car park prang, first time, advice please [pics]

fRostiE

fRostiE

fRostiE

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Evening,

Picking son up from nursery this evening and came back outside to find a women inspecting the front of my Seat Leon. She said she'd bumped it when reverse parking.

First thing, she's admitted fault, I've got her reg and mobile number and already been in touch. She's expressed she'd rather avoid insurance companies due to excess amounts which I've agreed would be preferable depending on the cost of repair.

My dad says i need to let my insurance company know as a matter of course, even if we don't intend to use insurance companies. Is that the case? I don't want to start any processes or ball rolling that cant be undone that would affect my premium. I've got 8 years NCB and protected No Claims, but as its not my fault i presume nothing of mine is at risk?

https://i.imgur.com/CIPcAtM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bCx17p8.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3J9yBoP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/HtchUXv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/I7W1NB6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sQw5nPK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/g0FKv4B.jpg

Image 1: The front bumper is plastic, few scrapes back to black.
Image 2: Front bumper has pushed up against metal wing, bent a small blob of front bumper and got a crack in paint.
Image 3: Front bumper is sitting ~1cm proud now, not sure if a clip has snapped or something is bent
Image 4: plastic wheel arch cover has cracked, almost full width of the wheel arch
Image 5: her car!
Image 6/7: car park / parking

Any advice and guidance on what i should be doing, how much i should expect to pay to get it fixed, it its best to use insurance etc. etc.

I've got an appointment tomorrow morning to take it into an accident repair place to get a quote. Car is also booked into SEAT on Monday for a service, so guess they can price things up too.

please be gentle with me! :( Thanks
 
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You’re supposed to let them know but it’s only going to lead to increased premium

You have a certain time window though so you could get some private quotes first
 
Technically you should let them know, but provided you're not going to use them, don't under any circumstances. However, as others have said, I suspect that might not be very cheap to fix so it's well worth getting a quote first.
 
In many cases I think people offer to repair outside of insurance expecting a bill for £50-100 for a quick smart repair. She may well baulk when you give her a bill for £3-500 to do that job properly. This happened when someone drove into my girlfriend's car and we presented them with the ~£450 repair bill from a local bodyshop. The third party, after initially saying "oh we'll sort it out, don't need to go through insurance for this", was like "I'm not paying that, my husband's friend's dog could probably fix that for £90", so we said "that's lovely, insurance it is then." It's probably now gonna cost her more than £450 in excess and increased premiums.

Mind you, the guy who hit my car in my work car park was happy to stump up £600 to fix the car and about £150 in hire car bills, so fingers crossed.
 
Howard said:
In many cases I think people offer to repair outside of insurance expecting a bill for £50-100 for a quick smart repair. She may well baulk when you give her a bill for £3-500 to do that job properly. This happened when someone drove into my girlfriend's car and we presented them with the ~£450 repair bill from a local bodyshop. The third party, after initially saying "oh we'll sort it out, don't need to go through insurance for this", was like "I'm not paying that, my husband's friend's dog could probably fix that for £90", so we said "that's lovely, insurance it is then." It's probably now gonna cost her more than £450 in excess and increased premiums.

Mind you, the guy who hit my car in my work car park was happy to stump up £600 to fix the car and about £150 in hire car bills, so fingers crossed.
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Exactly this.

I would firstly get a few quotes for the repair work, and then pass them over to the lady. If she decides she still wants to do this outside of insurance, then great she can pay for the work. But she might be shocked at the cost of the repair and you'll have to go via insurance - hence timing needs to be swift.

Oh also send a photo or email a copy of the quote, don't just phone her up and say "garage has given me a £450 quote for the repair", as she'll likely think you're trying it on. Can't argue with a copy of the quote.
 
bainbridge said:
Any cctv, dashcam footage or independent witnesses?
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No, there was only 1 other car in the carpark and nobody came forward. No dash-cam in either car. I've emailed the nursery about any CCTV but i doubt they'll come through - never noticed a camera covering the carpark.

Semple said:
Oh also send a photo or email a copy of the quote, don't just phone her up and say "garage has given me a £450 quote for the repair", as she'll likely think you're trying it on. Can't argue with a copy of the quote.
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yeah good idea, thanks

Taken it in to a repair place this morning, just waiting for their email quote. See what the first one comes through as
 
Get her to go via her insurance 100% - cash jobs outside insurance lead to all sorts of issues. When is she going to pay??, which garage she wants your work done at, when she can afford to pay, poor work quality etc etc.

Get some quotes by all means but I would push her to get it done via her insurance all the way. That's what you pay if for after all.
 
Agree with the sentiments of people always expect it to be peanuts
I had a similar repair to the bumper scratches done by chips away, the works fire engine clipped my car in the carpark and did similar damage to the scrapes, was £150 for that to blend paint etc

Try to get her to admit liability in writing, email/text is fine.
 
As others have already said:
1. It will be more expensive to repair this "properly" than either you or she thinks
2. Get a quote from (ideally) a manufacturer-approved bodyshop as this will keep any warranty you may have on the car intact
3. Once you have the quote(s) give her a call back with the prices
4. When she inevitably baulks at the price explain that you're happy to keep this away from insurance, but that's how much it will cost. Alternatively you can do it through insurance

Strictly you should inform your insurer of the "accident", but in this case I'd recommend you don't (unless you get to that point in step 4). Even just informing them will lead to a slight increase in your premium, though it will have no impact on your NCB.

I had a door ding repaired by the BMW approved bodyshop and it cost a total of £800! This ended up going through the other guy's insurance though I first offered him the chance to avoid that route.
 
Get a quote for the repair yourself before you tell insurer.

Bodyshops will charge loads for fixing dents, but a PDR guy will do it for a fraction of the price then you can find a painter after.

When I last had a dent repaired a local bodyshop (which the local Audi/VW dealers use) wanted £600, most of it being for the dent. A PDR guy pulled it out for £60 lol. Difference was the bodyshop wanted to do it a very long winded way. They didn't have someone with the skill set to do it the paintless way.
 
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Just kept her in the loop from this mornings assessment:
"When looking at the car this morning they noticed the bumper has pushed into the wing and split the paint on the corner so that needs some attention and the wheel arch plastic has cracked. Just wanting to keep you informed as it doesn't look quite as simple as either of us may have first anticipated."

she's come back and said:
"Okay. It's best to get my insurance to deal with it as it's probably not going to be less than my excess to repair. Can you give me your details too so I can pass on to them please. Thanks"

Looks like it might be going in that direction then.
 
Howard said:
In many cases I think people offer to repair outside of insurance expecting a bill for £50-100 for a quick smart repair. She may well baulk when you give her a bill for £3-500 to do that job properly. This happened when someone drove into my girlfriend's car and we presented them with the ~£450 repair bill from a local bodyshop. The third party, after initially saying "oh we'll sort it out, don't need to go through insurance for this", was like "I'm not paying that, my husband's friend's dog could probably fix that for £90", so we said "that's lovely, insurance it is then." It's probably now gonna cost her more than £450 in excess and increased premiums.

Mind you, the guy who hit my car in my work car park was happy to stump up £600 to fix the car and about £150 in hire car bills, so fingers crossed.
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pretty much this.

people think it will cost <£100 to sort out. in reality it will be closer to £500 to be done properly and that's only if there is no real damage like unrepairable cracks underneath, etc.

costs of resprays to be done properly on a bumper is close to £400 alone. it's also a 2 day job if done properly. so you would be without the car for 2-3 days and therefore through insurance you would get a hire car.

so it then ramps up to closer to £1000 all in. however when the person sees the minimal damage on the surface they think it will cost 20 quid to fix.
 
Also keep in mind that if you still have a bodywork/paint/rust warranty on the car then you would have to use an approved bodyshop. Otherwise a future rust claim anywhere on the car may be refused (the legality of that is dubious, and they hopefully would not be able to tell, but nevertheless it's a hassle). So you may want to get it done via a dealer which will push the price up significantly.
 
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