Car Insurance Claim Query

pauln

Hi,  I'd welcome some advice on the following.

Our car was reversed into when parked on a relative's drive causing dents to the rear passenger side door and rear side panel.

The damage was done by their neighbour who immediately rang the doorbell and admitted liability.

The neighbour wants to pay for the repairs privately and said they had a friend who was a mechanic who would do it for about £200.  We have since received a quote of about £750 from a local garage with an excellent reputation.

We are going to let the neighbour know about the quote but are expecting some disagreement about the cost.  We don't want to get numerous quotes and are very reluctant to let their friend do the work.

One solution would be for us to insist it goes through as an insurance claim but I'm concerned that the repair may be considerably more costly if handled in that way.  The insurance company may say both the door and panel need replacing which could push the cost up beyond the value of the car which is probably around £2k.

What would happen in that situation?  I've heard of cars being "written off" in insurance claims and then bought back by the owner but I'm not sure of the finances of this, or the potential impact on our own insurance premium and no-claims bonus.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks

Stateofart

This is has just happened to me.  Go through insurance, it'll save you a world of trouble.  Someone hit me, minor damage, so I agreed to go to a local guy.  Got a quote, although it would be three months waiting.  Then the airbag light came on meaning it would fail MOT so I needed to go to another main dealer.  They quoted 10 times the price but said, there could be all sorts of damage behind and just doing a local repair could mean multiple trips, more money.  In the end, with the MOT looming I went through insurance.  Don't have to worry now, decent courtesy car so I'm all good.  Just waiting for repair. 

If I'd done the honourable thing and stayed with the local guy for the sake of price and saving premiums rising for both of us, I'd have a car off the road with no MOT for month, no courtesy car, risk of a rising bill when damage was finally looked at carefully AND absolutely no guarantee the airbag light wouldn't come back on again.

daveyjp

You have a quote, tell them the cost.

If they won't pay go through their insurance company as they will probably agree a repair for £750 with very little fuss. 

pauln

Thanks for the replies.  I was thinking that an insurance claim would mean the insurance company wanting to assess the damage themselves and use repair companies they have an association with which would push the cost up.

sheramber

Our insurance company let us use our choice or repairer.

It may depend on whether you are claiming off your own insurance or his.

sheramber

If insurance want to write the car off you can ask to buy it back which is usually for the scrap value. 

DullGreyGuy

pauln said:

What would happen in that situation?  I've heard of cars being "written off" in insurance claims and then bought back by the owner but I'm not sure of the finances of this, or the potential impact on our own insurance premium and no-claims bonus.

Write off, total loss, beyond economical repair are used interchangeably.

If they feel there is a risk the vehicle repairs getting close to the market value of the vehicle its likely they will deem it beyond economical repair and therefore would settle by paying you the market value of the car less your excess and any outstanding premiums. In normal circumstances the vehicle then passes to them and they would sell it to a scrap merchant.

If a policyholder wants to retain the vehicle then most insurers are happy to do this, not all are because of their deals with scrap merchants, and so rather than paying you  market value less excess and premiums they also deduct the value the scrap merchant would have paid and you retain title to the vehicle. 

Some insurers will waive the excess in clear cut non-fault cases where the TP insurer is known etc but its at their discretion. They may treat it as "non fault" from day one too but most wont because non-fault = they've got their money back and there is always a risk something goes wrong (eg TP gave false details or was on cloned plates) and they get stuck carrying the cost. Once/if the money is recovered from the third party or their insurers its then closed down and your NCD reinstated. 

With a non-fault claim/incident to your name you may find some insurers increase your premiums a little at renewal others are comfortable with 1 but less so if you've had multiple such claims. 

pauln

Just to flag that we would be claiming on their insurance as they've admitted liability

Altior

If it was me I would try to negotiate a cash settlement. It's much better to keep it off the insurance if you can as it will be recorded on the history of the car, you'll need to report it for up to five years at renewal, and can obviously impact premiums. Knocking on the door to let the people know is certainly a feather in their cap. They will be equally, if not more keen to avoid reporting it to insurance. 

You may not get the full amount you want but definitely have a good case against their friend doing the work as you'll want it fully invoiced and the workmanship guaranteed in case of recourse. So I would argue that you need it done formally, and then agree the £££.  

DullGreyGuy

Altior said:

If it was me I would try to negotiate a cash settlement. It's much better to keep it off the insurance if you can as it will be recorded on the history of the car, you'll need to report it for up to five years at renewal, and can obviously impact premiums. Knocking on the door to let the people know is certainly a feather in their cap. They will be equally, if not more keen to avoid reporting it to insurance. 

Are you suggesting they commit insurance fraud @Altior? Even if they privately settle the matter it still must be declared to their insurers and they will need to add the details to future quotes for 5 years regardless.

Its only recorded against the history of the car if the vehicle is a total loss, if its repairable or they take cash in lieu of repairs then there is nothing recorded against the vehicle 

Altior

I said what I would do in the same position. Are you claiming that if I parked in a private car park such as Tesco, noticed that I got a car park ding upon returning to the vehicle, that I would have to report this as an accident to my insurance instead of initiating a smart repair for a few quid? That's one of the reasons for excess, to prevent nonsensical claims that would cost more to to administer than the repair itself.

From what the OP has outlined, this is essentially a very minor car park bump on private land. I don't feel settling this between the parties involved without reporting it to the respective insurance companies is committing insurance fraud. So no, I'm not suggesting that they commit insurance fraud. People up and down the country must fix up minor car park type knocks and dings without reporting them, they are not fraudsters.