To be so fuming at neighbour!!

This happened to me OP and the guy admitted it but then backtracked when I had to go through the insurance. Damage just looked cosmetic but there was actually structural damage and it was written off as unsafe. His mate who owned a garage wouldn’t have told me that!

Don't settle privately. Go through the insurance. Maybe she's not insured?

When a similar thing happened to me my car was in the garage for nearly a week and the insurance company paid for a hire car. They picked my car up and dropped it off etc. she won't want to do all that.

Take a photo of damage to your car and to her car!

Definitely go through insurance and you probably only have 24 hours to report to your insurance so on it this morning! They will likely write his car off and give him a couple of grand for it. He buy it back from them for a couple of hundred, gets it fixed and you’ll have a bit of spare cash left over. Crazy but that’s how it works!

@JacquesHarlow gosh I knew it didn't say that the neighbour needed to log it on line with the police.

What made you say that the law said she needed to log it on line with the police?

Nothing in what you've posted. Mentions logging it on live with the police.

"Won't DP have to pay his £300 excess though? Or does her insurance cover it? When my car got wrote off last year by a driver on the wrong side of the road (we have NO luck with cars 😂) I still had to pay my excess. Which stung!"
No, you don't pay any excess. Covered by her insurance.

How much is his car worth? If it's likely to be scrapped, I'd probably ask her for the cost to replace it, rather than go through insurance and have my premiums go up despite it not being my fault. Car insurance is ridiculous these days.

@JacquesHarlow

Did you intentionally leave off the detail that it should be reported within 24 hours? Or was that just your interpretation of that law?

Oh god. I knew I would have to post the legislation in the end @puzzledout … why do you insist on telling people on here it is “not necessary” to inform the police?

here’s the details:

” If you are a driver involved in a road traffic accident which causes injury to another person or damage to another vehicle, property or animal, then you must stop at the scene of that accident to provide your details. In particular, you must provide your name, address and registration number to any person who would have reasonable grounds to ask for your details, for example, to the owner of another damaged vehicle or property. A driver who fails to comply with these obligations is guilty of an offence.”

so here’s the thing:

• The law says that the OP’s neighbour should have stopped and provided details . That’s the law.

• You, the OP’s neighbour, and many others, believe the law is completely up to interpretation, and the biggest imperative is protecting privacy or insurance premiums or whatever

• It is then up to the OP and those wronged like her, to enforce the law by tracking down who did it (which in this case she can track down due to a witness, but in many cases people have to appeal for witnesses on Facebook or Nextdoor because of CFs like the OP’s neighbour)

My point is… the law is in black and white. This is one of those certain circumstances.

I would be fuming
I did hit my neighbours car, then debated what to do as it was 6.45am. Decided to knock and apologise profusely. I wrote their car off mine was in the body shop for a good 4 weeks
So embarrassed!

Bear in mind that the question at renewal from car insurers is not a straightforward 'have you had a claim' but more along the lines of 'have you had an incident that may give rise to a claim' in the last XX years.

Irrespective of whether you make a claim or it is dealt with by the other insurer or 'off the books' if it is found you had a previous you didn't declare then it could actually nullify your existing coverage for non declaration which makes insurance even bloody harder to get. Insurance companies are actually pretty switched on to stuff, there is a shared database and they do have active fraud teams to check stuff.

If I were you, especially given you have an admission from her via phone/text then I'd absolutely be going through insurance.

You husbands insurance could increase too even though he was not at fault as he still has to declare a claim for the next 5 years, and some insurance companies increase premiums for some unknown and incredibly annoying reason

He feels SORRY for her?!? Why??

It's an offence to leave the scene of an accident without exchanging details.

I was hit by a woman driver who crossed to my side of the road while overtaking a parked car on her side of the road. She didn't stop and beetled off as fast she could. Fortunately, I was able to turn round and follow her, but lost her when she crossed a main road and I couldn't follow because of traffic.

However, I'd had enough time to memorise her number, the make of car, and its colour. I stopped, wrote down it all down and went to the nearest police station to report her. She was prosecuted and her insurance company paid me in full.

Isn't it illegal to drive off after an accident without leaving details. Insurance and police notification me thinks.

I would bet good money she has an alcohol or drug issue and is driving under the influence when these events happen. Sober drivers don’t just hit other peoples cars left right and centre.

Well there's one yuck & easy way to find out! Askmid.com

I don't always automatically think the worst of people, but maybe she doesn't want it to go through her insurance if she doesn't have any? Just a thought.....

’i can’t wait to be frosty to her for the next 20 years’ 😆I like you, I’m sure we’d get on OP.

Do you think she might actually be disqualified from driving for a previous offence or have so
many points on her licence that she will be if she gets any more or uninsured? And that’s why she doesn’t want to you to claim against her insurance?

And tell the police about all the other times it’s been suspected she’s hit other cars. It may not help with those but if more happen maybe she can be stopped before a child gets hit.

You will get an incident number from the police. That’s all you need. Makes it official. Paper trail & all that.

I’d be raging and I’d 💯 report to police and insist on going through insurance.

Remind your DP… the kind of person who’d do that to their neighbours car then drive off and pretend it wasn’t them is also the sort of person who SAYS they will pay… then quibbles over the price and / or doesn’t pay…

i had this experience with my neighbours years ago. I had water damage they caused through negligence said I was going to go through building insurance. they said no no no no! We will pay ourselves! Get a quote and we will reimburse you.
at this point if lived there long enough to know
a.they thought they owned the communal hall / the building
b.they were untrustworthy dicks, who wouldn’t repay me

so I got 3 quotes, told them the cost and quietly claimed under buildings insurance.
As a result they thought they owed me £700 which they had NO INTENTION of paying and so avoided me / left me alone in blissful peace for next 3 years!!!!