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Help and Advice with damage to car


Spatt

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Hi Folks !

 

A guy backed into my car at work today. I have witnesses and i know they driver (not personally) but he is a customer of ours.

 

I wasn't in the car and he was spotted reversing into my car by three people including myself. He admitted fault naturally and i have his reg and phone number.

 

Whats the best way to deal with this i have had a none fault accident before but it was a nightmare dealing with it all and naturally the top of my priority list is the work has to be done right!

 

Any help would be much appreciated and here's the pics for you all to wince at.

:mad::crutches::stretcher:

 

Matt

 

P1040590_zps1cigjzzd.jpg

 

P1040593_zpslke5jeki.jpg

 

P1040591_zps5tmxkfyk.jpg

 

P1040592_zpsazyihynh.jpg

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Get a written quote from your preferred body shop and see if he wants to give you the money but make sure you have the money in your hand before you get it done. Also make sure the body shop understand they must quote the full price and not add to it later for something they find once stripped down otherwise you will be out of pocket.

 

Next option is to go through the insurance. Get his details and give them to your company but remember you can still have it repaired at your preferred body shop. You dont have to use the body shop the insurance want you to use.

 

If you don't have a preferred body shop then go to a main dealer because you will have more come back if the job they get done is not up to standard. I say this as there are many body shops out there but unfortunately not all the work is up to standard.

Be sure to tell who ever you get a quote from that you are fussy and want a top quality job so you cannot tell its been repaired afterwards. Better to let them know this before they start the job. If they are not up to it go elsewhere.

 

I say this because insurance work is all done to a price but you should not have to put up with a low quality repair just because they are unable to do a good job for the money the insurance want to pay.

 

Loads of body shops do poor quality work because they think most punters don't know what they are looking at. I got told by one who repaired a company car i had that you can always see a repair, Well try telling that to company's who prep cars for concours events. The only difference is the time spent on the job to achieve good quality work and time is money.

Remember that the repair is not your fault so you should`nt have to accept poor quality.

 

Sorry lads as a bit of a rant but i hate shite bodywork..... :lol:

Edited by gsexr
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Just a heads up, speak to the affendee 1st, if he's happy to pay outside of insurance then don't notify the insurance.

 

I had an incident where someone knocked my car (Minor damage) and he asked to do it outside of insurance, I was happy with this.

 

I then notified my insurance as a backup in case he wouldn't pay. They were happy with this and said they would not do anything without my say so.

 

The guy paid up and that was the end of it.

 

But now my insurance company have put a fault on my policy which basically means I pay and extra £300 for 3 years -.-

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Christ, I was fuming about a 2cm dent, at least you caught the swine.

 

I'd go via my insurer but failing that you want the cash up front for the bodywork, based on a cast iron quote from the bodyshop.

 

Good luck bud!

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hey Ekona.. I appreciate what your saying here.. I have my insurance excess to think about and the fact I'm then making an official claim. I caught they guy and he's admitted fault so no need for me to pick up the tab right?

 

so at the moment I'd rather contact his insurance anf let them deal with it

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They really don't load it as much as people think they do. Why bother with insurance if you're never going to use it?

 

What if he changes his story? What if the repairs are crap? What if he doesn't agree with the price? Just hand it over and stop worrying about it :)

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They really don't load it as much as people think they do. Why bother with insurance if you're never going to use it?

 

What if he changes his story? What if the repairs are crap? What if he doesn't agree with the price? Just hand it over and stop worrying about it :)

 

I agree, that way you will have a loan car aswell when the work is being carried out. I'm not one for taking the pee with claims etc but I have first hand experienced the rise in premiums for non-fault claims, so ask for compensation for the inconvenience £300 say & that will cover the higher insurance premium for the next year or 2.

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:(

 

I asked my claims company to "compensate me for increased premium" and they didn't want to know. I even went to the trouble of recording a conversation (which i made them aware of) they told me "We can confirm your premium will be more for the next few years due to you being higher risk" I went to the claims company and they said.

 

"It doesn't work that way" haha unless its P.I. they dont want to know should have told them my back was in two pieces but im really against that.

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You cannot be compensated for a future loss as you have no idea what that extra will be. Tbh it could be as low as zero, or an amount not even worth worrying about. I have an at-fault claim on my driving record, and the increase is about £30 a year extra. Absolute peanuts!

 

I can only imagine how tiny the extra will be on an at-fault claim. If it's too high, then simply move insurers.

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They really don't load it as much as people think they do. Why bother with insurance if you're never going to use it?

 

What if he changes his story? What if the repairs are crap? What if he doesn't agree with the price? Just hand it over and stop worrying about it :)

 

My wife was driving my car when a lorry clipped her on a roundabout damaging the mirror , the repair was £500 which we got back off the other party . We have three cars , two in my name and one in hers and all were loaded about £30-£50 per year so £90-£150 per year for five years , that £500 claim ended up costing me more than the £500 I got back from the other driver .

 

 

 

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But if you'd changed insurers or haggled, then you wouldn't have paid a penny more.

 

That said, that's just very bad luck that it happened when your wife was driving your car. Same thing with me, I was driving someone else's car and they had to claim off their insurance, meaning they have to declare an accident they weren't even a part of. That bit does suck. :(

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But if you'd changed insurers or haggled, then you wouldn't have paid a penny more.

 

That said, that's just very bad luck that it happened when your wife was driving your car. Same thing with me, I was driving someone else's car and they had to claim off their insurance, meaning they have to declare an accident they weren't even a part of. That bit does suck. :(

 

Of course I shopped around every time , that's a given

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But if you'd changed insurers or haggled, then you wouldn't have paid a penny more.

 

 

Even when wrong ekona is always so sure of himself :lol::p

 

I'm an insurance broker and this statement is simply not true. Maybe in some situations it's possible but certainly not the vast majority.

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Thats more than likely because most policys have commision on them which may have been reduced in order to bring the price down. It doesn't neccesarily mean the insurance price itself wasn't affected. Saying that if you protect the no claims and get lucky the price may not be affected much, on the other hand If someone doesn't have protected no claims and they lose some of their NCB it can shoot the price right up. I'm guessing this is what happened to Rich F.

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Accidents happen, If hes happy to settle outside of insurance get a quote and provide it.

If hes not happy then claim through insurance.

 

The downside of claiming through insurance is they always screw you.

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