Police damaged car

AnythingAnywhere

Hi all, almost 2 week ago a police officer was hanging around outside my house with another officer. They were clearly looking for someone or something. One of the officers, whilst looking upwards next to my house, walks backwards and bangs into my car, without checking his surroundings. The next morning I noticed several severe scratches on the boot of my car. The scratches are fairly significant and go through the paint down to the metal. I checked my CCTV and saw the incident.

I have informed the police and they have passed it to a complaints team, this was almost 2 week ago and no response. They have pictures of the damage, along with 2 x CCTV videos of the officer making contact with my vehicle. the damage appears to have been as a result of his utility belt, specifically his handcuffs.

The officer immediately realised he made contact with the vehicle, looked down at my car as he made contact, then stepped away from it and continued whatever he was doing. They were not on a call out to my particular house, nor was there any reason to be anywhere near my car. Fully taxed, MOT’d, clean license etc. The officer leaves the scene, does not leave any contact details or even inform me he had banged into my car, he simply leaves the area.

I didn’t realise until about 3 days after that I needed to inform my insurer, I thought I only needed to make them aware if I was claiming through them, I have since informed them (on about day 3 after the incident) 

Neither the police nor my insurer have got in touch with me, however watching recent documentaries on car insurers I am starting to worry they may write my car off as being beyond economical repair. 

According to insurer’s documents, the car is valued at approx £6500. I have a loan outstanding for approx £8,800 which I used to buy the car. (We all know insurers under-value cars anyway) and the cheapest I can find a replacement car online, of same make/model, mileage etc is around £10,000. 

This opens a few questions for me: 
1) Given almost 2 weeks have passed, would the metalwork of the car now be at risk considering metal has been open to the elements? 

2) Is it likely the insurer will attempt to write-off the car due to its age (16 plate) and the accumulated cost of repair/replacement car hire which would be claimed against the police. 

3) Would the police potentially try to push the insurer to write off the car themselves due to the cost of repair, car hire etc which all would be claimed against them? 

4) If the insurer decides to write off the car, given the difference between insurer valuation, outstanding loan and price of replacing the car with a like-for-like car, would I need to claim cost difference against police to ensure I am not out of pocket? Such as in the form of a compensation claim through a solicitor? 

5) Should I be looking to claim compensation for financial loss and inconvenience on the grounds of negligence through same solicitor? 

I have absolutely no idea what is the best way to proceed with this so am just looking for anyone’s comments/experiences with similar?

the main reason I have come to the conclusion the car may be written off is that I have spoken with a local garage who said that the insurer would have to use a manufacturer-approved part supplier to supply a new boot lid, which would have to be re sprayed in its entirety as the scratches are too significant to “patch up”, but they were unable to obtain one from their own supplier, suggesting that if the car came to them through an insurer, they would be saying they would have been unable to repair it. 

I’ve never had a car insurance claim before so just looking for any comments or advice really. 

ButterCheese

I very much doubt they will write off your car.  I had a huge scrape fixed on my door, and my car was worth half of what yours is.  It can take a lot of time for insurance claims to be processed.  I would ring your insurers and ask what the delay is, and what's happening.  They often to things in the background (which involves waiting) and don't tell you, so you don't know what's going on until they decide to give you an update. 

Don't worry about rust; you have reported it at the time of damage and that part will be fixed i.e sanded and painted when they do the repair.

I have heard that any claim involving the police takes extra time; responding to insurers is not one of their main priorities.  Just keep ringing them and make sure they're on it

ButterCheese

Also, I don't suppose you have any pictures of your car before the damage?  A lot of people would say that a person leaning/falling into a car would not make scratches down to bare metal, they might try to argue that the scratches were already there and that the Policeman was not to blame. 

elsien

ButterCheese said:

Also, I don't suppose you have any pictures of your car before the damage?  A lot of people would say that a person leaning/falling into a car would not make scratches down to bare metal, they might try to argue that the scratches were already there and that the Policeman was not to blame. 

Which is exactly what I was thinking. I’m finding it hard to see how someone simply walking backwards (presumably slowly as they were looking upwards) would cause that amount of damage. 

daveyjp

elsien said:

ButterCheese said:

Also, I don't suppose you have any pictures of your car before the damage?  A lot of people would say that a person leaning/falling into a car would not make scratches down to bare metal, they might try to argue that the scratches were already there and that the Policeman was not to blame. 

Which is exactly what I was thinking. I’m finding it hard to see how someone simply walking backwards (presumably slowly as they were looking upwards) would cause that amount of damage. 

Scrape a set of handcuffs down your car and come back and report the findings!  I have a large scratch on one door which was caused by my daughter holding a lever arch file while opening the door,  the metal protection on the corner of the file was enough to break the paint.

DullGreyGuy

AnythingAnywhere said:

Hi all, almost 2 week ago a police officer was hanging around outside my house with another officer. They were clearly looking for someone or something. One of the officers, whilst looking upwards next to my house, walks backwards and bangs into my car, without checking his surroundings. The next morning I noticed several severe scratches on the boot of my car. The scratches are fairly significant and go through the paint down to the metal. I checked my CCTV and saw the incident.

I have informed the police and they have passed it to a complaints team, this was almost 2 week ago and no response. They have pictures of the damage, along with 2 x CCTV videos of the officer making contact with my vehicle. the damage appears to have been as a result of his utility belt, specifically his handcuffs.

The officer immediately realised he made contact with the vehicle, looked down at my car as he made contact, then stepped away from it and continued whatever he was doing. They were not on a call out to my particular house, nor was there any reason to be anywhere near my car. Fully taxed, MOT’d, clean license etc. The officer leaves the scene, does not leave any contact details or even inform me he had banged into my car, he simply leaves the area.

I didn’t realise until about 3 days after that I needed to inform my insurer, I thought I only needed to make them aware if I was claiming through them, I have since informed them (on about day 3 after the incident) 

Neither the police nor my insurer have got in touch with me, however watching recent documentaries on car insurers I am starting to worry they may write my car off as being beyond economical repair. 

According to insurer’s documents, the car is valued at approx £6500. I have a loan outstanding for approx £8,800 which I used to buy the car. (We all know insurers under-value cars anyway) and the cheapest I can find a replacement car online, of same make/model, mileage etc is around £10,000. 

This opens a few questions for me: 
1) Given almost 2 weeks have passed, would the metalwork of the car now be at risk considering metal has been open to the elements? 

2) Is it likely the insurer will attempt to write-off the car due to its age (16 plate) and the accumulated cost of repair/replacement car hire which would be claimed against the police. 

3) Would the police potentially try to push the insurer to write off the car themselves due to the cost of repair, car hire etc which all would be claimed against them? 

4) If the insurer decides to write off the car, given the difference between insurer valuation, outstanding loan and price of replacing the car with a like-for-like car, would I need to claim cost difference against police to ensure I am not out of pocket? Such as in the form of a compensation claim through a solicitor? 

5) Should I be looking to claim compensation for financial loss and inconvenience on the grounds of negligence through same solicitor? 

I have absolutely no idea what is the best way to proceed with this so am just looking for anyone’s comments/experiences with similar?

the main reason I have come to the conclusion the car may be written off is that I have spoken with a local garage who said that the insurer would have to use a manufacturer-approved part supplier to supply a new boot lid, which would have to be re sprayed in its entirety as the scratches are too significant to “patch up”, but they were unable to obtain one from their own supplier, suggesting that if the car came to them through an insurer, they would be saying they would have been unable to repair it. 

I’ve never had a car insurance claim before so just looking for any comments or advice really. 

What your insurers are doing depends on how you left it with them. If you said it was for information purposes only they won't be doing anything and you won't hear from them again. If you said you want to claim for the damages then they almost certainly would have told you then and there which garage they are appointing and that the garage will contact you in a couple of business days to arrange for you to bring the car in. 

Police, and the back end part of insurance, work at a different pace. Highly important to you, doesn't move the needle much in the police's £27.3bn budget


1) Potentially, really depends on how wet it's been getting. But it will be very light surface rust that would be removed as its prepped for respraying

2) Unlikely based on what you say, cost of respraying isn't that much and most policies dont include hire car coverage so isn't a consideration for them. They will decide if there is sufficient evidence to make a recovery from the police after seeing the evidence. Some insurers do this in parallel to the repairs, some only start the recovery work after they've paid for the repairs

3) If you are claiming off your insurance the police have no say on how it's settled. If you claim directly from them then yes they can take a more holistic view to costs

4) The only thing you'd have to claim off the police if your insurers deal with it is the Excess. Your insurers have to ensure they have given a fair valuation and the fact that there is a loan that exceeds the vehicle value isn't anyone's concern but yours. If it's a PCP/HP loan secured on the vehicle then the total loss settlement would be paid to the finance company.  Most wouldn't pay a solicitor £300/hr to try and get their excess back

5) Small track cases (under £10,000) dont allow for solicitors fees to be recovered so any solicitor you instruct will be out of your own pocket. Inconvenience isn't a valid head of claim

AnythingAnywhere

Thanks for responses, it’s an odd one agreed, what’s clear about it is that the scratches are basically in two horizontal bunches (if that makes any sense!) which perfectly align with his handcuffs. Although he walks backwards into the car, he does so at a bit of pace. Had it been any other person there would not be any damage as it would be clothing that makes contact with the car, however in this situation it’s a police officers handcuffs that made contact with the car.

TELLIT01

How can the OP possibly know there was no reason for the police officer to be near their car?  Paint on modern cars is so thin that almost any contact can cause scratches.

I think all the OP can do is give a bit more time and then contact the local police again to chase it up.

AnythingAnywhere

thanks thanks for everyone’s replies, chased the police and insurers today. Basically insurers not bothered either way so they’re happy to allow police to handle it. Police have accepted liability and accepted responsibility for cost of repairs and other financial losses just need to get it sorted now. Have a good day all