Bit of advice on my mum's car, hit when stationary

CaptainUnlikely

CaptainUnlikely

CaptainUnlikely

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My mum's car was parked up last night on the road, she came to it this morning to find a note on saying basically "hit your car, sorry, here's my address & phone number". They're local, from the cul de sac across the road from my parents' house, so she's going to pop round tonight to see what's what.
Her car has some fairly bad scratches across the rear bumper now, and she says the bumper is out of alignment, looks like it's been pushed in. Is it likely to be just a new bumper job, or is it likely to involve more than that? I know it's hard to say without an accurate description or pictures, I've asked her to get some pictures after work.
I think she'd be best to avoid going through insurance if at all possible as the car is a Rover 45, worth around £750, so it doesn't seem worth it. Plus, I think if she did it would be likely to be written off anyway due to the low value.

Any thoughts on how it's likely to proceed and what's the best way to go about this? When someone reversed into me late last year, I just went to a body shop, got a quote, they paid up and I got the scratches taken care of for about £80, so that wouldn't have been worth the hassle of insurance at all especially with my £250 excess. I'm just wondering if there is more damage to her car than just the bumper, whether insurance would be the best way - maybe have the car written off, get a payout, and either buy another car or buy it back and have it repaired, depending on how much it will cost. I know it's only a Rover but she really likes it and we've spent quite a bit of time since she bought it getting it looking nice and sorting the few issues it had so from what she said, she'd like to keep it if it's feasible.

Only asking for advice because I've never had to deal with insurance for anything really so I'm not sure what the usual procedure is or anything.

Thanks in advance for any help :)
 
CaptainUnlikely said:
My mum's car was parked up last night on the road, she came to it this morning to find a note on saying basically "hit your car, sorry, here's my address & phone number". They're local, from the cul de sac across the road from my parents' house, so she's going to pop round tonight to see what's what.
Her car has some fairly bad scratches across the rear bumper now, and she says the bumper is out of alignment, looks like it's been pushed in. Is it likely to be just a new bumper job, or is it likely to involve more than that? I know it's hard to say without an accurate description or pictures, I've asked her to get some pictures after work.
I think she'd be best to avoid going through insurance if at all possible as the car is a Rover 45, worth around £750, so it doesn't seem worth it. Plus, I think if she did it would be likely to be written off anyway due to the low value.

Any thoughts on how it's likely to proceed and what's the best way to go about this? When someone reversed into me late last year, I just went to a body shop, got a quote, they paid up and I got the scratches taken care of for about £80, so that wouldn't have been worth the hassle of insurance at all especially with my £250 excess. I'm just wondering if there is more damage to her car than just the bumper, whether insurance would be the best way - maybe have the car written off, get a payout, and either buy another car or buy it back and have it repaired, depending on how much it will cost. I know it's only a Rover but she really likes it and we've spent quite a bit of time since she bought it getting it looking nice and sorting the few issues it had so from what she said, she'd like to keep it if it's feasible.

Only asking for advice because I've never had to deal with insurance for anything really so I'm not sure what the usual procedure is or anything.

Thanks in advance for any help :)
Click to expand...

Best dealing outside of insurance.

What i've Underlined/bolded above is important - you do not have to pay an excess if it is someone else's fault (with valid insurance).
 
You'd have to look but it might just be either broken clips or damaged bumper guides along with the bumper itself.

If it was my car and I'd damaged it I would probably get new guides and clips then plastic weld broken bumper holes ( so long as there weren't many and heat it back into shape. Given someone else has hit it I would be more inclined to price new guides, second hand bumper and the cost of paint - maybe 200
 
RedvGreen said:
Best dealing outside of insurance.

What i've Underlined/bolded above is important - you do not have to pay an excess if it is someone else's fault (with valid insurance).
Click to expand...

Cheers, not sure what I was thinking when I wrote that earlier, you're right of course.

rodenal said:
You'd have to look but it might just be either broken clips or damaged bumper guides along with the bumper itself.

If it was my car and I'd damaged it I would probably get new guides and clips then plastic weld broken bumper holes ( so long as there weren't many and heat it back into shape. Given someone else has hit it I would be more inclined to price new guides, second hand bumper and the cost of paint - maybe 200
Click to expand...

She took it up to a mechanically minded friend who lives closer than me and they say there's no structural damage but the silver trim has been decimated and there's actually a hole in the bumper now. Looks like new (second hand) bumper time, plus fitting & probably paint, like you said - she's just called and she's popping over there now to have a chat and see what they want to do. I've told her to try and stay outside of insurance and see if she can go and get a few quotes for the work, wouldn't mind doing it myself if it was her fault but as the dozy person has admitted they just didn't look and drove into the car as "it's usually not parked there" :rolleyes: I'm also inclined to let them pay for someone else to fit and paint it and do anything else that is required like guides, to make it perfect or as close as an 11 year old Rover can be.
 
RedvGreen said:
Best dealing outside of insurance.

What i've Underlined/bolded above is important - you do not have to pay an excess if it is someone else's fault (with valid insurance).
Click to expand...

Depends on insurer, sometimes you may have to pay the excess first anyway, but get it back afterwards.
 
If you are going to go outside of the insurance my best advice would be..

Agree on a sum of money to be paid
Collect sum of money to be paid
Shake hands, thank them for being honest.
Do what you like with the car afterwards...

DO NOT under any circumstances go down the road of "ahh get it fixed mate and we'll pay the bill" road, it WILL get messy, you WILL lose out, you WILL wish you went through the insurance from the start.
 
That's exactly what I did with mine - got a quote, agreed on a price, they transferred the money, then I got it sorted and sent them a copy of the bill so we were both satisfied. We both signed a bit of paper saying that this was full and final settlement or something along those lines too, to prevent any comeback later on. It went pretty well to be honest.

The woman who drove into my mum's car wants to go through insurance for whatever reason, so as I'm going round there tomorrow anyway I'll help her sort it all out. Just so I'm 100% clear, what's the procedure? Assuming my mum phones her own insurer to tell them she's been involved in an incident but is not making a claim, then phones the other person's insurance to claim off them? Not sure as I've never dealt with insurance for a claim. Then what's the procedure with the car being written off, which I'm sure is what's going to happen?
 
Due to most insurers being next to useless I'd ring the other persons insurer and deal with them directly.
 
No point binning it 'just because it's a Rover' - get it sorted out IMO. A bumper shouldn't be too much, and for pottering about the 45 is a good car. If you've fixed the common things you should have years left yet.

I tend to buy a 400/45 when I need a bargain bin car, all have been pretty good.
 
Not planning on binning it at all, it is a good car and she loves it. I was just asking how the insurance process works when claiming as the other party won't go outside of insurance so it'll have to be a claim otherwise she'll be left out of pocket. If it gets written off the plan is to buy it back and do the bumper myself, should be around 40 quid and an afternoon's work. Looks like it's just the bumper that's damaged along with the chrome effect trim, back box has been slightly bent but it's incredibly rusty so due for replacement anyway.
Shame they didn't hit more centrally, then the tow bar would've probably taken its toll on their car!
 
Good stuff - and the backboxes usually hold on pretty well even when they look totally past it.

I spent a year wondering when the backbox on my ZS would fall off - it didn't and was replaced with stainless well before needed.

I'd advise against insurance, as they'll load her premiums and it'll just be written off.
 
Well, they decided on the outcome today after getting a bit of the old runaround with photos and things. They have oddly valued the car at around £1250, and £190 salvage value. So, she's buying the car back, and getting around £1060 payout to get it repaired. Not a bad outcome, in my eyes! Obviously her premium will increase at renewal, but hopefully not by too much as it is after all a non fault claim. The car will be a cat C but that'll hardly affect its value at this age.
 
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