First ding... To the internets!

Clown

Clown

Clown

Soldato
Joined
13 Apr 2004
Posts
5,086
Location
London
Hi guys, I've had my first ding and I have a few questions.

Firstly a bit about the situation. I was down a residential road off the main road and there was a row of us going towards the main road. I was the second car in the column when the first car decided he wanted to reverse park to my right. I was right up his rear so I started reversing to let him in, but then I reversed into someone back and left to me who was pulling out of a slot.

It was chucking it down and I had the music on and I just didn't see or hear him there. There was only a little corner of him poking out and it was a low speed ding. He has a three small white scratches around his bumper/front right headlight area, and I have a penny sized white scratch/hole on my back bumper.

This was the first incident I ever had so in the mix of it I didn't take his details. It was raining really hard and I was just trying to get out of there, really. I left him my insurance company and my name and phone number and offered to pay for repairs if he wanted to avoid the insurance company.

1. Did I do the right thing? I think I've basically accepted liability for it even though it looks like he just started pulling out on me?

2. I'm preparing myself to lose my current year's no-claims bonus. Will I lose last years no-claims as well? I only just renewed my insurance last month, so would I be able to cancel my insurance and start a new year with a new company?

3. Is there anything I need to do other than claim for whiplash? (Calm down, I'm taking the pee ;)) I think I'm going to want to fill the small gash in my rear bumper because I don't want it to rust up underneath, but my friend said it was plastic!
 
Surely the person who was pulling out should have checked to see nothing was in the way? Although they could be mistaken for thinking that you wouldn't reverse into them... i'd say there was equal blame, but you probably avoided a worse situation by owning up.
 
Clown said:
1. Did I do the right thing?
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Not really, you should never admit liability for starters and you really should have taken his details. Easy to forget these things in the heat of the moment though.

If he claims your insurance company will contact you to get your side of the story, so it would be a good idea to make a drawing of the exact positions of all the cars (including parked ones), and the sequence of events whilst it's fresh in your mind.
 
His fault, shouldn't have pulled out into your path, reversing lights are pretty obvious right. Unless of course he pulled out a little bit then stopped to wait for you, only you veered left and hit his stationary car, in which case it would be your fault. In any case, you've admitted liability now so you can't really take that back.
 
1. By giving your details and not taking his, you've practically accepted liability. If not, why didn't you take his details? Its either going to be your liability or if you put up a fight 50/50 - so it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. A claim is being made in your name regardless.

2. Unless you have protected no claims, when you loose your NCB, you generally loose all your NCB - not just the current year you are in. However some insurance companies might be more generous. You will have to check. I don't think cancelling your policy and starting a new one would work out financially beneficial.

3. Are you fully comp. As I'm presuming the other person is making a claim against you, you may as well get your car fixed properly in the process. It wont make any difference to your premium. If you're 3rd party, or the other person is willing to get his car fixed outside of insurance, then yes you bumper will probably be plastic so rust wont be an issue. If its only a gash then its only cosmetic. Bit of gaffer tape will fix a bumper no problem. ;)
 
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If you loose your no claims, you loose all your no claims - no way around it. The clue's in the name, its how many years you havent had a claim, that's now 0 years ;)
 
Clown said:
1. Did I do the right thing? I think I've basically accepted liability for it even though it looks like he just started pulling out on me?
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No, absolutely not!

NEVER admit fault, EVER! It's not your job, it's for the insurance company to decide. Now that you have admitted fault on your own, you will face higher insurance premiums for life.

Correct action is to swap details, recover cars if needed, call police if you've damages property other than your cars. Let the insurance companies do the rest.

2. I'm preparing myself to lose my current year's no-claims bonus. Will I lose last years no-claims as well? I only just renewed my insurance last month, so would I be able to cancel my insurance and start a new year with a new company?
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You can, but you will only get a partial refund on the insurance if you do, and then you'd be re-insuring with a fault accident to your name. It will be cheaper to stay put if they don't terminate the policy.

3. Is there anything I need to do other than claim for whiplash? (Calm down, I'm taking the pee ;)) I think I'm going to want to fill the small gash in my rear bumper because I don't want it to rust up underneath, but my friend said it was plastic!
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Best you don't do anything, sounds like you've done enough damage already.
 
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I didn't tell him it was my fault but I did offer to cover the costs of repair outside of insurance company if it gets to that, which is just as bad I guess.

I do have his phone number. Can I get his details later if he doesn't want to settle privately?

I do have reversing lights, but since I was the one going backwards and he didn't get out of the way I just assumed it was my fault.

It was quite slow and we didn't grind panels or anything so the wound is minimal. I hope he gets it fixed privately so we don't need to go through either of our insurances - is this realistic though? Would he have anything to lose for a non-fault claim?

I only passed this time last year, I had one year no claims and I literally only just renewed a few weeks ago! First insurance was £1200 and this year it was £750... Am I looking at paying £1200 again for my next insurance if he goes that way?

I should apologise to you guys for the probably mundane and stupid questions, this is my first time!
 
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iaind said:
If you loose your no claims, you loose all your no claims - no way around it. The clue's in the name, its how many years you havent had a claim, that's now 0 years ;)
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As said - rubbish. The insurance companies normally judge how bad the accident was and reduce the NCB accordingly.

IE. if you had 5 years NCB and you scraped someones car in a car park, they wouldn't remove all of your NCB.

However if you wrote your car off along with 3 others they're likely to take all of your NCB.
 
happend to me recently when i was driving my dads car. stoopid fat ass taxi man had parked more than half of his huge people carrier in a tight street(Stowell street in Newcastle).

i squeezed through heard a slight knock on the passenger wing mirror just thought i had just clipped his rear corner so my wing mirror went in.

turns out after 5mins cos i had just walked into the casino he had the slightest ever scratch on this plastic rear quarter. which looked like he could have easily buffed out.

me being a nooby just said heres my details i'll take the blame.

costed me 95£ cos i didnt want to bump my dads insurance to i just paid instead

of going thru insurance. he blaytantly pocketed it cos he said its ok about the VAT i'll get that back... yeah right! at least he was nice enough to sign a quote for the repair and date it so i have my own securities guess he wasnt so bad after all but 95£ :(
 
Gaygle said:
However if you wrote your car off along with 3 others they're likely to take all of your NCB.
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I honestly never knew it worked like that, having never crashed I've never had to experience it - the only direct experience I had was my aforementioned friend, who wrote off the car, nearly killing the occupants (me!). Also taking out several road signs, killing a few trees, needing the road closed for 3 hours to recover the car
 
If I report an incident, will that affect my premium even if nobody claims?
Hypothetically speaking - If someone crashed into me and I had to claim, would my premium go up even if it wasn't my fault?

I've asked the bloke for his details so we'll see what he sends me. I think I'll report the incident to my company if he tells me he needs to claim. If he has nothing to lose by going through insurance then he would have no reason to settle privately.

For the few small scratches though, I hope he'll let me cover the cost of repair. If it has only scratched down to white, does that mean it's down to the undercoat? How much would something like that cost to repair on a black 08 plate Mercedes something?
 
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