Crash!

[Guest timswait]

Grrrr six years driving, over 30000 miles and no accidents, not even a scratch on the paintwork, and now this :gdit: .

Was driving to the ski village in rush hour traffic this evening, roof down enjoying the sun and then suddendly crunch, someone pulls out of a side turning straight into the side of my car. I was probably doing 15-20mph, he wasn't doing very much, and it wasn't even enough to push my car off line, so no major damage but a lot of cosmetic. He hit the back of the front wing (swept), scraped the side body panel and wiped out the rear wing. I'm pretty sure there's no mechanical harm, the chassis looks straight, as does the rear wheel, and it drives fine, so it's just body panels to replace, the front of his car (newish Corsa) was pretty shoved in. He was turning right from a side junction out of a car park I was on the main road. I think someone coming the other way (from his right) waved him out and he didn't bother to look my way! It really couldn't have been any less my fault, so annoying :boohoo: :boohoo: :gdit: .

The question is, what to do now. Obviously exchanged details at the scene, I took plenty of photos of both cars and the scene, any fool can see it was his fault (ie me on the main road, him pulling out, the front of his car and the side of mine damaged). I don't have any no claims yet (previous policies specialist which didn't accumulate them, but I'm coming up for 1 year now), but I can always tell the insurance company that I've never had an accident, if I claim will it put my premium up? I've looked on the Lolocost website, and i reckon the parts to repair my car will be about £250, less than the £300 excess on my policy, so should I even tell the insurance company?

To rub salt in it when I got tothe ski village it turned out the lesson I was meant to be teaching was cancelled, so I didn't need to be driving in rush hour anyway! At least I did get in an hour's freeriding .

[Guest Giggling_Buffoon]

All ways tell your insurance company - even if its not your fault or only a small seeming incident that you are not going to claim for.

 

What you don't want is to find that the Corsa is a hire car and the hire car company pursues you as if its your fault (not a pleasant experience, especially as they should have been talking to my insurance company and not me, and it wasn't my fault!).

 

If its not your fault then your no claims bonus remains intact, and should be no change to the premium.

 

if its deemed your fault (unlikely), but don't claim on the insurance you no claims bonus remains intact, but over the next 3? years you'll have to declare this and it will affect the premium slightly.

 

Hope this is useful,

[Guest vacinc]

should have let on you hurt your self, so that the police would be involved, to get an accident report, then that would settle any dispute over whos at fault, (just in case, later on, the other drive , does not take responsibility ) wich can happen, then it a case of fix your own. but very sorry to here of your Misfortune,

[Guest vacinc]

here another root anyone can take, if you have a smash, if the accident is NOT your fault, (you MUST have a police report to do this ) you can go through a 3rd party insurance company, these companys will take on your case, supply you with a car, delivered to your door, with in an hour of the crash, they do evey thing for you, doctors etc, the claim will be settled in 3 months, and it DOES not effect your insurance at all, because you have not claimed from them, but you must ring and tell them that a 3rd party insurance company is dealing with your case, this is very hush hush, it came from a freind whos a insurance agent, i have and many more people have used this company, it is very easy and hassle free, and does not affect your no claims bonis, ps i hope that no one ever has to use this, but ive never had any bad feed back from anyone ive sent to them,

[Guest timswait]

Here's a photo of the rear wing, looks worse in the flesh!

Is an excess payable under these conditions. The excess for my policy is £300, which I guess would apply if I was claiming on damage which was my fault, but shouldn't it be his insurance company paying me, so is there any excess?

[will]

Glad your ok.

 

If both insurance companies agree that the accident was his fault then you should not incur any costs.

 

 

Will

[BigLee]

As it's not your fault you should be able to claim directly from his insurers.

 

By far the best bet is to report it to your insurers, but don't bother claiming. Under your policy you will probably have legal cover or what is known as Loss recovery cover. If you do then use it and let a solicitor claim back your expenses from his insurer. Alternatively just do it yourself. (It should only be a couple of letters)

 

Way to do this is get a quote from a bodyshop to repair it, getting them to take into account the parts costs that you supply them from Lolocost. get that sent off to his insurers with a covering letter claimg the costs back. They may want to inspect the damage, but then should give authorisation for repair and usually will end up paying the garage direct. Then let the garage repair it.

 

This way no excess to pay, no claims against your policy and no time and labout for you. The only downside is it may take a few weeks (or even months) to sort out.

 

Depends how long you can live without yor car.

 

Unlucky though. I feel for you. If you want any help shout. I did this insurance stuff for a living for about 11 years a long time ago, but then saw the light and play with computers now.

[Guest Battery Bill]

Tim

When you wake up tomorrow your Neck will be hurting a lot!

 

Well mine would be

[Grim]

sorry to hear this Tim

 

If you end up fixing it yourself, i can give you a hand if you like.

 

Andy

[Guest Andy Hamilton]

If you end up fixing it yourself, i can give you a hand if you like.

Sorry to hear of the accident Tim, I am sure it will all get sorted soon enough.

 

Re: my post regarding purchase of Westfield, we definitely have the best club. I will certainly know where to come if I ever need help fixing my car after an incident. RHOCAR

[Longboarder]

Comiserations mate. At least you are in one piece. You have to report it to your insurance company with the full story to get the facts straight at this stage. Your insurance company will then advise you what to do next. Not unusual to find a completely different story being told by the other driver.

 

Nigel

[Guest mark kingston]

i had a similar incident last year but in my tin top which resulted in £1600 worth of damage to the side of my car. this guy too had pulled out of a side road into the side of my car damaging it from the front passenger door al the way to the back.

he admitted liability and was insured with kwikfit insurance who just mucked abut before finally paying out after i got a solicator involved

I had my car repaired striaght away and because i had fully comp my insurance company picked up the tab whilst the claim against the the guy was being sorted out.

Of course i had to pay my excess upon collecting my repaired car.

However once kwikfit finally paid up i did get my excess returned and a letter from my insurance company telling me that it was a no blame accident on my side and as such it would not effect my NCB.

good luck with the repair

regards

Mark kingston

[Guest salty_monk]

You will probably need to pay the excess up front if you want a garage to fix it, insurance will then re-imburse you when claim is settled.

 

Just happened to me with my Tin Top.

 

Dan

[Guest timswait]

Well, just to let you know how I got on:

I decided to accept his offer to pay me for the parts to repair the car myself. It saves months of letter writing, getting money from insurance companies always seems like trying to milk rocks to me. It also lets me get on with repairing now rather than having to wait to get it assessed, and frankly I'd prefer to do the work myself than give it to a garage anyway. I can also use it as a chance to do some other jobs on it while it's off the road I've been meaning to for ages and now it forces me to. Having the panels off gives better access to a couple of bits I was thinking of doing. Anyway, he handed over 300 quid to me yesterday, so now I can get the parts and get on with it. If I'm lucky I may even get it finished in time for the next RAFMSA sprint at Barkston.

Thanks to everyone who's shown their support on this thread, I would say I was suprised, but really it just confirms what I already knew, ie what a friendly, helpful lot you are.

Grim: I'll probably be OK on my own, but if I need a hand I'll be letting you know

[Grim]

nice to hear you got it sorted, financially at least.

I bought a job load of stainless rivets and a riveter at stoneleigh, in case you need any.