Friend crashed into the back of my car...Advice needed pls..!

Veer

We were going for a trip to Lake District during bank holidays

Mid way through the journey at a Round about my friend who was following me crashed into the back of my Car (BMW 3 series) crushing the bumper, few dents on the back and rear axle problems(rear tyres bit wobbly at slower speed 10-40mph). His was Honda Civic and his car is damaged to a great extent making it impossible to drive.

Hence he called his insurance company for assistance in moving the vehicle (from near to motorway junction) to a safe place, when this happened his Insurance Company took my details.

My friend’s plan was to scrap the car as the repair costs might be greater than the current market value of his car.

In the meanwhile, considering the damage onto my car I was considering for not making claim against my friend as a good gesture of our friendship and just to get it repaired at a local garage at my own cost.

Since then my friend has changed his mind to Write-off rather than to scrap it. His insurance company told him that to do write-off the claim process involves estimation of extent of repair and then possible write-off / repair option at the discretion of my friend.

But since my friend is going ahead with his claim and his insurance company asked the details of my insurance company…bit worried as to

• Should I inform my Insurance company about the incident
• Should I go ahead with the Claim or not – how will this affect my friend
• If I inform my insurance company or not – how this 2 scenarios will affect my “no claim” and future insurance premium for myself.

(My suggestion to my friend was to scrap his Car and not to go ahead with write-off)

Any suggestions pls…

Retrogamer

As your friend has involved his insurance already and presumably gave them your name and registration there's a chance your insurance company will find out if you don't tell them as it will likely be logged on the CUE database (which all insurance companies have access to)

It would be silly not to advise your insurance company at this stage.

The moment your friend got his insurance company to help by moving his car, it will be treated as a claim.

The amount of money involved in the claim won't do much to his premium so you'd be as well claiming for your repairs / hire car as your friend will be affected the same way regardless

Some insurance companies will raise the insurance premium for a non fault claim, but not all do. As you're not at fault, it wouldn't affect your NCB

motorguy

An impact that may have been enough to crush your rear bumper and cause rear axle problems strongly suggests that there is a lot of damage to your car "behind the scenes".

There could be several thousand pounds worth of damage there easily.

As a "gesture of friendship", i'd be expecting your friend to admit liability and pass his insurance details to you so that you can have your car returned to the condition it was in before he rear ended it.

Aylesbury_Duck

You are obliged to inform your insurance company of the accident, but do so for information only until you know how you wish to proceed.

If your friend is making an insurance claim anyway, just get your car repaired on his insurance. You have no idea what the cost of putting your car right might be, but I suspect that from what you've described, there's a lot of damage. What's the point of you paying for that privately if it can be done on your friend's insurance?

Put the friendship aside and treat the situation as if it were an unknown third party that hit you. There's no need for it to become difficult or to test your friendship, it's just a process for you and their insurer to go through. Trying to sort things privately is more likely to test your friendship. How will you feel when you're presented with a bill for many hundreds or even thousands of pounds in repair costs? Or when your insurance company cancels your insurance because you didn't tell them?

Get it all done properly and in accordance with your insurers, then you can have a beer or cup of tea together and laugh it off once it's all dealt with. And agree that you'll follow him next time...

thescouselander

How much are you willing to pay to fix your own car? It sounds like it's badly damaged and could be a write-off itself. Surely it's best to let the insurance take care of this one.

lewishardwick

An impact hard enough affect handling? Insurance job. It is in no way worth the risk of funding it yourself.

Depending on the age of your BMW, it could easily write it off.

I was once shunted at 20mph. Bent the chassis and rippled the roof. Car was an instant write off.

System

Your car is seriously damaged, you may be surprised at just how much and the cost.

Put in an insurance claim. I doubt your friend can afford the repair if he's considering scrapping what he runs. His insurance is already knackered by his claim and the fact he has told them of the accident so anything you add isn't going to make things any worse.

Herzlos

If he's talking about having his insurance write it off, his premiums are going to go up anyway, so you're not going to be hurting him much by claiming for it too.

maxmycardagain

report all incidents, fault/non fault claim or no claim or it can come back to bite you down the line

Veer

Thank you all for your response and suggestions.


My friend was prompt and he had passed on all the incident details to his Insurance company.
His Insurance company called me directly to discuss and they provided me with a Courtesy car and processing the Claim.