Dented other car door .Please advice

System

Its a motability car, that means the owner is disabled so may not be in a position to be without a car for a period of time without a temporary replacement being provided, something which I doubt your "not involving the insurance company" solution would include. Being motability it also means that when they hand the car back they can be charged for bodywork damage, including poor repairs, which is why they want to go through their insurance and do it properly. They won't have an excess to pay.

Your friend is at fault, they didn't keep hold of the door tight enough. If they were worried about how windy it was and it being whipped out of their hand they shouldn't have opened it.

takman

sue23 wrote: »

Hello all,
Need all your suggesstions and advice please
My friend parked her car in a supermarket . It was a terribly windy day.When the passenger in her car tried to open the door, the door swung open and dented the other car's door that was parked next to hers.
My friend apologised and initially we thought that there was no damage to door, as we didn't think the door impacted very hard. But the driver was quick to point out a small dent in his car door and stated that was because of our door banging on theirs. they also stated because it was a motability/ lease car they can't settle it privately and have to go through motability, so insisted and got our insurance details, adress etc.so we exchanged details.

I'm unsure what we do now. Should my friend report it to her insurers ? and if so will they deem it as her fault. First of all we are not sure if the dent was caused by my friend's passenger as we didn't think the impact was bad enough to cause the dent.
Secondly it was a very windy day i.e road signs falling on the road, etc, So it was not mere passenger careessness, as he physically couldn't hold the door from opening wide.
Do we wait and see if motability contacts us or do we have to report to our insurers.
Does anyone know if the insurers will deeem it my friend's fault, eventhough both cars were stationery at the time. There was also camera in the car park.
Please advice as my friend has never been in a situation like this before and is unsure what to do

So the wind was so strong and blew the car door open with such force your friend was physically unable to hold onto it!. Yet you think the impact of the door hitting the car was not enough to cause a dent :rotfl: .

sue23

Thanks to those who have taken their time to provide helpful comments. My friend has now reported it to her insurers as her fault and has been told unless the other party makes a claim her renewal premiums wouldn't go up. So will have to wait and see.

neilmcl

sue23 wrote: »

Thanks to those who have taken their time to provide helpful comments. My friend has now reported it to her insurers as her fault and has been told unless the other party makes a claim her renewal premiums wouldn't go up. So will have to wait and see.

And pigs might fly one day. Of course her premiums will rise, regardless of whether a claim is made she will still have to declare this as a fault claim for at least the next 3 years and it WILL have an affect on her premiums.

mattyprice4004

Every comment has been helpful. We're not here to tell you what you want to hear - either it was a soft impact the passenger could have controlled but didn't, or a hard one that snatched the door from them.
They can't have it both ways!

Someone has to pay for it, and why should it be the innocent person who had their car dented from your friend's carelessness?

Good on the 3rd party, too many people expect to not be accountable for their mistakes.
They made a mistake and need to suck it up.