Someone bumped my car in car park. How to proceed?

DullGreyGuy

Mark_84 said:

I didn’t know if my insurance would be able to pursue the other car as there is no proof who was driving and I don’t have the witness details yet.

They can attempt to... how successful it will be will depend on the honest of the other person. Sometimes the insurer's letter drops on the doormat and the person admits to what they've done, other times they claim they were at the opposite end of the country at the time and so couldnt possibly be them. 

Insurers can buy the registered keepers details from the DVLA and lookup the insurer of the vehicle at the time of the accident with MID. 

lisyloo

Mark_84 said:

Devongardener said:

This exact scenario happened to my neighbour,  note left by an anonymous witness.  He passed the reg no to his insurer and they traced the offender.  His car was repaired and he didn’t lose his no claims bonus, or have his premiums increased.

That’s good to know. Thanks

In theory they could certainly trace and they could check the car for damage.
my feeling it’s unlikely they will go to a lot of trouble carrying out forensic investigations if it’s a few hundred (we don’t know how much the quoted claim was for).
insurers take a pragmatic approach and not always a fair one.
for a few hundred it’s probably not worth you claiming because of excess plus increased premiums over the next few years. You can do dummy quotes with and without claims to see the difference,  it a few hundred almost certainly isn’t worth it.

if it was me I’d investigate the repair options - proper main dealer, proper back street, patch up, DIY do nothing. Whether it’s pristine or 20 year old banger comes into the equation.

DullGreyGuy

lisyloo said:

my feeling it’s unlikely they will go to a lot of trouble carrying out forensic investigations if it’s a few hundred 

Unfortunately insurers dont have a right to take a random person's car away for forensic inspection. Even if the vehicle has some damage somewhere there is no video or photos of the incident so you couldnt say if it was this accident or something that caused it.

Being cynical, you could find your car has been damaged, walk around the carpark and find some random other car with roughly matching damage and then claim someone left a note on your windscreen with that vehicles reg from a "witness"

lisyloo

DullGreyGuy said:

lisyloo said:

my feeling it’s unlikely they will go to a lot of trouble carrying out forensic investigations if it’s a few hundred 

Unfortunately insurers dont have a right to take a random person's car away for forensic inspection. Even if the vehicle has some damage somewhere there is no video or photos of the incident so you couldnt say if it was this accident or something that caused it.

Being cynical, you could find your car has been damaged, walk around the carpark and find some random other car with roughly matching damage and then claim someone left a note on your windscreen with that vehicles reg from a "witness"

ok but theoretically if they did have a picture of it parked on a public street with damage that exactly matched the OPs damage plus the note that might persuade the other drive to do something and might be enough for a county court judge.

however my point was they won’t do that for a few hundred quid. They’ll just get it fixed minus excess (and increase premiums, reduce NCD etc.)

a scenario from a different insurer which may be entirely different circs e.g. amount,  is not indicative of how this case might he handled, but I think it’s fair to say insurers won’t spend loads on investigations for small claims even if that results in an unfair resolution.

persoanlly id figure out the costs and acceptable options before deciding anything.
whats acceptable on a banger may not be acceptable on a pristine car.
there are many ways to “fix” these things.

cut off point is harder to say but it’s probably nearer £600 than £200 unless you have a special clause that doesn’t penalise you for untraceable accidents (which doesn’t bind other insurers). Depends on size of excesses etc.

Mark_84

I’ve raised it with my insurance and they are going to contact the other driver’s insurance company.
They have advised if the other driver doesn’t admit to it then there isn’t much they can do without a witness.
Its worth a try before I have to pay out of my pocket to get it fixed.

lisyloo

Mark_84 said:

I’ve raised it with my insurance and they are going to contact the other driver’s insurance company.
They have advised if the other driver doesn’t admit to it then there isn’t much they can do without a witness.
Its worth a try before I have to pay out of my pocket to get it fixed.

Are you fully comp?
your insurer will fix your car, but you do understand it might be more expensive than paying out of your own pocket in the long term?

with excess, possible loss of NCD, increased premiums for the next 3-5 years, sometimes it’s better not to claim.

i believe it is possible to cancel claims though, although you will have to now declare an accident.

Mark_84

lisyloo said:

Mark_84 said:

I’ve raised it with my insurance and they are going to contact the other driver’s insurance company.
They have advised if the other driver doesn’t admit to it then there isn’t much they can do without a witness.
Its worth a try before I have to pay out of my pocket to get it fixed.

Are you fully comp?
your insurer will fix your car, but you do understand it might be more expensive than paying out of your own pocket in the long term?

with excess, possible loss of NCD, increased premiums for the next 3-5 years, sometimes it’s better not to claim.

i believe it is possible to cancel claims though, although you will have to now declare an accident.

I am fully comp but I have told them not to proceed unless they can claim from the 3rd party. They are fine with that.

I won’t be claiming on my own insurance. It will be cheaper to pay to get it fixed.

Just waiting to see if the 3rd party admits liability. If not I can’t do anything without finding cctv or a witness.

lisyloo

ah ok. that's good.

Make sure you declare the accident/incident/loss (not claim) on future quotes.
You would need to do this anyway but now it's on record.
Unfortunately there is sometimes an uplift for the fact that it happened even if you don't claim.

diystarter7

Devongardener said:

This exact scenario happened to my neighbour,  note left by an anonymous witness.  He passed the reg no to his insurer and they traced the offender.  His car was repaired and he didn’t lose his no claims bonus, or have his premiums increased.

Hi
What the OP and others should not forget is that "piece of paper" could have any old registration/details/scribbles on it, worth considering and then decide way forward.

Thanks

ontheroad1970

diystarter7 said:

Devongardener said:

This exact scenario happened to my neighbour,  note left by an anonymous witness.  He passed the reg no to his insurer and they traced the offender.  His car was repaired and he didn’t lose his no claims bonus, or have his premiums increased.

Hi
What the OP and others should not forget is that "piece of paper" could have any old registration/details/scribbles on it, worth considering and then decide way forward.

Thanks

Just as Lisyloo had said upthread.