Driver Pranged My Car but is messing me about.....

Woofiedog

Last weekend a car drove into my back bumper creating damage. He took photos and he gave me his personal details. He contacted his insurer and they rang me to accept liability by text message, then rang me after that to arrange settlement with quotes from their approved garages. Meanwhile, the driver wanted to arrange a settlement privately and to withdraw an official claim. I agreed and got a quote from a local garage instead, likely to be the cheapest there is and told him the sum (which he could easily research himself for reasonableness). In fact this garage offered me a good deal with an all in one price to remove all scuffs and scratches from the back and front bumper for x amount as long as all of it was done together. They quoted me just for the back bumper at Y price, which I am using as the settlement figure to charge him for. They told me the scratches he created could not be isolated separately - the whole back bumper needed respraying and de-denting. Then the driver said that he couldn't pay me until the following week when he got paid but agreed in principle to the back bumper price I texted him with. Now that it is payment due time, he is quibbling about the terms asking me to send in two official quotes from different garages of my own making it clear that he is only paying for the specific scratches he created. I fail to see why I should do this. Basically, I am doing him a favour to save on his insurance premium no-claim excess hikes and here he is now demanding that settlement be made on his terms. I am inclined to refuse now. The problem is that during the interim period between crash and payment due date for him to transfer the cash, in return for a !!!!!! letter agreeing to no further claims, his insurer has already paid me the car hire cost equivalent so I am not sure if the claim is now counted to have gone through anyway, even if I was to change my mind and provide the quotes he asks for and he pays me the sum I asked for.

At the scene of the crash, when the driver first broached me about paying privately in cash, the driver believes I am simply going to pocket the cash and spend it on nail varnish or a night out or something. Frankly, I don't think it matters to him what I do with it. He created the damage and should either pay privately or I go through insurance. In other words, I fail to see why I should do anything on his terms, let alone be insulted with accountability like this when I am doing him the favour not myself.

What do you think?  Or am I being unreasonable?

JGB1955

Go through your insurance. It will be far less hassle.

Woofiedog

JGB1955 said:

Go through your insurance. It will be far less hassle. 

Not my insurance, his insurance I am claiming from. I have lodged the accident with mine as a notification only. If I claim from mine for the damage he caused my car then my premiums will go up. His insurance is paying for my damage. My car didn't cause any damage to his car.

400ixl

If his insurance have already made some payment to you, then he will be having to pay his excess anyway, so just deal with them to get it repaired. That way you get a repair which has a guarantee etc and no hassle with this individual who is messing about.

JGB1955

Woofiedog said:

JGB1955 said:

Go through your insurance. It will be far less hassle. 

Not my insurance, his insurance I am claiming from. I have lodged the accident with mine as a notification only. If I claim from mine for the damage he caused my car then my premiums will go up. His insurance is paying for my damage. My car didn't cause any damage to his car.

If it's not your fault, you won't be paying any increased premiums..... will you? 

sourcrates

If it was a non fault accident on your part, then you should have just let your insurance company deal with the matter, that is why you pay them your premiums.

Your insurance won`t be affected if the accident was not your fault, as your insurer claims the costs back from his, that`s how it works.

By agreeing to do this "under the table" so to speak, you are leaving yourself vulnerable to his demands, and are likely to lose out entirely, unless you do things correctly.

400ixl

JGB1955 said:

Woofiedog said:

JGB1955 said:

Go through your insurance. It will be far less hassle. 

Not my insurance, his insurance I am claiming from. I have lodged the accident with mine as a notification only. If I claim from mine for the damage he caused my car then my premiums will go up. His insurance is paying for my damage. My car didn't cause any damage to his car.

If it's not your fault, you won't be paying any increased premiums..... will you? 

Potentially, OP will have top declare the non fault accident regardless of whether they make a formal claim or not and this may affect the renewal premium price. But makes no difference whether they claim off their insurance, the 3rd party insurance, or settle privately.

His insurer is already aware, so it will already be logged on the shared insurance claim database.

Sandtree

400ixl said:

If his insurance have already made some payment to you, then he will be having to pay his excess anyway, so just deal with them to get it repaired. That way you get a repair which has a guarantee etc and no hassle with this individual who is messing about.

You dont pay an excess on third party claims.

Clearly you need to clarify what the payment from the TPI is for, it would be very odd for them to give you an arbitrary amount for hire that hasn't happened and its much more likely a CIL settlement for the damage in which case any continuing attempt to claim from him directly would be the offence of undue enrichment. 

missile

Woofiedog said:

JGB1955 said:

Go through your insurance. It will be far less hassle. 

Not my insurance, his insurance I am claiming from. I have lodged the accident with mine as a notification only. If I claim from mine for the damage he caused my car then my premiums will go up. His insurance is paying for my damage. My car didn't cause any damage to his car.

Fault or no fault claim or not. It is logged as an incident. Your premium may go up anyway

Sebi_895

Agree with the general advice here; go through the insurance route now. Just take this as a lesson learned that you tried to help out the other driver but now they are being a tad unreasonable. I had a similar scenario years ago now, the chap was scared as he was a newbie driver in the country and begged me to take cash for the damage caused to my car! I stupidly said yes but found myself doing all the running around getting various quotes and getting the job done after agreement with him, only for the cash to be paid to me after me practically hounding the guy! Insurance now for me, always.
You live and you learn!!