Greetings all, Sorry....long post. I have a two problems : 1) Never able to use one word when ten will do, and 2) see below: My wife was hit whilst in our elderly but (perhaps stupidly) cherished Golf the other day. The 'lady' who hit her was evidently looking in shop windows and failed to notice that all the cars in front had stopped. Not surprisingly my wife was a bit shaken but managed to get the christian name and land-line number of the perpetrator. She also noted the registration number as the woman drove off. Our mechanic has told us that the car is safe and would go through an MOT again, and in fact if you don't look too closely at the crazing in the rear bumper, it doesn't jump out at you as having been bashed. However the back has been pushed up sufficiently for it to be hard work opening and closing the hatch lid. To sort this bit out would be uneconomic due to the cars age and its market value. We have left a couple of messages inviting them to cough up the couple of hundred that it will cost for our mechanic to tidy the minor problems up but had no response, not entirely surprisingly. I don't think they realize that we have their registration number and that our insurance company could therefore trace them, and that they are therefore just lying low. From checks I've done myself I know that their car is taxed, MOT'd and insured. Problem is, if we claim against her insurance our car is very likely to be written off (because of the hatchback issue). In all other respects its a good car and we would want to keep it so....what to do?? I am keen for them to pay for what she's done - in more than just the monetary sense, however it would seem that the only way we could hang onto the car is to just accept the fact that the dozy mare has bashed our motor and got clean away with it. Anyone been in this position before? Am I being too sensitive? The option of getting ours written off and buying it back to repair has crossed our mind but the hassle puts us off and we are in immediate chaos the moment one of our cars is off the road for any reason. Any thoughts and suggestions would be most welcome. Cheers muchly, Andy
not identical but had similar late last year. Partly due to my background I 'followed my own route' and talked to the other party's Insurance Company and so when car was written off I bought it back myself and with zero Category damage awarded against my car. I appreciate that this is a gamble for you as you can only get access to Insurance details by declaring all to your company plus you don't know if it will be written off yet plus you don't know if the other Insurance company will 'play ball'.
I had a similar one in 1997........someone rear ended my Ford XR4x4........I managed to get the 'offender's' details and contacted their insurance company. I told them I would do the repairs if they paid for the parts; which they did. Maybe you could try the same, but you will need to get your insurance company to get the other party's insurance details....however, that doesn't mean you are claiming off your insurance, so they should help.
I'm glad it worked out for you re: them getting the parts but I wouldn't even get tied up with that possible complication these days AL, applying the 'if it can go wrong, it will go wrong' equation.
I have bought back a couple of lightly damaged vehicles from my insurance company without problems in the past. It often allows them to give you less for the damage done and the repair cost involved. If you want to avoid it not being stated to be a Category C (or whatever) on the "log" book then that may be another matter though. In my case I avoided it both times and sold them off in due course without a problem. Both vehicles were repaired properly and fully so there was no inherent sign of damage.
as said in my earlier post, Insurance companies can 'write off' and compensate these days without applying a Category to the vehicle if it meets the criteria involving minimal damage.
First name and phone number of a perp is not quite enough; it is essential to get hold of their full name and postal address. Make up your mind how much you want to claim in £££. Write to them formally setting out the claim and asking them to pay up. Make it plain you can establish both liability (their negligence) and quantum (the amount you are claiming). If they don't pay up, issue a County Court claim; the forms are all available on line. The question of writing off the vehicle need not arise. You don't care about insurance companies - if they are able to get an insurer to indemnify them, all well and good, but if not your claim lies against the driver personally. Threatening to sue in the County Court may sound hollow. The threat is a lot more convincing if you prepare the forms in advance and send to the perp a copy for information of the forms you intend to file. On the other hand if the amount is very small, taking proceedings is more trouble then it's worth.
If the perp (Pete, really....) didn't provide full name and address, maybe Plod can assist.........after all, it's a bit like not stopping after an accident.
^ similar to above - could prepare a message to put on answerphone making it clear that you want minimum of fuss but if no response after third attempt at contacting then have no alternative but to hand over to Police to action under 'failing to stop' etc and can provide licence number. Sooner the better as far as Police reporting goes.
I'd probably go throught the threat of the small claims court to get them to pay. You have to be able to find out where they live though. Getting insurance companies involved for a small ammount could cost you in the long run. An unknown person crashed into my parked car a few years back. I get my insurance for free as it's a company car, so I claimed to get it fixed (I know you aren't going to claim on your own insurance). The 1st time I renewed a bike policy I got a letter through demanding more money for the claim I hadn't informed them about. I did not think I had to as the claim wasn't my fault and the insurance came with the car. For the next 5 years I had to declare the claim on 4 bike policies and paid a lot more back to the insurance companies than the cost of the claim in the 1st place. So you may want to be careful as they sometimes want to know about any claim, whether you were at fault or not, whether it was on your insurance or not.
Let me guess............. You have got bent ears.......... That's from wearing glasses with your helmet on.
Indeed. And literally "stopping" briefly but then driving away without providing full details counts as failing to stop. These days everybody has a phone with a camera; get your phone out and take photos of both vehicles, the damage, the surrounding roads, the other driver, and any witnesses. You never know if these pics will come in handy later on. Likewise assume somebody else may have taken photos of you, which might come to light later.
And this is the bit that is often overlooked, failure to inform your insurance company of an accident, whether you were at fault or not, could invalidate future claims.
Some excellent advice above, particularly from @Pete1950 , which is worth remembering but hoping you never have to use.
FYI here is the Road Traffic Act 1988 section 170 (as amended): 170 Duty of driver to stop, report accident and give information or documents. (1) This section applies in a case where, owing to the presence of a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or other public place, an accident occurs by which— (a) personal injury is caused to a person other than the driver of that mechanically propelled vehicle, or (b) damage is caused— (i) to a vehicle other than that mechanically propelled vehicle or a trailer drawn by that mechanically propelled vehicle, or (ii) to an animal other than an animal in or on that mechanically propelled vehicle or a trailer drawn by that mechanically propelled vehicle, or (iii) to any other property constructed on, fixed to, growing in or otherwise forming part of the land on which the road or place in question is situated or land adjacent to such land.(2) The driver of the mechanically propelled vehicle must stop and, if required to do so by any person having reasonable grounds for so requiring, give his name and address and also the name and address of the owner and the identification marks of the vehicle. (3) If for any reason the driver of the mechanically propelled vehicle does not give his name and address under subsection (2) above, he must report the accident. (4) A person who fails to comply with subsection (2) or (3) above is guilty of an offence.
