Help please builders have damaged car

[ChateauProvence]

I am hoping someone could advise on how they would go forward with this. Our builders have dented our car by accidentally hitting it with some building materials- this has been captured on our ring camera but they are still denying it. Should be ask to go through their public liability insurance or do I need to go through my car insurance?

They haven’t started the work yet so I can’t knock it off their payment

I am so cross
Thanks

How are they denying it when it’s on camera?

This doesn’t bode well for a trusting working relationship and shows already their level of care and professionalism when it comes to the work they’ll be doing on your house.

They sounds like cowboys before they’ve even done any work!

I know! So annoying as they came highly recommended but I feel like the lack of integrity is too much. They kept ignoring the video - in the end have said get a quote but I am not convinced theyl pay! And I don’t trust them to work on my housr now - I want to cry

I agree with @SauviGone - trades people who are happy to lie despite being caught on camera will lie their way through a job and will not be reliable and trustworthy. I’d be very wary of having them in my home and on my property.

What did they say when you showed them the Ring footage?

Tell them they can't start the work or get a penny until your car is fixed. And mean it.

That's such a shame, I'm sorry. We were about to start on our build about a year ago when our builders did something unscrupulous, cancelled the start date straight away. Took another year to find builders we trusted but totally worth it.

They started blustering about how it doesn’t prove it caused the damage just that they hit the car! Convenient there is a dent in the exact spot they hit

i definitely won’t be having them do the work but as they haven’t started I don’t know them any money so don’t have any leverage ?

in the end have said get a quote but I am not convinced theyl pay!

Well then, go get a quote and send it to them asap?

Have you seen their insurance certificate? They should have given you a copy with your contract and schedule - or at least any decent tradesperson/company should have done.

Yes we are getting a quote tomorrow so will send it but not sure if we should just go through insurance anyway like is that the better option

I'd simply hand the whole problem to your car insurance company. You paid a premium so let them do the work of getting it sorted out.

Won’t our premiums really go up then though? And we will lose our no claims

I wouldn’t notify your insurance yet. It may affect your no claims. Send the builders the quote asap and see if they pay up.

Kind of similar (or maybe not) - we had a rental property where some fence panels blew onto a neighbours car during a storm, damaging the car. Our home insurance told us that the neighbour would need to claim off his own car insurance. I don’t know if that was our home insurance trying to get out of paying, but for the sake of good neighbourly relations for our tenant we paid for the damage.

I think you may find if it comes to it you’ll have to claim on your own insurance. So worth pursuing the builders for the cash for repair if you can, whilst they’re still under the impression that they’ll be doing work and earning money from you!

Give them a chance to pay first!! If they won't you simply review them honestly online.... And find new builders.

Dont call your insurers. How big of a dent is it? You've presumably got an excess to pay and your premium would rise. Ideally you want their liability insurance to pay but you've probably had it if you're not going to use them now. I'd say get a quote and pester them to pay it. If not then just pay it yourself and chalk it up to experience.

It will probably affect your premium. We notified ours about an incident last year. It wasn’t a claim, we didn’t make a claim at all, but the premium more than doubled, simply by giving them the information, as you’re required to do.

Yep their public liability, any decent builders should have insurance

We have sent quotes and asked for their insurance details - waiting to hear back

A lot of insurance policies require you to notify the company within 24 hours so I’d keep an eye/be mindful of that . Sorry this happened to you

Go through the small claims court if not joy - it’s very straightforward.

Ask them for a copy of their Public Liability policy and go directly to their insurers - with the video evidence that you have I would expect them to cover the cost of having your car repaired. And definitely don’t use them for the work!