I damaged someone's car, what's the procedure?

StMilMo

Hi, I'm struggling to find this out, sorry if it's obvious. I damaged someone's car (cosmetic, but not insignificant) the other day and have found the owner to get in touch. We haven't spoken properly yet and I want to inform myself beforehand. What will happen? I know that I have to inform my insurer, but I don't want to claim on my insurance - the car I was driving is quite specialist (and was itself damaged worse than theirs) and I don't want to mess with the insurance for it, just not worth it for me.

Q1) Can the other person insist that I claim on my insurance, rather than pay directly?

If the answer to that is No, and I can just offer to give them money to fix the damage, how does one go about getting quotes? If my insurer was paying, I guess they would want to see invoices (or maybe they'd have to go to a designated mechanic?) and whatnot. How can I make sure the other person is asking for a fair amount? I took photos of the damage so that I can get an idea myself roughly, so I know if it's £100 vs £1000, at least.

Anything else to help me with the conversation and where I stand would help. They sound thankful that I got in touch (the situation was such that I could have easily just driven off) so hopefully won't be unreasonble.

Thanks,

AdrianC

It's really not up to you whether it goes through insurance or not. It's up to the person whose car is being repaired.

Yes, they may agree to help you out and do a cash job. The car would need to go around a bodyshop or three for quotes.
Will you be paying for a hire car for them, while it's in for repair?

Let's see the pics, and we can probably give you a rough ball park of how many zeroes.

The_Rainmaker

You will have one chance at this so don't be a tightwad and be prepared for fairly hefty quotes.

The other party may insist putting it through insurance regardless.

What does cosmetic mean?  That is a bumper scrape not requiring any filler or new parts.  Much more than that ie dents or cracked plastic is starting to get significant.

couriervanman

As above if it was a decent new car.......new bumper ain't cheap 

Grumpy_chap

StMilMo said:

Q1) Can the other person insist that I claim on my insurance, rather than pay directly?

Yes, exactly the same thing happened to me a number of years back - I rolled into the back of a fairly old Corsa, very light cosmetic damage and I was willing to keep it all out of the insurance.  The other driver agreed initially, but then the next day bleated on about this clapped out banger being his pride and joy and such a very special car and the culmination of all his life's dreams and what not and insisted on the insurance route stating that he was entitled to his "day in court".  Obviously, the insurance then just sorted it, the saddo never got his "day in court" and the costs to us both through increased insurance premiums over the next few years was several multiples of what the Corsa was ever worth.

Scrapit

StMilMo said:

Hi, I'm struggling to find this out, sorry if it's obvious. I damaged someone's car (cosmetic, but not insignificant) the other day and have found the owner to get in touch. We haven't spoken properly yet and I want to inform myself beforehand. What will happen? I know that I have to inform my insurer, but I don't want to claim on my insurance - the car I was driving is quite specialist (and was itself damaged worse than theirs) and I don't want to mess with the insurance for it, just not worth it for me.

Q1) Can the other person insist that I claim on my insurance, rather than pay directly?

If the answer to that is No, and I can just offer to give them money to fix the damage, how does one go about getting quotes? If my insurer was paying, I guess they would want to see invoices (or maybe they'd have to go to a designated mechanic?) and whatnot. How can I make sure the other person is asking for a fair amount? I took photos of the damage so that I can get an idea myself roughly, so I know if it's £100 vs £1000, at least.

Anything else to help me with the conversation and where I stand would help. They sound thankful that I got in touch (the situation was such that I could have easily just driven off) so hopefully won't be unreasonble.

Thanks,

If you inform your insurance then  you might as well claim on the insurance. 

StMilMo

Thanks for the replies, guys. I think my term "cosmetic" may have given the wrong impression - it's physical bodywork damage, for sure. Here's a picture: 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iiRy1U9.png[/img]

The car turns out to be 2019 reg as well, so very new. Don't know the model, smallish 4-door citroen. I mean, in the end I'll pay what it's going to cost one way or another - but some idea would let me know whether it's worth attempting the "sort it ourselves" approach or if it would be better just taking the insurance hit. I'm travelling today so haven't got back to the owner properly yet, need to ring them back ASAP really or it starts to look evasive.

Thanks,

Scrapit

StMilMo said:

Thanks for the replies, guys. I think my term "cosmetic" may have given the wrong impression - it's physical bodywork damage, for sure. Here's a picture: 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iiRy1U9.png[/img]

The car turns out to be 2019 reg as well, so very new. Don't know the model, smallish 4-door citroen. I mean, in the end I'll pay what it's going to cost one way or another - but some idea would let me know whether it's worth attempting the "sort it ourselves" approach or if it would be better just taking the insurance hit. I'm travelling today so haven't got back to the owner properly yet, need to ring them back ASAP really or it starts to look evasive.

Thanks,

Yeah, thats not gonna be cheap. Involve the insurance.

[Deleted User]

Agree with the above. That's going to be an expensive claim.  I would just hand it over to the insurance company and let them deal with it.  That's what you pay them for.  Even if you could have gone down the cash route, at next renewal you would be asked to confirm no accidents so what would you do then?  If you said no and this came to light then you could have real problems.

StMilMo

Scrapit said:

StMilMo said:

Thanks for the replies, guys. I think my term "cosmetic" may have given the wrong impression - it's physical bodywork damage, for sure. Here's a picture: 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iiRy1U9.png[/img]

The car turns out to be 2019 reg as well, so very new. Don't know the model, smallish 4-door citroen. I mean, in the end I'll pay what it's going to cost one way or another - but some idea would let me know whether it's worth attempting the "sort it ourselves" approach or if it would be better just taking the insurance hit. I'm travelling today so haven't got back to the owner properly yet, need to ring them back ASAP really or it starts to look evasive.

Thanks,

Yeah, thats not gonna be cheap. Involve the insurance.

Ballpark figure? I literally have no idea whatsoever.

clive0510

why pay insurance and then on d day you bypass them n sort it yourself. let them sort it.