Car hit by another car whilst parked in Supermarket car park. Other owner denying involvement

Cammy0102

Hello, yesterday my girlfriend parked our car (dark blue colour) in a LIDL car park around 3pm and went inside the supermarket. When she came back around 3.30pm she noticed there was damage (paint had been scraped off) to the front passenger side bumper and on the wing. She looked at the cars on either side of our and noticed there was a different car (to the one that was there when she parked) and there was corresponding damage (in height, area and appearance) to their front passenger side bumper. Also she could clearly see dark blue paint of our car had transferred to the bumper of the other. The other is an old Vauxhall Corsa in light turquoise colour.

My girlfriend took photos of both cars and spoke to the Manager of LIDL. He came outside to inspect and also agreed that it was obvious that the other car had collided with our car. There were couple of cameras in the car park but none covering the area our car was parked in. 

I took an Uber and went to the site and we waited in the car for the other driver to arrive. Around 5.30pm the driver arrived and we asked him whether he'd hit our car but he flat out denied. We told him there was corresponding damage to his car and there's dark blue paint on his bumper but he said he didn't know how that happened. He refused to give us he details. So we just left and after speaking to the Police on 101, my girlfriend filed a report (there was no where to upload pictures by the way).

It was hugely frustrating. We are pretty sure the other driver damaged our car (Supermarket manager agreed as well) but since he's denying any involvement and there's no one who witnessed the incident and if there's no camera capturing the incident, I don't see Police being able to do anything. It's unlikely the driver will fess up. 

Today, I contacted a local garage, sent the pictures of the damage and they quoted about £500 to fix. It'll be far more economical than going through our insurance as I will have to pay £250 of excess, lose 13 years of no claim discount and the premium will go up.

Do you think anything will come out of the Police investigation? Will they even investigate since it's not a huge accident and no injuries occurred? 

Do we have to report the incident to Insurance? Since we have filed a police report (police said they won't inform Insurance), can the Insurance company see the car has been involved in an accident (though it's not our fault)? If I don't have to, I prefer not to have an incident against our insurance as it will undoubtedly affect our premium even if we don't make a claim. 

Thank you.

[Deleted User]

Cammy0102 said:

Hello, yesterday my girlfriend parked our car (dark blue colour) in a LIDL car park around 3pm and went inside the supermarket. When she came back around 3.30pm she noticed there was damage (paint had been scraped off) to the front passenger side bumper and on the wing. She looked at the cars on either side of our and noticed there was a different car (to the one that was there when she parked) and there was correponding damage (in height, area and appearance) to their front passenger side bumper. Also she could clearly see dark blue paint of our car had transferred to the bumper of the other. The other is an old Vauxhall Corsa in light turquoise colour.

My girlfriend took photos of both cars and spoke to the Manager of LIDL. He came outside to inspect and also agreed that it was obvious that the other car had collided with our car. There were couple of cameras in the car park but none covering the area our car was parked in. 

I took an Uber and went to the site and we waited in the car for the other driver to arrive. Around 5.30pm the driver arrived and we asked him whether he'd hit our car but he flat out denied. We told him there was corresponding damage to his car and there's dark blue paint on his bumper but he said he didn't know how that happened. He refused to give us he details. So we just left and after speaking to the Police on 101, my girlfriend filed a report (there was no where to upload pictures by the way).

It was hugely frustrating. We are pretty sure the other driver damaged our car (Supermarket manager agreed as well) but since he's denying any involvement and there's no one who witnessed the incident and if there's no camera capturing the incident, I don't see Police being able to do anything. It's unlikely the driver will fess up. 

Today, I contacted a local garage, sent the picutres of the damage and they quoted about £500 to fix. It'll be far more economical than going through our insurance as I will have to pay £250 of excess, lose 13 years of no claim discount and the premimum will go up.

Do you think anything will come out of the Police investigation? Will they even investigate since it's not a huge accident and no injuries occured? 

Do we hae to report the incident to Insurance? Since we have filed a police report (police said they won't inform Insurance), can the Insurance company see the car has been involved in an accident (though it's not our fault)?

Thank you.

It's possible they genuinely didn't know they'd done it !
I am in contact with a person who has Peripheral Neuropathy, so little or no sensation in lower legs/and or feet, and they can't feel the pedals in the car nor any impact the car has with an object !
This could be the case here if the evidence all points to that vehicle
Doesn't help your bank balance regards the repair cost but could be an explanation to driver denying/not knowing they'd done it.

littleboo

I doubt the police will do anything, the bar for them investigating anything is quite high.

Cammy0102

littleboo said:

I doubt the police will do anything, the bar for them investigating anything is quite high.

Yep that's what I was thinking although they did say they will get back in a week or two. Probably to say there's nothing can do about it.

Cammy0102

Do we have to report the incident to our insurance even if we are not going to make a claim? If we don't report, can Insurance see the incident filed with the Police? Are those records shared with Insurance companies?

McKneff

It's in all insurance policies term and conditions that you have to inform them of any incidents so if you don't you are risking a claim denial further along the line. Not sure if police keep records , they may not be shared now but an incident further on it just might. And you would not lose all of yout NCD,
It's usually only a year or 2

Marksfish

From personal experience, the Police will do nothing, you won't even get a crime number for the crime of either malicious damage or driving off after an accident. Happened to us in the wife's staff car park. Only staff members have access and they drove off after doing £5k+ damage. Police were useless and wouldn't even accept the report.

400ixl

If you have protected your NCD and this is your first accident, then you will not lose any years of NCD.

As for declaring, if the question is have you had any incidents /  accidents then yes you have to answer honestly.

Car_54

Marksfish said:

From personal experience, the Police will do nothing, you won't even get a crime number for the crime of either malicious damage or driving off after an accident. Happened to us in the wife's staff car park. Only staff members have access and they drove off after doing £5k+ damage. Police were useless and wouldn't even accept the report.

If only staff have access, then it’s not a public place and ‘driving off’ (failure to stop and report) isn’t an offence, as it isn’t an accident covered by the Road Traffic Act 1988.

Jenni_D

McKneff said:

It's in all insurance policies term and conditions that you have to inform them of any incidents so if you don't you are risking a claim denial further along the line. Not sure if police keep records , they may not be shared now but an incident further on it just might. And you would not lose all of yout NCD,
It's usually only a year or 2

400ixl said:

If you have protected your NCD and this is your first accident, then you will not lose any years of NCD.

As for declaring, if the question is have you had any incidents /  accidents then yes you have to answer honestly.

NCD may or may not be affected by reporting the incident, but the base premium may be impacted on future renewal so premiums may go up. However, as said, the T&Cs of your insurance contract almost certainly say you need to inform them of any incident, even if you're not making a claim.

35har1old

400ixl said:

If you have protected your NCD and this is your first accident, then you will not lose any years of NCD.

As for declaring, if the question is have you had any incidents /  accidents then yes you have to answer honestly.

You likely not lose the NCD but your premium might still go up