Car hit my front drive wall

iceangel8

Car hit my wall.  Luckily with CCTV he was speeding and icy  I found the owner (builder working on site on my road). He wants to repair the wall himself and can't do it until it gets warmer.  I'm not happy with this idea he might just disappear.  What do I do?  If I contact my house insurance I have to pay excess and my insurance will go up but the wall is completely half fallen down so I can't leave it.  I tried reporting it to police they said because I have his registration number and name I can't report it.

DE_612183

If you go through insurance, then it's his vehicle insurance that should pay - nothing to do with your house insurance.

Have you phoned your house insurance to find out?

Car_54

You should claim from the car owner's insurance. He should give you the details (by law - Road Traffic Act 1988 s154) ), but if he doesn't you can get it at https://www.mib.org.uk/check-insurance-details/

Aretnap

Three options basically

(1) Bypass insurance, come to a private agreement with him, hope he doesn't disappear or welch on the deal

(2) Claim through your home insurance. You will have to pay your excess up front, but you can reclaim that from his car insurer

(3) Get his car insurance details from here for a small fee https://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx and negotiate with them directly.

Note that the terms of your home insurance policy might require you to inform them of any losses whether or not you intend to claim for them, or declare the incident at renewal time even if you don't make a claim. Terms like that are standard in car insurance; the wording is more valuable in home insurance.

DullGreyGuy

DE_612183 said:

If you go through insurance, then it's his vehicle insurance that should pay - nothing to do with your house insurance.

Have you phoned your house insurance to find out?

Home insurers are really bad at making recoveries, in my experience. Even with one of the largest direct insurers there weren't enough cases to justify a team and so they were supposed to pass their file to the Motor Recovery team but then you had issues of different systems/access etc. 

The opposite is also somewhat true, many motor insurers aren't setup for dealing with building damage.

Ultimately it's their insurance that should pay, but most people claim off their own insurance first who then counterclaim from the third party insurers. For Motor -v- Motor this works well but more issues for other classes. 

The OP could attempt to claim directly from the driver's insurance but they may find certain blockers especially if their driver hasn't reported the incident. 

iceangel8

Thanks so much for your advice.  The driver hasn't reported to his car insurance.  If I call my home insurance it's put on my record of the incident and I know I have to declare it every time my premiums is up for renewal and my premiums go up in cost.  It's very difficult to get them to remove an incident even if you don't claim you have to declare it.  

Herzlos

You could always offer to take a cash deposit which you'll give him back when he fixes the wall. Or if he refuses, just claim from his car insurance.

iceangel8

Herzlos said:

You could always offer to take a cash deposit which you'll give him back when he fixes the wall. Or if he refuses, just claim from his car insurance.

The problem I have is that he is working on the building site I have no idea what he does.  He was in a private car not a company van how do I know he's experienced in building walls and whether he uses good materials.

SergeantBaker

iceangel8 said:

Herzlos said:

You could always offer to take a cash deposit which you'll give him back when he fixes the wall. Or if he refuses, just claim from his car insurance.

The problem I have is that he is working on the building site I have no idea what he does.  He was in a private car not a company van how do I know he's experienced in building walls and whether he uses good materials.

So claim from his car insurance, but phone your own home insurance for information only purposes as there will be a record of the incident on the insurance database. 

iceangel8

Tbh I don't trust the honesty of the man at all because he hit my wall and drove off and if it wasn't for my neighbour's CCTV camera and my neighbour going to the building site and getting the guy to knock on to my house he would have got away with it.  Can I then rely on him to rebuild my wall or pay for it if I get quotes in the region of £2000.  

Will my future  premiums go up and will I definitely get my excess back if I claim?

iceangel8

SergeantBaker said:

iceangel8 said:

Herzlos said:

You could always offer to take a cash deposit which you'll give him back when he fixes the wall. Or if he refuses, just claim from his car insurance.

The problem I have is that he is working on the building site I have no idea what he does.  He was in a private car not a company van how do I know he's experienced in building walls and whether he uses good materials.

So claim from his car insurance, but phone your own home insurance for information only purposes as there will be a record of the incident on the insurance database. 

So can I call his car insurance and set up a claim I thought data protection would prevent me?  I'm just so worried my home insurance will go up because of this claim