Parked car has been hit, whats the best way to handle my claim? First time doing this please help!

Kccc

So my parked car was smashed into from it's back corner and shunted along the road, resulting in a damaged rear panel, smashed back light and completely obliterated back left tyre. Not sure if there's internal damage, it started up and moved fine though.

I am fully comp insured with Darwin (UK Insurance LTD), the offending driver is covered by Admiral. Police came to the incident so I have a reference number and no denying its not my fault.

I've notified Darwin, now whats the best thing to do?

a) Make a claim through my insurer, Darwin
b) Make a claim direct to Admiral myself (other drivers insurer)
c) Make a claim through an accident management company - my local garage work with them, mechanic has know my partners family for years and have advised I claim through RTA Assistance LTD but the reviews seem shoddy and I don't understand what benefit that has to me? It means the car gets to go through his garage 

Since my cars 8 years old and a little hatch back I don't think I'll get enough to buy a similar car with todays prices, should they declare it a write off. I am not in a financial position to put down any money either What would you do?

If there's any pros and cons to each option please share, thank you!

A young woman who's not had this situation before!

baser999

As you've informed your insurance company let them deal with it

Brie

quite certain an accident claim company will take a percentage so I wouldn't be using them.  You pay your insurance, let them do what they're paid to do.

Some companies will say your car is a write off - and if it's got severe damage to the frame or similar I would agree.  But lots of times it's cosmetic.  Panel, light, new tire.  But if that costs a lot they may claim it's a write off as it's "uneconomical to repair".  Which means that you might take the payout, keep the car and get your local garage to fix it all for you.  

do a search online (autotrader?) to see what it would cost to get the same car or near enough.  Be ready with that should someone come back and say they're going to give you tuppence.  And if they say too low a payout you can say "but this is what these are going for" and negotiate.

Good luck.

mebu60

As per @baser999, let your insurers deal with it.

If you have an excess you will need to claim that back from the other party. Together with any other uninsured losses, if any. 

Research what it would cost to replace your car with an equivalent then if your insurer wants to declare it a write-off be prepared to argue your case to be put back in the position you were prior to the accident if they do not offer a sufficient amount.

DullGreyGuy

Kccc said:

So my parked car was smashed into from it's back corner and shunted along the road, resulting in a damaged rear panel, smashed back light and completely obliterated back left tyre. Not sure if there's internal damage, it started up and moved fine though.

I am fully comp insured with Darwin (UK Insurance LTD), the offending driver is covered by Admiral. Police came to the incident so I have a reference number and no denying its not my fault.

I've notified Darwin, now whats the best thing to do?

a) Make a claim through my insurer, Darwin
b) Make a claim direct to Admiral myself (other drivers insurer)
c) Make a claim through an accident management company - my local garage work with them, mechanic has know my partners family for years and have advised I claim through RTA Assistance LTD but the reviews seem shoddy and I don't understand what benefit that has to me? It means the car gets to go through his garage 

Since my cars 8 years old and a little hatch back I don't think I'll get enough to buy a similar car with todays prices, should they declare it a write off. I am not in a financial position to put down any money either What would you do?

If there's any pros and cons to each option please share, thank you!

A young woman who's not had this situation before!

As you say, pros and cons of each situation....

a) all open claims count as fault and so may impact your renewal if its before the claim is fully settled. you'll probably have to pay your excess and then reclaim it. courtesy car isn't guaranteed unless you paid extra and won't be provided if its written off (unless you paid extra). You do have full rights to the Ombudsman if things go wrong and your insurers will take out the stress of claiming from the counterparty

b) Is the mirror of the above, no open fault claim, no excess, you will get an appropriate replacement vehicle whilst yours is being looked at but you cannot go to the Ombudsman if things go wrong

c) You get a hire car on credit, repairs on credit if its economical, if its not they just get an engineers report and send it to Admiral and wait. They make their money from the extortionate hire charges and so have no incentive to accelerate things for you. 95% of all claims via claims management companies go smoothly but there can be a fight over the hire charges at the end (a recent poster had a >£6,000 hire bill due to delays in parts, I doubt their vehicle was worth more). As long as you support them fully it's not your financial liability but a lot of people get funny when being asked to send bank statements, payslips etc to substantiate why they had to resort to credit hire.


These however are not mutually exclusive options, you could claim for your vehicle damage from your insurers and if they dont include a replacement car for total losses then deal with B or C just on the hire car side etc.