Advice on insurance claim

itno · 22 Aug 2009 at 20:14

I'm in a bit of a quandary over making a claim on my cars after some mindless vandalism. Was off to the doctors on Friday when I noticed that there was a deep scratch in one of my cars, the length is almost the length of the rear passenger door and a little on the rear quarter. The "person" who did this also sliced the rubber around the door handle. **** I thought, then looked at my other car and that has a similar scratch but longer. I then looked at the neighbour's car and that was scratched too, and the car behind the neighbour’s. I wandered up the street to find a further five cars with one or two long scratches along the rear. This was in the day when people had gone to work and may not have noticed their car had been damaged presuming the damage was done in the night. Could be that around 20 to 30 cars were vandalised (I counted 13 vandalised cars in total before 4 o'clock).

Have spoken to the police but the situation doesn't look good as no one saw or heard anything. No CCTV so, to quote the insurance company done by "unknown vandal".

Had a verbal assessment by a car body repairers recommended by the insurance company of £400 to £500 pounds where the estimator thought the damage looked more like it was done with a screwdriver. What I'm not sure of is whether to take it through the insurance or pay out of my pocket. Unfortunately, my no claims is not protected and excess is £220 so the difference for the insurance company will be another £200 to £300. Is a £400 to £500 claim worth putting through the insurance or better in the long run to take the hit to my wallet? Only thing is what if "unknown vandal" returns and does it again as it could get costly having the damage repaired over and over again. Advice greatly appreciated

iaind · 22 Aug 2009 at 20:56

Depends how much NCB you've got - it could easily cost more in the long run to build it up again. Presumably you dont have protected NCB?

You'd still need to pay the excess too

itno · 22 Aug 2009 at 21:20

5 years no claims bonus but it's not protected. With the difference between the excess and the full amount being a couple of hundred pounds, I'm thinking that it would be better to pay the full amount out of my pocket and keep my no claims rather than go through the insurance and have to pay £220 anyway. Does this sound okay?

Lumeycom · 22 Aug 2009 at 21:31

Pay it from your pocket, but if its not down to the metal i'd be inclined to leave it a while incase the little git decides to come back.

itno · 22 Aug 2009 at 21:36

Unfortunately, the scratch is down to the metal. Does beggar belief why anyone would walk up a street and scratch as many cars as possible. Will get the scratch repaired as soon as possible and it does worry me that they may do it again, particularly if they see the car has been repaired.

wez130 · 22 Aug 2009 at 21:46

really pi**es me off, mindless vandalism

.

I've just had a deep scratch removed from my car, was over 3 panels and was down to the metal. it really is gutting to find it. Yet the people that do it forget that one day they might own a nice car and would be equally as gutted if it happened to them. They need shooting, the lot of 'em

itno · 22 Aug 2009 at 21:56

wez130 said:
really pi**es me off, mindless vandalism .

I've just had a deep scratch removed from my car, was over 3 panels and was down to the metal. it really is gutting to find it. Yet the people that do it forget that one day they might own a nice car and would be equally as gutted if it happened to them. They need shooting, the lot of 'em

Agreed and sorry to hear about your car. The mindlessness and deliberate act of going out with a screwdriver and damaging as many cars as possible is puzzling to me. It did happen before in our area a neighbour was telling me who's car was damaged in the recent attack. In that case, the person who's car was damaged knew who did it and managed to get "compensation", one way or another.

PardonTheWait · 22 Aug 2009 at 22:41

wez130 said:
Yet the people that do it forget that one day they might own a nice car and would be equally as gutted if it happened to them.

That's the thing though, they won't ever own a nice car, which is why they do it. An ex's boss had a brand new TVR, one night someone scraped a brick all the way around it, I think he did every single panel. It was the flippy paint one as well. It's just malicious, just jealousy.

miniyazz · 23 Aug 2009 at 00:58

itno said:
Agreed and sorry to hear about your car. The mindlessness and deliberate act of going out with a screwdriver and damaging as many cars as possible is puzzling to me. It did happen before in our area a neighbour was telling me who's car was damaged in the recent attack. In that case, the person who's car was damaged knew who did it and managed to get "compensation", one way or another.

Hopefully compensation meant recompense and broken legs :mad:

tossers.

Personally I'd pay the repairs (or do a temporary botch job with a £10 spray can from Halfords, in case they return), but also spend £40 or however much they cost on a CCTV setup covering your drive/where you park. That way if they, or any other SOB does something similar, hopefully you'll be able to get them to pay for the damage. Make them think twice about doing it again.