Car hit when parked in layby

Kimbren

Hi everyone. I would like some advice please.  My daughter's car was parked in the layby by our house and unfortunately a neighbour skidded as they came out of the Close in the snow straight into the driver's door.  I've visited a body repair garage and am awaiting a quote expected to be approx £1300.  The car's value is roughly £2000-2500. It's a perfect first car for my daughter, we know it's history as it was my cousin's from new and really reliable.  If my neighbour decides to go through his insurance(his car has damage, but it's an old car and I don't think he'll bother getting it done) and they decide it's a write off I've heard that I could potentially buy back the car and get the work done independently which I would do.  I was told by the garage that sometimes the insurance company won't let you buy back your car if it's written off which is something that I really don't want.  I was also told that people can use a no fault accident solicitors which deal with such issues, enabling you to get your car back if it's written off, allowing you to repair it  This also means that my daughter's insurance company aren't involved.  I'm concerned as this is my daughter's first year of insurance after passing her test and even though she wasn't in the car at the time, in fact she's hundreds of miles away at university, I don't want her to be penalised in the years to come because of a no fault accident claim.  It cost £800 to insure her last year with a black box insurance policy.  I'm not sure what percentage the solicitors charge either. Could anyone shed some light on any of these issues please as I really don't know what I should do? Thank you very much.

Sandtree

Ignore the comments on solicitors, as there is no personal injury involved they won't be interested... claim has to go over £10,000 for property damage before solicitors can start charging the other side.

Assuming the car is currently drivable then credit hire is also broadly out of the question because in theory you'll have at most one day without the car whilst its being inspected but many inspections are now done remotely.

Buying back the salvage is dependent on two things, firstly what category of total loss it is declared, the higher ones means structural damage so the car has to be broken  or at least go to a specialist. Secondly it will depend on the insurers commercial relationship with their salvage yard... some will have an agreement that they can send them whatever they want and others that they will send them everything, the later gives them a higher rate as it means they arent cherrypicking the better items out.

You have a couple of routes forward:
1) Present the claim as one for a repair, the insurer may repair it or deem it a total loss, if its a total loss then you can ask to buy the salvage back

2) Get your own quotes and state you would like cash in lieu of repairs, this can still result in a total loss but is less likely as insurers wont be worried about if additional damage is found when panels are removed etc

Assuming your neighbour wants to go through his insurance you can take either of his insurers or your own (who'll then counterclaim)

Kimbren

Hi thanks for the info.  I don't want to go through my insurance.  I would like my neighbour to pay for a repair outside of insurance dependant on quote which I'll get tomorrow.  If it's too high and he does go through his insurance, does this affect my daughter's insurance in the future, even though she wasn't in the car please? I'm worried that we'll be paying increased premiums even though it's not her fault, even worse when this is her first year's insurance . Thank you

Sandtree

She will have to declare it as an "incident" which will be considered when doing quotes next year... some insurers allow you off with a single non-fault accident but others do a modest percentage loading (obvious issue with young drivers is that with such large premiums a modest percentage is still a material absolute sum). All you can do is answer the questions honestly and see what prices come back

[Deleted User]

Kimbren said:

Hi thanks for the info.  I don't want to go through my insurance.  I would like my neighbour to pay for a repair outside of insurance dependant on quote which I'll get tomorrow.  If it's too high and he does go through his insurance, does this affect my daughter's insurance in the future, even though she wasn't in the car please? I'm worried that we'll be paying increased premiums even though it's not her fault, even worse when this is her first year's insurance . Thank you

You need to declare it anyway, it will void your policy if you don't and they find out e.g. if you start doing comparison quotes next year and include the accident. Unfortunately the insurance going up is a matter of life, your daughter parks near a careless driver who could crash into the car again so she is a higher risk

mattyprice4004

Kimbren said:

Hi thanks for the info.  I don't want to go through my insurance.  I would like my neighbour to pay for a repair outside of insurance dependant on quote which I'll get tomorrow.  If it's too high and he does go through his insurance, does this affect my daughter's insurance in the future, even though she wasn't in the car please? I'm worried that we'll be paying increased premiums even though it's not her fault, even worse when this is her first year's insurance . Thank you

The factor they consider is that she parks in places that are hit by other people - and statistically people who have a non-fault accident are also more likely to have an at-fault claim down the line. 
It's rubbish, but in a previous job I saw the statistics (albeit in grossly condensed format) which do indeed support this hypothesis. 

Kimbren

So update ...it's going through his insurance. I'm a named driver on my daughter's policy, she's currently at university on campus so I parked the car in the layby. It's a really safe neighbourhood and place to park. The exceptional weather caused him to skid into her car when there was nobody in it.  Caused £1850 worth of damage as I got a quote. The car's worth £2500 so I'm guessing it'll be written off.  Not sure if we'll get the chance to buy it back at all, his insurance company is Admiral, don't know what their policy is regarding this. We would like the car back.  Seeing as though I parked it and she's not even here, will she still be penalised rather than me? Just so annoyed as she's just starting out and we paid £800 for her insurance with a black box and did the advanced driving course . Anyone have any further advice at all? Thank you

Sandtree

As already stated,you could ask for cash in lieu which decreases the risk of write off or just ask Admiral if they’ll allow you to retain the salvage if they deem it a write off.

Parked unattended claims normally get put against the policyholder

sheramber

When out=r car was hit when parked the insurance said the report had to be made by the person who drove it last, which was my husband.
it was claim on my policy ( the other party would not contact their insurance but ended up with a summary warrant against the m for the costs) but my husband had to declare being involved in an incident on his policy.

Kimbren

sheramber said:

When out=r car was hit when parked the insurance said the report had to be made by the person who drove it last, which was my husband.
it was claim on my policy ( the other party would not contact their insurance but ended up with a summary warrant against the m for the costs) but my husband had to declare being involved in an incident on his policy.

Thank you for the info.  Great to know. 👍

williamgriffin

Kimbren said:

sheramber said:

When out=r car was hit when parked the insurance said the report had to be made by the person who drove it last, which was my husband.
it was claim on my policy ( the other party would not contact their insurance but ended up with a summary warrant against the m for the costs) but my husband had to declare being involved in an incident on his policy.

Thank you for the info.  Great to know. 👍

So that's both of you penalised.