Absolutely panicking - please help (car accident and police)

OP - you don't need to do anything you haven't already done.

There is absolutely no need to report it to the council. You've
already said there was no visible damage.

If you're driving on the hire company's insurance, your own insurance won't be going up as you've no need to get them involved.

Relax!

With all due respect op, the vast majority of replies are telling you that you do not need to report as you say, there was no damage to report. But you are picking out the very few replies that are saying to report and questioning those further. You caused no damage, you do not need to report. People are telling you this but you don’t seem to be taking it on board.

It didn't even cross my mind to report it when I hit a post. I was too busy cursing said post. Don't worry.

@mummyoflittledragon Insurers can and do have the ability to cross check to stop fraudulent claims.
Not declaring it at renewal can cause your premium to rise and could lead to your policy being suspended.

Yes pp

Insurance fraud is 100% something to worry about and will have severe consequences. So dont do that

I work for enterprise and if you have reported an accident it wont stop you hiring again unless you are a persistent offender.

Even if you think there is no damage you have to report it as later something could be found ie; damage to an area not visible.

I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

You don't need to report it to the council. You will need to declare it for the next 3 years to your insurance. It will be recorded on the database so not declaring it will be fraudulent.

OP uou need to take some deep breaths and calm down. People have accidents every day and yours barely counts on any kind of scale.

Nobody was hurt, even the bollard wasn't damaged. I don't think an undamaged bollard in a car park counts as damaging street furniture.

I was once in a car accident when someone came the wrong way down a one way street. She tried to blame me by saying it wasn't a one way street and called the police. When the policeman came he told her off for wasting police time because nobody was injured and they didn't have time for accidents where nobody was injured.

You dont need to tell the police or council if the post was not damaged.

Check your policy documebts regarding what your current insurer says regarding notifying them of incidents unrelated to their policy.

You will 100% need to inform them of the fault claim you made come renewal time and if youre getting new quotes.

Probably a 10 - 30% increase in premium depending on insurer

I totally understand - once you’re in a panic you start catastrophising and can only envisage worst case scenarios. I do the same for my own problems, but am very clear headed about other people’s!

You may not even need to report this under your own insurance policy - see what it says. If you do, it really won’t lead to a huge hike. And if it does go up by more than you are happy with, shop around as you’re likely to get a better deal elsewhere.

Take a deep breath, remind yourself that the worst possible outcome isn’t automatically the most likely one, and stay calm.

It’s really not a huge mess. The worst that can happen is your insurance premiums might increase slightly.

Not worth stressing over.

I doubt your insurance will go up a great deal!

On what planet is this a huge mess?
Agreed. Personally I wouldn’t report this to my regular insurance unless I thought they could cross check, which I don’t see how.

This is really, really not worth getting worked up about.

It’s not a huge mess OP! You’re in a panic spiral.

Remind yourself that EVERY HUMAN MAKES MISTAKES and that is the very reason why you have insurance! It’s not a moral failing to make an occasional error. You’ve done the good and responsible thing by taking out insurance - stop beating yourself up about this.

You don’t need to report the incident if there was no damage to the post.

You will absolutely still be able to hire cars again.

Check what your insurance policy says about reporting accidents in cars not covered by the policy and then just do what it says. Even if you do report and your premium increases, it isn’t going to be a significant increase for such a minor incident.

Everything is going to be ok

Ah sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. I've just checked on our local police website to see how you could/should possibly report this and it says that if damage has been done to property including street signs/bollards you need to leave details or report at local station. But you didn't cause damage so it really doesn't seem that you need to bother.
If it helps for your own peace of mind you could google the local police force and see what the local advice is.

On what planet is this a huge mess?

You had an accident.. you did what you were supposed to be, and now you have to sit back and wait to see what the results will be.

Surely nobody actually tells their insurer about things like this...