Make a claim or not?

Tinders

Tinders

Tinders

Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2003
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There's a voice that keeps on calling me.
Hey peeps,

Im after some advise from some of you experienced folks. Basically one of my dads cars (merc ML) has been hit at his unit.

It was hit by a chap from another unit on the estate, weve got all the details and cctv footage and the chap has admitted it. In the spirit of fairness, my dad gave the guy the option of paying to have the damage to be fixed outisde of insurance , as the damage is only a dented wing, which he said was happy to do. Problem is that hes gone dark and isnt answering calls etc, so the next step is a claim on the insurance.

However, with the damage being fairly small and any potential claim resulting in a premium hike, were starting to think if its worth it. On the other hand, with the bloke being a bit of a **** i dont want him to get away with it. Whilst it was an accident, the way he pulled out when he hit the car was proper idiotic.

Would it be worth pursuing in the small claims court? the damage would prob cost £120 to put right (new wing and paint), so its not a huge amount, but its a point of principle, a person should stick to their word.

What does OCUK think.
 
Something similar happened to me years ago. The guy was sound, admitted fault and exchanged details. Tried to get hold of him and nothing, so I started to think he’d done a runner on me and notified my insurance ect. A few days later he got in contact with me and ended up paying for the damage.

Give him the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer. At the end of the day though £120 isn’t the end of the world and I certainly wouldn’t involve insurance companies for it.
 
This is what insurance is for. If you take it to small claims you'll have to justify why it wasn't taken through insurance.

The guy is an idiot though - if he can get away with only £120 to put it right then he should be taking your hand off.
 
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Take the wing off his car and replace your dented wing with that. Bonus points if the models are completely dissimilar.
 
Even though your not at fault, you can bet going through insurance will cost more than £120 in the long term,for both of you, I’d be inclined to give him a bit more time then go and remind him if it’s insurance it’ll cost him a lot more in premium hikes.
 
£120 sounds far too cheap for a new wing, painted and likely blended. Is this ML a workhorse of a car or something a bit nicer? That's also a consideration.

If it's literally just dented (no paint damage), PDR can probably remove it.
 
I can’t imagine being able to get a repair involving paint to any kind of acceptable standard for £120 unless the car is a complete shed. Also, whilst a non-fault claim might increase premiums a bit it shouldn’t be much of an increase.

As I see it you have a number of options:

First of all you can give the guy the benefit of the doubt and keep chasing him. Depending on how long it’s been, there could be a legitimate reason for not getting back to you, if he has a unit on the estate he can’t hide forever. How long you keep doing this for will depend on how much of a hurry you are in to get this resolved.

If/when you decide he’s not going to play ball then either:

If the car is a scruffy workhorse/shed I either wouldn’t bother getting it fixed or I’d tidy it up the best I could for minimum outlay depending on the amount of damage

If the car is nice and you want to keep it nice, go through his insurance and get it fixed properly (The bill could easily be several hundred pounds involving blending in to surrounding panels)
 
Dis86 said:
That would be failure to report an accident and leaving the scene of an accident. Both criminal offences.
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The accident doesn't need reporting unless there was injury or emergency service called. There's no suggestion they left the scene of the accident either but in any case is now irrelevant as details have been exchanged.

It's very much a civil matter at this point and it'd be a waste of resources to pick up that phone.
 
On Holiday said:
The accident doesn't need reporting unless there was injury or emergency service called. There's no suggestion they left the scene of the accident either but in any case is now irrelevant as details have been exchanged.

It's very much a civil matter at this point and it'd be a waste of resources to pick up that phone.
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Incorrect. If damage results you are required to report it.
 
Tinders said:
However, with the damage being fairly small and any potential claim resulting in a premium hike, were starting to think if its worth it.
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You need to inform the insurer of the accident anyway. Just tell them that you do not currently intend to make a claim but reserve the right to do so.

Dis86 said:
Incorrect. If damage results you are required to report it.
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To the insurer yes; to the police, are you sure?
 
Quartz said:
You need to inform the insurer of the accident anyway. Just tell them that you do not currently intend to make a claim but reserve the right to do so.



To the insurer yes; to the police, are you sure?
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I never said they had to report it to the police. I said that failure to report it is a criminal offence.
 
Quartz said:
To the insurer yes; to the police, are you sure?
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The law defines a reportable road traffic collision as a collision involving a mechanically-propelled vehicle on a road or other public area which causes:
  • injury or damage to anybody - other than the driver of that vehicle
  • injury or damage to an animal - other than one being carried on that vehicle (an animal is classed as a horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat or dog)*
  • damage to a vehicle - other than the vehicle which caused the collision
  • damage to property built on, attached to, growing in, or otherwise forming part of the land where the road is
 
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