Someone drove into my parked car and drove off

theonenonly

I have fully comprehensive insurance and protected NCB (4 years).

The car is drivable and it is body damage but it is a 13 year old car, and speaking to a few garages, for parts and labour to repair would cost more than my excess.

I am wondering if it is worth contacting my insurers? Part of me thinks no, just repair it myself and drive the car for the next few years until its time to scrap.

However, I also think, this is what I'm paying insurance for isn't it? My premium's would take a hit by about £100 at next renewal when going through the aggregate sites and mentioning I have made a claim recently. And if it is a write off, I can use that money towards another car. If they repair it, then happy days, I only need to pay excess.

Any advice would be appreciated here.

Mark_d

So your excess is £500 and the repair is estimated at £510.  Why would you want to be paying an extra £100 per year just to save £10 now???

If you check your insurance policy wording you might need to inform you insurance of the incident.  This is different from making a claim.  I suggest you probably don't want to make a claim

Brie

How much will it cost to repair compared to the current value of the vehicle?  Chances are on a car that age the insurers will tot up the numbers and say it's uneconomical to repair and consider it a write off.  If they offer you a sufficient amount of money you may want to accept this and decide to keep the car and get it semi repaired.  

Do make sure the value you are offered IS sufficient to buy the same again.  Look up on the second hand car sites for your car, make, model, year, condition and tell them you expect that amount.  They may say no but you might be able to negotiate a higher amount.  

Car_54

Brie said:

Do make sure the value you are offered IS sufficient to buy the same again.  Look up on the second hand car sites for your car, make, model, year, condition and tell them you expect that amount.  They may say no but you might be able to negotiate a higher amount.  

They will almost certainly say no: advertised prices are not the prices people actually pay.

theonenonly

Car is around £2.5k on autotrader, pretty much like for like.

Apologies should've made it clearer, my initial excess is £500 but confused.xom will refund £250 back as I'd bought through them

MattMattMattUK

theonenonly said:

Car is around £2.5k on autotrader, pretty much like for like.

Apologies should've made it clearer, my initial excess is £500 but confused.xom will refund £250 back as I'd bought through them

How much is the repair?

DullGreyGuy

theonenonly said:

I have fully comprehensive insurance and protected NCB (4 years).

The car is drivable and it is body damage but it is a 13 year old car, and speaking to a few garages, for parts and labour to repair would cost more than my excess.

I am wondering if it is worth contacting my insurers? Part of me thinks no, just repair it myself and drive the car for the next few years until its time to scrap.

However, I also think, this is what I'm paying insurance for isn't it? My premium's would take a hit by about £100 at next renewal when going through the aggregate sites and mentioning I have made a claim recently. And if it is a write off, I can use that money towards another car. If they repair it, then happy days, I only need to pay excess.

Any advice would be appreciated here.

Hit and run is typically a fault claim as there is no one to recover the costs from, unless your insurer has some form of "promise" around this type of incident. You dont say what your current premiums are but £100 extra for a fault accident and going down to 2 years NCD sounds low. 

As to telling your insurers, you dont have a choice, you are legally obligated to tell them as soon as is practicably possible unless you intend to commit fraud? If you choose to claim or not is another matter.