Car park incident

neilmcl

I was visiting my dad this past week and whilst I was in a local supermarket my car was bashed by another car parking up, they didn't leave a note and tbh I didn't notice until the following day when I saw the scrape on the corner of my front bumper.

Initially I though it might have been the bin men who collected that morning and I was resigned to the fact until I checked my dashcam this weekend and lo and behold I've got the incident recorded in the car park. Now here's the thing, after checking with Askmid and the DVLA it turns out the car (actually it's a van) has no insurance and it's untaxed and I have no way of tracing the driver, is this something the police will be interested in or is the only thing I can do is report the lack of tax to the DVLA?

Also how do you get through to a particular police force via 101 if you're no longer in the area?

Joewasherein2019

Pass to your insurer.

They will do all leg work.

SHAFT

You can use 101 to get through to any force or call them on their main number. You may be able to report it online or do it in person at your local station.

shaun_from_Africa

neilmcl wrote: »

and lo and behold I've got the incident recorded in the car park. Now here's the thing, after checking with Askmid and the DVLA it turns out the car (actually it's a van) has no insurance and it's untaxed and I have no way of tracing the driver

You can't trace the driver but you can get details of the registered keeper of the van for £2.50:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/v888-request-by-an-individual-for-information-about-a-vehicle

Although getting these details probably wouldn't be of much use if the RK refuses to state who was driving.
If it's only a scrape that may polish out or nothing too serious they will probably ignore it but a letter to them stating that unless they pay for the damage you will take action might be enough to get them to pay out.

chrisw

Depending on the value of the car, I'd probably just leave it and chalk it up to experience and move on. Maybe try polishing it out a bit.

Once you start reporting it, you'll need to tell your insurance company regardless of whether you manage to track down the other driver or not so it will go down as a declared incident for a few years.

neilmcl

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

You can't trace the driver but you can get details of the registered keeper of the van for £2.50:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/v888-request-by-an-individual-for-information-about-a-vehicle

Although getting these details probably wouldn't be of much use if the RK refuses to state who was driving.
If it's only a scrape that may polish out or nothing too serious they will probably ignore it but a letter to them stating that unless they pay for the damage you will take action might be enough to get them to pay out.

Thanks for that, I didn't know an individual could do this.

I've actually reported it now to the local force and they're going to pursue it, although that probably won't help me.

The thing that really p@@sed me off was the fact that I only just had similar damage repaired 3 weeks ago.

SHAFT

neilmcl wrote: »

Thanks for that, I didn't know an individual could do this.

I've actually reported it now to the local force and they're going to pursue it, although that probably won't help me.

The thing that really p@@sed me off was the fact that I only just had similar damage repaired 3 weeks ago.

They'll just pass it to the local force to deal.

neilmcl

SHAFT wrote: »

They'll just pass it to the local force to deal.

I meant that I've reported it to the force local to the incident (Lincolnshire) to deal with. I did it online.

SHAFT

neilmcl wrote: »

I meant that I've reported it to the force local to the incident (Lincolnshire) to deal with. I did it online.

Let's hope the do investigate it then. You should know by Wednesday or Thursday if the decide it's too much effort.

Jumblebumble

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

You can't trace the driver but you can get details of the registered keeper of the van for £2.50:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/v888-request-by-an-individual-for-information-about-a-vehicle

Although getting these details probably wouldn't be of much use if the RK refuses to state who was driving.
If it's only a scrape that may polish out or nothing too serious they will probably ignore it but a letter to them stating that unless they pay for the damage you will take action might be enough to get them to pay out.

And one has to assume that the Van actually has a traceable registered keeper who has not registered it to the nearest block of flats with comunal post which judging by the fact that it is not taxed or insured is IMHO not too likely