a thought.

It still only becomes a problem if the bays are too narrow. What you are saying is that the car in the next bay when parked in the centre of the bay cannot open the door if a car nextdoor is parked on or near the line. This indicates to me the bays are too narrow.