Neighbour says someone has seen me hit her car, but I know I haven't, what do I do?

Herzlos

It might be worth finding out what the witness actually saw, and see if you can help the neighbor resolve the issue rather than flatly denying it.

It could be that she saw nothing, or she saw a similar car or similar driver or something.

emmajones1976

This is why getting CCTV for the front of your house, covering your car, is very handy. Best thing I ever did to the house.

Jenni_D

Herzlos said:

It might be worth finding out what the witness actually saw, and see if you can help the neighbor resolve the issue rather than flatly denying it.

It could be that she saw nothing, or she saw a similar car or similar driver or something.

This makes me think of the old lady witness in My Cousin Vinny.  

Jasonn1

Jenni_D said:

If someone makes a claim against you(r insurer), the insurer will treat that as if there is a live, unresolved case. If your renewal falls whilst the case is still live then any no claims discount (bonus) will be altered (in accordance with the policy terms) as if it was a Fault claim and so the premium adjusted accordingly. If/when the claim is resolved and it is either cancelled or classified as Non-Fault (i.e. they didn't have to pay out anything) then your renewal should be revised to account for the non-claim.

I feel like this is a lose lose situation, because if the insurance company gets involved my preimum will probably go up, so my two options are either pay her or pay extra for insurance, it feels like extortion!

Jasonn1

facade said:

Jasonn1 said:

Any idea how my insurance company would deal with this situation considering that there's no evidence of an accident and the scratches don't match?

They should refuse the claim as it never happened, but they will keep an open "at fault" claim against you for a couple of years whilst it gets sorted out, which will increase your premium, and you have to declare it if you move insurers.

If the witness is convincing enough, they may well pay out, as it is much cheaper for them than to argue in Court, in which case you will have an "at fault" claim to declare.

That's what I fear as well, getting the insurance company involved is likely to increase my premium, it's a lose lose situation for me.

Catplan

You really need more details such as dates / times of this alleged incident. Might be you were at work or can be placed elsewhere maybe when you were supposed to have hit this car.  

If it was me, I’d be passing to insurance to deal with, reading the above it reads as if insurance details haven’t been requested, you may find when you suggest insurance will deal it goes away. It may not and you might end up having to declare, however if I was 100% certain it wasn’t me I wouldn’t be handing over any cash. From the details provided it sounds very much like they are trying it on.

seatbeltnoob

I had my car damaged a while back. I detailed my car a few days before and it was fine. Then on the day i noticed the damage, a guy was trying to park his car behind mine and spent about 5 or 10 minutes trying to parallel park. New driver, I'm not exaggerating, he was parking so bad that it caused a scene a all the neighbours came out staring at the driver, the guy behind was annoyed and telling him off for bad parking, other people trying to assist.

Nobody saw the accident, but I noticed two scrapes on my corner, and he had two scrapes with my paint colour on his car. Height matched. Took it with insurance and the third party refused it.

 Had a witness to testify that his parking was atrocious and the rukus he caused, nobody saw him scrape my car, I'm guessing he scraped it before the crowd gathered.

Anyway, witness was rejected by third party insurer because they were a neighbour therefore partial. My insurance suggested I just go ahead and claim on my policy and the third party will have to cough up. I decided not to go with that in case I'm left on the lurch and pay £350 excess for a minor scratxh that I'd rather live with than pay £350 to repair.

They will most likely not get anywhere with insurance and only increase their premiums next year and perhaps increase the premiums a little bit for the whole street.

[Deleted User]

emmajones1976 said:

This is why getting CCTV for the front of your house, covering your car, is very handy. Best thing I ever did to the house.

Be aware that you might run into privacy or data protection issues with that. If the camera covers anything not on your property then the neighbors might have issues with their comings and goings being monitored, etc.

Jasonn1

seatbeltnoob said:

I had my car damaged a while back. I detailed my car a few days before and it was fine. Then on the day i noticed the damage, a guy was trying to park his car behind mine and spent about 5 or 10 minutes trying to parallel park. New driver, I'm not exaggerating, he was parking so bad that it caused a scene a all the neighbours came out staring at the driver, the guy behind was annoyed and telling him off for bad parking, other people trying to assist.

Nobody saw the accident, but I noticed two scrapes on my corner, and he had two scrapes with my paint colour on his car. Height matched. Took it with insurance and the third party refused it.

 Had a witness to testify that his parking was atrocious and the rukus he caused, nobody saw him scrape my car, I'm guessing he scraped it before the crowd gathered.

Anyway, witness was rejected by third party insurer because they were a neighbour therefore partial. My insurance suggested I just go ahead and claim on my policy and the third party will have to cough up. I decided not to go with that in case I'm left on the lurch and pay £350 excess for a minor scratxh that I'd rather live with than pay £350 to repair.

They will most likely not get anywhere with insurance and only increase their premiums next year and perhaps increase the premiums a little bit for the whole street.

That's unlucky, they don't teach people to park properly anymore! I think my case is slightly different because the car owner claims that her neighbour saw me colliding with her car, I know that's lie, and the scrapes on our cars do not match, so hopefully my insurance company will side with me and it won't end up cancelling my no claim bonus. She's asked me to give her £100 to get it fixed, when I asked for a quote in writing she got defensive and said if I'm going to be difficult then she'd rather go to insurance, I feel like I'm being extorted!

DB1904

Jasonn1 said:

seatbeltnoob said:

I had my car damaged a while back. I detailed my car a few days before and it was fine. Then on the day i noticed the damage, a guy was trying to park his car behind mine and spent about 5 or 10 minutes trying to parallel park. New driver, I'm not exaggerating, he was parking so bad that it caused a scene a all the neighbours came out staring at the driver, the guy behind was annoyed and telling him off for bad parking, other people trying to assist.

Nobody saw the accident, but I noticed two scrapes on my corner, and he had two scrapes with my paint colour on his car. Height matched. Took it with insurance and the third party refused it.

 Had a witness to testify that his parking was atrocious and the rukus he caused, nobody saw him scrape my car, I'm guessing he scraped it before the crowd gathered.

Anyway, witness was rejected by third party insurer because they were a neighbour therefore partial. My insurance suggested I just go ahead and claim on my policy and the third party will have to cough up. I decided not to go with that in case I'm left on the lurch and pay £350 excess for a minor scratxh that I'd rather live with than pay £350 to repair.

They will most likely not get anywhere with insurance and only increase their premiums next year and perhaps increase the premiums a little bit for the whole street.

That's unlucky, they don't teach people to park properly anymore! I think my case is slightly different because the car owner claims that her neighbour saw me colliding with her car, I know that's lie, and the scrapes on our cars do not match, so hopefully my insurance company will side with me and it won't end up cancelling my no claim bonus. She's asked me to give her £100 to get it fixed, when I asked for a quote in writing she got defensive and said if I'm going to be difficult then she'd rather go to insurance, I feel like I'm being extorted!

Tell her to go through the insurance then as you'll have already explained your side to your insurance company.