Will my car insurance pay out on a write off when I only scratched the 3rd parties car?

shele19

I had a small incident in a private car park where I scratched another persons back bumper and my front bumper. I believe there was also pre-existing damage to the 3rd parties car that I didn't cause purely to the low speed i was travelling and the inconsistent damage with my car. I offered to sort it privately and I was quoted £100. The 3rd party took it to a different mechanic (a friend) and was quoted £320. I then decided to get the insurers involved as I believed this quote to be incorrect. I sent all evidence to my insurer and as I admitted fault, we accepted fault. The 3rd party is now claiming the car is a write off worth nearly £2000. How do I stand with this total damage not being my fault? I am still waiting to hear from my insurer for an update.

A_Lert

It rankles, but your insurer settling a third-party's claim is up to them. Tell them what you know and what they ask for, but if they want to pay the two grand that's their choice. When repairs become an "insurance job" the costs tend to shoot up a lot. Partly because the repairs are usually done to the highest standard, whereas if you were paying out of your own pocket you might settle for "good enough".

frederick1950

Its really your own fault for not accepting a reasonable quote of  £320.
It isnt up to you to decide how much any damage should cost to repair.
Even if was just a paint job  remember that you dont just paint the  affected  area ...normally you would paint a whole panel /bumper/ bonnet /tailgate etc. and  as a  general rule of thumb expect at least  £300 per panel for a decent job .

Aretnap

Maybe the third party is trying it on and claiming for damage that was already there. Or maybe you did more damage than you thought - bumpers have a habit of popping back into shape after a prang, concealing damage behind them that isn't obvious until the bumper is removed. Or maybe they're just going for the replace bumper and full respray repair, rather than the give it a lick of paint and don't mind the poor colour match bodge.

In any event it's out of your hands now. Your insurer can choose to settle the claim as they see fit - it's their money that they'll be handing over, not yours. All you can do is tell them what you know, and see what they do with the information.

The effect on you is likely to be minimal. The exact cost of the repair will have much less impact on next year's premium than the simple fact that you've made a claim - many insurers won't even ask for the amount. So I suggest sitting back and letting your insurance company worry about it - it's what you pay them for after all. 

shele19

That was my main worry, was that the amount of damage costs would then affect my premium next year. I was told the higher the amount of damage the higher the premium would go. 

Sandtree

shele19 said:

That was my main worry, was that the amount of damage costs would then affect my premium next year. I was told the higher the amount of damage the higher the premium would go. 

Yes and no... it may make a difference if the cost of claim was £1,000 or £1,000,000 but most insurers don't even ask the cost of claim. Think about it logically... if you drive too close to the car in front and so go into the back of them if they brake hard and you don't react in time should make a difference but if that car is a 20 year old Citroen Saxo or a brand new Rolls Royce is pure "luck" but could easily add at one or two zeros to the cost of claim.

You paid your insurers to deal with these matters on your behalf so let them do so. They will be more economics driven than principle driven than you may be but obviously they think in the long run their approach pays off (on average)

daveyjp

There is nothing to stop the third party getting their bodyshop to invoice your insurance for £320.
I suspect they will take the £2k and buy their car back.

shele19

Exactly what they have done!

mattyprice4004

There's nothing wrong with them doing that - at the end of the day, the cost for a claim where the car was repaired would include:
- Parts
- Labour
- A hire car (credit hire at some astronomical rate)
- A markup on the above for it being an 'approved' body shop

This is easily £2k of work, and the rest probably. So by default the insurer goes with the cheapest option - writing the car off. 
The owner can then buy the car back for 10-15% of the value, as it is still their car. 

Unfortunately you created this situation by not allowing their rather reasonable quote of £320 to go ahead - you'll probably pay more than this over the next few years at renewal now you have an 'at fault' claim on your record. 

Sorry, but what they've done is fine and I have done similar in the past when the at-fault party started playing silly buggers about the cost of a very small repair that was no fault of my own.