Accident

st0ne5ish

Hi,

Our neighbour opposite reversed out of her drive into my sons car which was parked on the road, she hit his drivers side wing near the front of it, she came over knocked on the door and said sorry and we all went out and checked the damage which looked minimal, they had a light slightly out of place and a scratch and it looked like a very small scratch and dent on my sons car.  We said not to worry about it as my son’s car is old and already has the odd scratch and ding. 

He went away for work the next day and came back four days later, he tried to open the driver’s door this evening only to find it does not open, it looks like the bump has caused the edge of the wing panel to slide behind the door panel slightly where they meet and so the door won't open as the panels no longer align. Obviously, we did not realise this at the time of the accident and the car has not been driven or opened since, we didn't think to try the door at the time.

We informed the neighbour, and they apologised again and said they will contact their insurer, she did say that she didn't hit the car where the door opens but I explained it looks like the panel has been pushed back.  I don't think she is trying to say the door not opening is not her fault but who knows.  She has provided her insurance and contact details. 

As we have never really been in this kind of situation before I'm not sure what we need to do now and have some questions.

Do we need to contact my sons insurer?  He is 20 and he does not want something that wasn't his fault to impact his insurance costs, can we just claim directly with her insurance company without involving his if she is admitting it was her fault or should we still contact them?

If we do need to contact my son's insurance company, is it likely to impact his renewal cost?  Will it be a problem that it has been four days since it happened, at the time we didn't think there was any significant damage and no need to make any claims.

Is there anything else we should do; we have taken photos of the damage and the two cars positions.

Sorry for the logn post but he's a bit worried about it all.

pramsay13

You still need to inform your insurance company if any incident.
It's in the terms and conditions you signed. 
If it's a non fault claim it shouldn't affect his premium too much. 

maman

Sadly, I did the same thing. I reversed into my neighbour's car in exactly the same way.

I gave my neighbour my insurance details and they sorted it from there. 

Your son should tell his insurer what's happened (it's possible they're already aware) and that the neighbour has admitted liability and the name of their insurers.