[Closed] 'People', Car Prangs and liabilities Rant.

The fact that she was injured and the fact they started pissing you about would've had me at the insurance a lot sooner, TBH.

People hey, give 'em an inch.

If you didn't mention an injury early on and then once insurance are involved you're citing injuries I can see how they might think you're now trying to screw every penny out of them (I'm not suggesting you are)

However (assuming I read the OP right) if you got quoted £350 and his mate quoted £330 and yet he was [i]still[/i] moaning about it then that kinda marks him out as an arsehole anyway so meh, let the insurance sort it.

It's a shame though, isn't it. It would be a far nicer way to resolve it, if they could have just said either "yep, fine", or "Ooh, that's more than we expected, can we just go through the insurance", rather being dicks and make out that it's you in the wrong!

I think you've been more than reasonable.

They had their chance, they blew it.

D0NK - Member

If you didn't mention an injury early on and then once insurance are involved you're citing injuries I can see how they might think you're now trying to screw every penny out of them (I'm not suggesting you are)

However (assuming I read the OP right) if you got quoted £350 and his mate quoted £330 and yet he was still moaning about it then that kinda marks him out as an arsehole anyway so meh, let the insurance sort it.

Frankly the 'injury' is probably mild, but Mrs. Jay has had back problems in the past - comes with the territory with Nurses I'm told so when they offered a Physio appointment I'm glad she took it - it's going to cost a couple of hundred at the most I guess and of course the other party won't be paying.

I think it's a mindset thing with some people, a sort of immaturity. Something unpleasant has happened to them and they have 2 options, neither are palatable - instead of picking the least unpalatable and moving on, they want to dither or ignore it hoping it will go away.

He's going to have to stop abusing my Wife on the phone though, that's really out of order.

Sounds like it's the agro of leaving a car over the other side of town that's a major concern so with this in mind and this

my Wife's car is pretty old anyway.

Chips Away ... they come to your door or works door or where ever

Did you inform the police about the accident? Because I'd be informing them of his recent behaviour.

the guy's gone full retard, phoning me, phoning my Wife, demanding to know what we're claiming for and why and asking how we can justify it, and how "people just accepted these sort of things as being normal" and how my Wife's car is pretty old anyway.

Your response here is "you had your chance, now **** off" in a polite tone of course.

If only that was the end of it, our insurance company offer to give her a hire car immediately, start a injury claim, send it to Vauxhall to be fixed etc, but we say no thanks

You pay this company several hundred pounds every year? What for if you wont use there product when you need it?

You've done the right thing going to the insurance company. We recently had something similar, agreed to do it outside of insurance as I was paranoid about premiums going up. Got the work done which he agreed to pay for and has just disappeared without footing the bill which we are are now stuck with. Insurance company can't trace him, police aren't interested, doesn't help that my wife didn't get his licence plate. Stupid scenario all round.

Doesn't matter that it's an old car. It is now damaged in a way that is no fault of your wife. Get the insurance to do what they're there for!

I had some friends who had something similar happen and it turned into a total nightmare when they agreed to sort it out without the insurance company. I advised them against it (not that I would ever say I told you so of course 🙂 ).

Very similar thing happened to my wife last year. Young lad in his works van drove into the back of her at very low speed.

His boss wanted to settle it privately but started getting shirty when I gave him the (honest but not cheap) quote from the local bodyshop, questioning the damage.

I lost my rag with him, giving him both barrels and shouting down the phone for the first time in years - and went straight to the insurance. Once someone starts behaving like that the whole trust thing is out the window.

So yes, some people eh?

Any witnesses ? If you do go via insurance they'll probably try and blame your wife.

allthepies - Member

Any witnesses ? If you do go via insurance they'll probably try and blame your wife.

No... and I was planning to come to that - the other driver admitted fault straight away, no evidence of that, their insurance company called my wife, and text her to say that they'd admitted fault and would we like to proceed with a claim via them, we said no as we'd already started one with ours.

Enterprise Rental are calling us every day asking when they can drop a hire car around for her, but we're still waiting to hear what garage it's going to so called insurance - apparently the other insurance company are yet to accept fault... I would hope if Mr and Mrs Shouty-Akward have had a 'change of heart' and change their mind about who's at fault their insurance company would say they can't, but I wouldn't put it past them to allow it - ultimately the "proof" is limited to damage on the rear of their car, damage to the front of ours (never good) and a text from their insurance company accepting fault - oh and a couple of ranty texts / voicemails.

As you say, front damage on your car and rear damage on theirs isn't a good situation if they decide to fabricate a scenario. But having admitted liability to their insurers is good 🙂

I've been rear ended (quieten down at the back there), I went straight through his insurance as he admitted responsibility and I said I wouldn't accept chipsaway anyway. The bumper and beam needed sorting (you could see the beam stamped through the bumper) so even a naïve guess would be 'it's not cheap'. Plus he was still looking right as he hit me hard whilst I was stationary and shunted me a fair bit.

I don't know the law on responsibility but he should be prepared to stop when reversing right? Go round, get pics of their car clandestine ASAP before it's repaired. Then you can email pics of yours, their car, ascene pics and an explanation ASAP to your insurers. Be prepared for knock for knock claim from your isnrer to fight

I'd also be concerned about them suddenly flipping it to be your wife's fault.
A works van reversed in to my wifes car when they were queuing in stationary traffic. The occupants spoke little English but she got their details and spoke to their manager who was apologetic.
Her car was repaired straight away and she had a hire company for a few days. After a few months we'd heard nothing about the excess so I chased them only to hear that the other driver had said that my wife had rammed them! Without witnesses we were advised the best we could do was settle 50/50 which we reluctantly did as we didn't want the hassle. It seams that insurance companies always recommend to challenge if you don't have witnesses, what happened to honesty and decency!
2.5 years later and the hire company is still chasing the third party for costs!

Has anyone actually had success going down the "outside of insurance" route?

It always seems to go the same way when it's mentioned on here... all polite until they get the quote.

I'm guessing some people push and hedge their bets, they see a perceived weakness then the bully comes out in full. Barter down the price. Knocked off a bike and bloke offers to help? How many pay bike damage, clothes damage abd something towards the injury, even if it's a token £100?

Has anyone actually had success going down the "outside of insurance" route?

It was astonishingly easy, mainly because neither we or the guy whose car it was were being dicks about things.

Yep me too, except that I'll admit it was me that backed into someone else's car in a car park (in the 1990s).

😉

All sorted with no fuss.

Has anyone actually had success going down the "outside of insurance" route?

Yes. Someone scraped down the side of my wife's car in a car park, just swinging in and went a bit far. Really annoyed and ranted, but it does happen.

Car was dirty and didn't look bad in the dark. But got it under light and cleaned it and there was scuffs all the way along the side, bumper and dent I the panel. If it was a bit older smart repair combined with pdr would have done. But it was 3 months old and mint. Thankfully he left a note with a number.

He didn't respond to text for a day so we were getting worried, but returned the call in the end. Said he didn't want her to be put out but could we go outside of insurance? I was sceptical, but we got quotes for a perfect repair, which came to nearly a grand, which he accepted. She books it in, lets him know and he reponds that afternoon saying he has paid in advance with the body shop!

Car fixed and on collection finds a bunch of flowers in the passenger seat that he had asked the garage to get to say sorry!

So, much to my surprise there are still genuine people that will rectify their mistakes without question. Nothing was challenged.

But the OP has an idiot to deal with, if you'd said it would be a tenner he'd still complain, you can't win, he now has convinced himself he's the victim , hopefully karma pays him back

I am going through this exact thing now. I have got a quote from our (works) preferred body work shop who do lots of work for insurers.
The other party will get a copy of the quote. They either pay it or I will go directly to my insurer, that's the choice. I will not be going to another garage unless it is the BMW dealership.

I've had it happen from the different direction. I accidentally rolled back into a stationery car at some traffic lights. I inspected the damage to the girls car (a ratty old Mini) and offered to get it repaired at my cost as I had a few friends who were Mini nuts and would have been able to replace the grill and straighten the bumper in a breath. She was ok with this, so I gave her my phone number to let me know when it would be convenient to get the work done. That night, I got her shouty boyfriend ringing me up, giving me a load of verbal about sorting his GF's car out through the insurance companies. I explained patiently that if that was to happen, we would both loose out, as I would loose my no claims and she would have to declare a "no fault" accident, which you can bet your life, would affect her premium. He got more shouty about this, so I told him to eff off and hung up. She rang me later to try the same stunt but not shouty, so told her to do whatever she wanted but I would deny responsability. That waved the magic wand and my mate fixed it two days later and didn't even charge me. Just goes to show, you can think your doing the honourable thing but could be up against a d1ckwad.

She rang me later to try the same stunt but not shouty, so told her to do whatever she wanted but I would deny responsability.....

Just goes to show, you can think your doing the honourable thing but could be up against a d1ckwad.

Quite.

Bloke scraped my GFs car whilst parking at a pub. He was doing the same quiz as us and came in and asked over the mic who owned the red golf. He offered to pay for the repair rather than going through insurance.

GF gets a quote from local (recommended) body shop - £350. He's fine with it over the phone, promises to turn up with cash at the next quiz.

Next quiz comes along... he walks in, comes over and slaps down a wad of £20s on the table.

So it can work out fine.

Next quiz comes along... he walks in, comes over and slaps down a wad of £20s on the table.

So it can work out fine.

Well depends doesn't it? Did he give you £340 or £360?!

I knew someone would notice that!

He had a daily cash withdrawal limit of £300! Rest came later.

HoratioHufnagel - Member

Has anyone actually had success going down the "outside of insurance" route?

Yup but there was no pissing around with quotes- I told him what I wanted, we went to a nearby cash machine, job done. Obviously dependent on being able to make a good call on the cost though.

Given your description of the other parties attitude I would be suprised if they didnt deny at least some responsibility and then regardless of what was said, it becomes your wife's word against theirs which usually means a 50/50 claim and possible loss of NCD or a fault claim on your history.

That caution aside, its possible( and sometimes preferable) to sort these things out but you have to be pretty confident the other persons a decent sort or your leaving yourself open to hassle.

So she spends a morning going to a Garage recommended by her Dad (Taxi driver, knows every body-shop / garage in town) they say it should take a few days to properly spray it to match the car and they don't have a courtesy car as insurance companies usually supply these - but if we wanted it done quickly they'd order the new bumper in, spray it to the colour code of the car and it would only take a few hours to fit - but it might not exactly match the car as the original paint would have faded a bit over the years, but we're not out to screw anyone over and we just want it done quickly - there's a hole in the bumper now and it's cracked at the fixings so it's going in the bin anyway - £350

the other driver admitted fault straight away,

You'll be sure to tell the insurance that, they love that shizzle.

I don't know the law on responsibility but he should be prepared to stop when reversing right?

AFAIK it's an illegal manoeuvre full stop; you're not allowed to reverse from a minor to a major road. If not illegal, it's definitely against The Highway Code.

1. Go to bodyshop.
2. Ask them to colourmatch the vehicle (they use paint cards for this) .
3. ask bodyshop (or their paint supplier) to mix up paint to the colourmatch.
4. Get bumper in.
5. Spray bumper.
6. Leave car for a couple of hours to attach bumper.

7. Notice hitherto undiscovered structural damage underneath the bumper.
8. Realise that injuries are worse than originally assumed.
9. Cry.

Modern bumpers are designed to absorb impact by destroying internal struts. It's not immediately obvious and a second bump won't have that protection.

Also, anecdotally, a mate got rear-ended back when I was a student and the only visible damage was a dent the size of your thumb; the garage inspected it and it'd twisted the chassis, it was a write-off.

If not illegal, it's definitely against The Highway Code.

Googled, it's the latter.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/using-the-road-159-to-203

Rule 201
Do not reverse from a side road into a main road. When using a driveway, reverse in and drive out if you can.

Cougar +1, my mk2.5 MX5 had under the bumper further damage.

Is that a sarcastic "quite", bails, or a simpathetic "quite"?

Well ill guess sarcstic since i was with you untill the point you said ill deny responsibility,

They aint the nobbers im afraid.

They can choose how to have their car repaired . I wouldnt want your mate jimmy repairing my car down the lock up on sunday

If you read the paperwork from your insurance, it advises you not to admit to any responsibilty as a matter of course but simply to exchange details and record the time and place of the incident.

I could be wrong, but having...

inspected the damage to the girls car (a ratty old Mini) and offered to get it repaired at my cost

what he said - you already contravened your contract.

people who play that game are the reason i have a dash cam as insurance company's are spineless ****s.

and more so - just because its a ratty old mini you think you can have it done by some mates ..... i assume these mates are insured to work on other folks cars ? I drive ratty old cars but they are mine - maintained to my standards and if you drive into it i expect it to be repaired to my standards....by your pocket or your insurance.

There's a difference between not admitting liability at the scene and not telling your insurance company that the collision was your fault.

I don't know the law on responsibility but he should be prepared to stop when reversing right?

The only time I've settled without involving the insurance was when an old boy overshot a stop line and reversed back into the car. He got out, said how much, I guessed, he gave me the cash out of his wallet and drove off.

This is the problem with half-wits that have no idea about how anything works or what things really cost.

Last year my friends neighbour reversed into our car when we were visiting. He fessed up and promptly offered the 'outside insurance' route. He clearly thought it was just body work, but you could see the outline of the slam panel so I wanted it checked properly, refused and went to our insurer. I was right and the cost was considerably higher than expected.

6 months later he got a court summons and started ranting and raving. As far as we can tell, he'd ignored all the letters from our insurance company and not spoken to his insurer either, yet somehow it was our fault and had to put it right.

We copied the most relevant letter for him to see and he sort of went into the background muttering. To this day, he still blames our insurer, but we have an audit trail of letters telling us all about the progress of the case from our insurer.

Some people are just tools.