I’m an idiot and I cut a corner too close and hit my own fence causing substantial damage to my 3/4 panel.
I’m not going to be able to cover this out of my own pocket.
Can I claim for this?

If your fully comp, possibly after excess. Wrong section BTW.

Depends what your insurance policy covers

Fully comp car insurance would cover your car. I don’t think it would cover your fence, but an accidental damage home policy might.

The fence came off a lot better it was a corner post.

Apologies for the wrong section I seem to have trouble with aiming things today!

Will have a look at the policy docs it is fully comp

Yeah your car’s covered by the car policy and the fence might be under the buildings policy, I’m not 100% on the fence because they’ve got limited covers normally.

I once shunted my father-in-laws’s car through a fence and into the neighbouring garden.

The insurance covered everything. And my father-in-law was remarkably relaxed about the whole thing.

You should get your lawyers involved and pursue yourself vigorously through the courts.

Whiplash claim

Any witnesses?

CCTV?

Fully comp yes for the car nothing for fence repair of course.

Chat forum should be the default imho

Got a picture ? It may not be that bad.

Have you had a quote for repair? Once the excess and a possible increase in premium is taken into account then it might not be as bad you think

It’s bad
[/[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/nwmlarge/C7D0D67E-43B4-4F26-AEFE-75A630D78416_zpskwgg3r3r.jpg[/IMG]

I did pretty much exactly that to my Astra when I had it. I claimed on the insurance as I simply couldn’t afford the repair and the car was new enough to warrant it being done.

Did hurt the renewal premium though…

Glad to see I’m not the only idiot about.

How much did it go up?

I can live with a couple of hundred.

Blimey 🙁

Try a few local garages first. It could be less than your excess+annual insurance hikes.

Live with it.? It’s only a car.

I’d steer clear of getting it done on the insurance if you possibly can. You not only lose your no claims, but your premium will be loaded as well for approximately five years. By the time you factor that in, it might make more sense to get a few repair estimates then, if necessary, save up enough to get it fixed.

A friendly bodyshop may be prepared to use secondhand panels etc to reduce costs, which they won’t for an insurance job.

For perspective, I recently got rammed in a no fault incident, but while the claim was disputed, I had to pay an extra £200 on my insurance – now refunded – and only kept my no claims at that point, because it’s protected. If that repeated for five years, I’d be around £1,000 down. Worse if I didn’t have protected no claims.

And if you have another claim, it’ll get even worse. Plus insurance companies are a pain in the backside to deal with, the whole thing is a bloody racket designed to make things easier and more profitable for everyone involved except for you…

It’s bad

Really? I’d just put a bit of touch up paint on there and forget about it.

Glad to see I’m not the only idiot about. How much did it go up? I can live with a couple of hundred.

My situation was a bit different as it was my first year of insurance (I started driving really late on!) so it hit me quite bad but was worth it to get the car all shiny and nice. Mine was also quite a lot worse than that.

For that damage I’d really see if you could avoid going through the insurance. What no claims do you have and is it protected?

If you claim you will have 5 years worth of increased premiums and loss of no claims, total cost to you of minimum £1000, if you already have 5 plus years of no claims and they arent protected it could double that. Get the tippex out then take it to a decent bodyshop

My local bodyshop would fix that for about 250quid

Its a 64 plate Audi A3, its on a 4 year payment plan with balloon payment arrangement, i’m not sure they’d be keen on a bodged up repair, plus i’d quite like the car to be mint again.

£1000 over 5 years sounds better than £1500 now.

I dont think in current economic climates its possible to guesstimate insurance premium price hikes over said 5 year period – If it were me I would avoid all contact with insurance company – they ll scam you or rip you off someway or another – The damage to bodywork doesn’t look too bad – Shop adound for quotes locally and put fence work on the back burner until you have some spare time for some DIY ..

There is no damage to the fence tbh.

The lower sill is dented, the 3/4 has a hole in it and 2 x 3mm deep gouges, the door is dented too.

This seems quite a lot of work.

Will get some quotes in.

I’d just leave it. No point fixing it and the whacking it again.
If you must get it done just before you sell/return the car but TBH that’s so minor I probably wouldn’t even bother then.
My car isn’t as new as yours though, I’m much more relaxed about these things 🙂

I can tell Andy!

That is nothing, just leave it

Incidently, I went private with this and had it repaired for £340, IF anyone in essex needs a number for a decent body shop let me know.

Its a 64 plate Audi A3, its on a 4 year payment plan with balloon payment arrangement, i’m not sure they’d be keen on a bodged up repair, plus i’d quite like the car to be mint again.[/I]

I’d leave it until it’s due to return, just in case you do it again and that’d be a real pi55er.

nwmlarge – Member

Incidently, I went private with this and had it repaired for £340

Sounds like a good result!!

Good idea, leave it for a few years so when it needs fixed the whole wing will be rotten.

The paint split is bad enough but torn metal is worse, rust will destroy that in no time unless you do something now. This is going by the new van I had the misfortune of opening in a strong gale and wrapped the door round the front arch. Tiny nicks in the door and wing turned into extensive rust a year later when the work finally decided to repair it.

And if you think that’s bad you should have seen what a colleague did to her GT Skyline with a stray fence post.

Do people not actually read posts……?? 😆

The OP just posted this as an update:

nwmlarge – Member

Incidently, I went private with this and had it repaired for £340

and 2 of the 3 replies seem to have completely missed the whole point of a 2 month old thread resurrection….

b r – Member

I’d leave it until it’s due to return, just in case you do it again and that’d be a real pi55er.

squirrelking – Member

Good idea, leave it for a few years so when it needs fixed the whole wing will be rotten.

The paint split is bad enough but torn metal is worse, rust will destroy that in no time unless you do something now.

😉

Yes I (mis)read posts, no to time stamps.

My point still stands though, leaving it was the worst idea.