Someone’s scraped and damaged my car and snapped part of the bumper off while it was parked outside my house (it was a truck, so they possibly didn’t realise). Driver didn’t leave any details but a bloke up the road saw it and got the reg. Car only cost me a grand a couple of years ago so I’m guessing insurance will write it off. Please can anyone tell me my options in terms of reporting to police/insurance etc? If we tell the cops, are we then bound by law to report it to our insurer and potentially start a ball rolling that will land me out of pocket and/or needing to get a new motor? What should I do? Any advice welcome. Ta.

Why would you be out of pocket?

The police are unlikely yo take much interest as no injuries but if you have a reg no & a witness you should simply report it to either his insurer or your own who should contact them for you.

This is a good place to start

Car only cost me a grand a couple of years ago so I’m guessing insurance will write it off

Why, if it’s driveable why would you scrap it?

Is it significant damage, is it really worth fixing? I’ve been driven into a few times and just let it go. Theoretically it shouldn’t effect your insurance but somehow they manage to find a reason to put your premium up.

B R: He won’t, his (or there) insurance company will, though going by my claim this year, they should give you a chance to buy it back cheap (I assume cheap, as I wasn’t interest, so didn’t ask).

The police are unlikely yo take much interest as no injuries but if you have a reg no & a witness you should simply report it to either his insurer or your own who should contact them for you.

round here the police would treat that quite seriously (failing to stop AND failing to report (2 diff charges)).

Bobby – lose my no claims, or rising premiums?

BR – Personally I wouldn’t scrap it, but this happened once before (I live on a narrow road and that time it was a drunk driver) and even minor damage prompted the insurer to write the car off – I wasn’t offered a choice.

New bumper from the scrappy/eBay, then go through MIB for non-insured compensation if you really think you need to.

Ta for info. Daft question maybe, but if my insurance can track down the driver and his insurance cough up, do I lose my no claims?

Had this last year

wl – Member

Ta for info. Daft question maybe, but if my insurance can track down the driver and his insurance cough up, do I lose my no claims?

No, because you are not claiming on your insurance.
Your premium will likely rise however, those that claim once are more likely to claim again.
It’s a shitter. 👿

first step tell you insurance company and they’ll simply open up a new “notification”.

If you go ahead and pursue the claim, and they do find the other driver at fault you’ll not lose any no claims, nor pay any excess, all done through the other drivers insurance company.

You’ll have to declare being in an accident in subsequent years applying for insurance but on a no fault basis, apparently it doesn’t increase premiums, this bit i’m unsure about 😆

Not sure about that, maybe it will. Even though the 3rd party admitted liability in our ‘coming together’ my renewal premium jumped up loads even though I had protected NCB. Was really pissed off about that and took my business elsewhere.

Until recently i worked for a large car insurance company…
If you report it your insurer can trace the insurer from the reg (assuming there is one) if the person didn’t stop chances are they don’t really want to report it so chances are will take a long process to get them to accept liability which if they do you won’t lose your no claims but you will still have a claim on your record that some insurers will use as a reason to increase your premium.

A few years ago someone bumped my car in the car park at work. They looked behind to assess the damage and then just drove off while I sat and watched from my desk…

The police wanted to charge her with leaving the scene of an accident. I gave her the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe she was just embarrassed. And when the police knocked on her door she denied any knowledge.

However, because I had an independent witness, her insurance company didn’t even question it and came up with a cash offer within a few days despite her continuing to deny it. (I think you’re entitled to carry out the repairs yourself if you wish to do so – there should be no need for them to take your car and write it off).

It sounds like you’re in a similar situation…

Mentioned a few times above, but has anybody managed to pin the increased cost of premium when they have no fault on the other party? Tendious to accurately quantify over time for sure.

It seems more than little unfair that your premium may increase if you are completely not at fault, as clearly in the case of the OP.

Do not inform your insurance company. In the past I’ve had premium rises even though I haven’t made any claims because I made the mistake of calling them to discuss if a potential claim would be worth more than the associated premium rise. In the end I didn’t claim but they recorded it and bumped up the premium anyway.

On a car that value I wouldn’t even claim if it was stolen. I view the insurance on my cheap car as a tax, I need to pay it but I’ll never claim unless I’m at fault for someone else’s damage.

A story:

I was taken out by a foreign HGV this summer in my wife’s motor as named driver.

Totally 100% his fault. With witnesses.

My wife’s premium doubled and we’re looking to move insurance providers.

The NCD cert lists it as a (my)Fault claim (pending). My fault was to go driving that day! I was fuming but apparently this is what they do. It’ll only change when the foreign insurer pays up. Why not No Fault (pending)? When I queried the premium, we ‘re now a higher risk. Apparently. I explained that statistical theory states otherwise but in their view I’m wrong. They even stated it’d be the case if my car was parked and someone drove into it.

The whole industry is one great big scam. They even tried to generate sympathy by saying how much they’ve paid out and are out of pocket; I then re-briefed them on the economics of the whole scrappage and told him I was very aware that the only party losing money would be the third party’s insurers.

I would in your case report it and claim if you felt the car warranted expensive repairs. Otherwise drive it into the ground.

Same happened to me, except there was no witnesses or reg.
Reported it to the police and the insurance.
Police couldn’t really do anything but took some details.
In the end I had the car repaired myself so the insurance weren’t involved (2 doors and a wing and all repainted) although they did keep it on record as being a claim.
maybe things will be a bit different given you have details of the offender?

Try to report it directly through the 3rd party insurer. They have no claim to your vehicle so have to offer cash if it’s not economic to repair, apparently they are not able to write off your vehicle. Also our insurer it turns out, charges you your excess even if it’s non-fault and the other party don’t contest it.

Don’t let the other driver get off free… He should’ve stopped!

I left my handbrake off and the car rolled into the garage. It needed quite a bit of work to the boot lid. Claimed it through my insurer (Aviva), but when collecting the car I found that the repair bill cost only £7 more than my excess. I phone Aviva and cancelled the claim and paid the body shop myself. They said the claim would be wiped from my records and not effect future premiums. I have recently renewed with Aviva and they were still the cheapest I could find and there was no increase in premium from last year.

Just recently had an old man crash into the same car in a car park. He drove off but a kind witness left a note on my windscreen. Went to the police station the next day and the officer phoned him up. He didn’t deny doing it and passed on his insurance details. Police gave me his contact details also. I used my insurer to chase his insurer. The whole process was stress free and seamless. Not had an insurance renewal since, so can’t comment on whether my premium will go up.

as per other cases above. Wife was reversed into in a car park by a driver who then drove off. A bystander gave witness details, wife had make and reg, and then contacted the police and made a short statement at the local police station who then knocked on his door and suggested he either pass on details on face a formal investigation for ‘leaving the scene’

She then went through the 3rd party insurers directly although she did inform her insurer as well of the process. All above board, all sorted properly.

First step for you would be to contact either police on 101 with your details and the witness details, or if it’s a truck identifiable by reg but also liveried with a firm’s name or tradesman’s details, etc. maybe you give can call his firm and give him the opportunity to fess up without involving the police. You might still need that as a threat though if he / they won’t.

The contrast between the advice on this thread and the Beetle bonnet one is a little stark…
Just saying..
😀

On a car that value I wouldn’t even claim if it was stolen. I view the insurance on my cheap car as a tax, I need to pay it but I’ll never claim unless I’m at fault for someone else’s damage.

Exactly. My insurance costs less than my tax anyway 🙂

And you will lose your excess only if your insurance has to pay out for damage to your car, and they don’t get the monies back from the 3rd party (or their insurance company).

Cheers v much for all the info – will read through and decide what to do. There’s only one certainty here – insurance companies suck.

Trust me, get all the details from your friend & say you sore it!!

I had a lovely classic Audi 80 and someone smashed the rear quarter in and drove off at very high speed. I got the reg and the make etc and reported it to the Police.

Next day on way to work half way between Wolves and Walsall I saw the car drumped near a block of flats. Went over and saw my metallic green paint on damaged front wing and called Police.

Car was unregistered and uninsured and not taxed.

I didn’t bother telling the insurance company as I was 3rd party. Never bothered to fix the damage and sold the car 🙁

My car got a huge scrape and the wing mirror taken out while parked on the street outside my house. I came home and saw the damage and was all sinking feeling but then! A note! From the police! A policeman saw it happen and got the reg. OK so on the note he’d somehow got the street wrong, but hey!

Anyway, he also got the reg wrong or it was an uninsured driver. Back to the sinking feeling. Got it repaired. A few weeks later a truck or van did more or less the same damage, no witnesses this time. I hate my street sometimes.

If you’ve got the Reg number report it to your insurer. Trucks hit things all the time without realising so there won’t be any need for police to get involved, and generally speaking for a small amount of damage the insurer of a fleet of trucks will just pay out.

If the insurer does write your car off you’ll be able to buy the salvage and get it repaired if you like, but it’ll be a cat c or d write off. If it’s only worth a couple of grand though it wont be an issue

Same happened to me, except there was no witnesses or reg.
Reported it to the police and the insurance.
Police couldn’t really do anything but took some details.
In the end I had the car repaired myself so the insurance weren’t involved (2 doors and a wing and all repainted) although they did keep it on record as being a claim.
maybe things will be a bit different given you have details of the offender?

Very similar. It was obviously a truck that did it. Only difference was that it was about 2k worth of body panel repair, so I had to claim as I didn’t have that sort of cash up front. 😡

To say I was a bit cheesed off would be an understatement.

The whole industry is one great big scam.

Too right. If it happens again, I’ll sort it out myself, and won’t even bother phoning the insurance company.

b r, with our insurance the excess was payable regardless of fault. Apparently we couldn’t deal direct with other insurer due to them having a specialist policy.

My wife kicked off and refused to accept the keys back at the bodyshop until the insurer waived the excess, but otherwise you have to make a separate claim against the other driver for uninsured losses.

I think this is something certain insurers have sneaked into the terms and conditions.

Honestly – it is probably cheaper, easier and less hassle to either:
1 – suck it up
2 – suck it up and buy a new car.

Happened a few years ago. Some scrote hit my van whilst I was on holiday. My next door neighbour witnessed it and took his details. The scrote knocked at my door and told me he would pay cash for the repair but could I wait a few weeks. Never seen him again. I contacted my insurance and they confirmed he was insured and gave me the details of the company. Contacted them direct and they paid out within about 8 weeks after not receiving any replies from him.

OP: The simplest thing to do is report it to the police. If you don’t want to then use the link to Ask MID I posted above, get his insurance details & call them direct.

There is no need for this to cost you a penny.