Seeking car damage help and advice

Purpleee

Hi, to keep this story as succinct as possible… I parked in a hotel car park and the next morning my car was substantially damaged at a place where the bonnet meets the front end of the vehicle. I was parked apposite a lorry (high enough to cause the damage) overnight, and the lorry had gone

I immediately notified the hotel reception, as well as my insurance company and the police. Here are the standpoints of each 3:

Hotel have low quality CCTV, however you cannot see the plate number of the lorry. Hotel staff have said they have reviewed the footage and in their opinion cannot say they see an impact, they would not allow me to see the footage for myself and said they can only show it to the police

my insurance company have said without the plate number, I’m liable for the excess and my NCB is gone

Police have said if the hotel do not feel there is any collision on the footage, they do not have to release the footage

i do not have a dash cam (I will certainly be buying one) however in the meantime, I’d like to know what, if any, other options I have please

Grumpy_chap

I know you won't like this answer, but you have three options:
1. Do nothing and drive a damage car
2. Pay for the repair yourself
3. Claim on your insurance and tell then that CCTV exists and they should formally request that from the hotel.

You can (should) also formally report to the Police as a crime (failing to stop https://www.johnsonastills.com/site/blog/ejablog/Fail_to_stop_or_fail_to_respond )  which means you get a crime number you can share with the insurance company.  The Police will not investigate but may give your insurer more route to gain the CCTV footage.

Unfortunately, this is going to be a "loss" event for you and you have to be realistic that identifying and recovering anything from a third party is highly unlikely.  

facade

Your options are limited to

• Claim on your insurance, which will cost you your excess and increased premiums due to loss of NCB
• Get a repair estimate, and consider paying without making a claim if it works out cheaper than the reduction in NCB over the next few years plus the original excess.

Without witness/cctv proof (or an admission from the driver) that the lorry hit your car your insurance will not waste money claiming off the lorry (they cannot request cctv that identifies someone without that persons consent either), and the Police won't want to know.

If you knew the registration of the lorry you could make a claim against its insurer (you can get the details via the MID). If you knew the name & address of the driver you could make a claim against him in Small Claims Court.

As the hotel won't co-operate, you are stuck.

Obviously, never use that hotel again, and caution all your friends from using it.

The way that businesses interpret the GDPR is that you only have a right to see footage with you in it (you can authorise a legal representative or insurer to view it too), and anything that identifies a third party you cannot see (or your insurer/legal representative unless they have the express consent of the third party).   Which makes the cctv useless to you (but after all, it is their cctv, not yours). The Police can request to see it, which they will if a crime has been committed (like backing into a car and driving off), so again, blame the Hotel who told the Police nothing happened, and your car must have crumpled up due to internal stresses or something.

Unless you are Very Important, or a friend of the Police Commisioner, and can influence the Police into opening an investigation anyway, you will have to let this one go.

Sandtree

facade said:

they cannot request cctv that identifies someone without that persons consent either

They can if there is just cause, like that person hit your parked and unattended vehicle.

The problem is CCTV often will capture lots of other PI like the registration plates of all the other vehicles parked around your car. Pre GDPR most companies wouldnt be bothered about this but hotels (you could speculate people may be at the hotel for reasons they wouldnt want wives/husbands/employers knowing) were hotter than most. 

Many times were told they would release the CCTV but to do so we'd have to pay for the video to be edited so all other registrations and faces were obscured; most times this came with a quote of £1k or more. Big accident, lots of damage and injury you may pay the fee but otherwise too risky that it shows nothing

JJ_Egan

OP dash cam has to be wired to the fuse box to be permanently on when car ignition off .

DB1904

Grumpy_chap said:

I know you won't like this answer, but you have three options:
1. Do nothing and drive a damage car
2. Pay for the repair yourself
3. Claim on your insurance and tell then that CCTV exists and they should formally request that from the hotel.

You can (should) also formally report to the Police as a crime (failing to stop https://www.johnsonastills.com/site/blog/ejablog/Fail_to_stop_or_fail_to_respond )  which means you get a crime number you can share with the insurance company.  The Police will not investigate but may give your insurer more route to gain the CCTV footage.

Unfortunately, this is going to be a "loss" event for you and you have to be realistic that identifying and recovering anything from a third party is highly unlikely.  

No you won't as it's not a recordable crime. 

ontheroad1970

DB1904 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

I know you won't like this answer, but you have three options:
1. Do nothing and drive a damage car
2. Pay for the repair yourself
3. Claim on your insurance and tell then that CCTV exists and they should formally request that from the hotel.

You can (should) also formally report to the Police as a crime (failing to stop https://www.johnsonastills.com/site/blog/ejablog/Fail_to_stop_or_fail_to_respond )  which means you get a crime number you can share with the insurance company.  The Police will not investigate but may give your insurer more route to gain the CCTV footage.

Unfortunately, this is going to be a "loss" event for you and you have to be realistic that identifying and recovering anything from a third party is highly unlikely.  

No you won't as it's not a recordable crime. 

Incorrect.  Leaving the scene of an accident and failing to report within 24 hours IS a recordable crime.

ontheroad1970

In fact there is possibility of jail time, though unusual, 6 months.  You wouldn't see that for this, but the fact that there is jail time means it would show on a criminal history check also.

unforeseen

There is the problem especially with lorries where the driver could be totally unaware that they have actually hit anything, especially if reversing.

From the sound of it the damage was caused by the back of the lorry riding over the front of the care. I doubt if the driver felt a thing. 

Purpleee

Thanks everyone for their input so far. I’ve had my insurance company send a letter requesting the footage, hopefully the hotel release it to them.

Its ridiculous to be at the mercy of other people’s unprofessional perception of what did/didn’t happen. I haven’t been allowed to see the footage and just because the hotel manager says they couldn’t see anything doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to see. 

I’m also going through the people that own the cameras for the car park (the ones that recognise plates coming in and out) and hopefully I get some semblance of luck there. Whilst it still doesn’t prove the accident happened, it would be a step forward

DB1904

ontheroad1970 said:

DB1904 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

I know you won't like this answer, but you have three options:
1. Do nothing and drive a damage car
2. Pay for the repair yourself
3. Claim on your insurance and tell then that CCTV exists and they should formally request that from the hotel.

You can (should) also formally report to the Police as a crime (failing to stop https://www.johnsonastills.com/site/blog/ejablog/Fail_to_stop_or_fail_to_respond )  which means you get a crime number you can share with the insurance company.  The Police will not investigate but may give your insurer more route to gain the CCTV footage.

Unfortunately, this is going to be a "loss" event for you and you have to be realistic that identifying and recovering anything from a third party is highly unlikely.  

No you won't as it's not a recordable crime. 

Incorrect.  Leaving the scene of an accident and failing to report within 24 hours IS a recordable crime.

Care you post a link to back up the fact it's a recordable crime for recording purposes therefore the OP is entitled to a crime number?