Car claim - wwyd?

[trialsNtribs]

My son (age 18) has been driving for 10 months and is insured as an additional driver on our family car (Ford Fiesta). He was reverse- parking at work and got too close to a work colleague's car, slightly scraping the paintwork on the side of both cars. He was going very slowly, so on our car the paint damage is very minor - it has to be pointed out to be noticed. DS said the damage on the other car was similar.

The work colleague (aged in his early twenties) said he preferred not to claim on insurance, but would get a quote for the work and send DS details. The quote he has sent is £500, which seems excessive. His car was already damaged, with some denting, so we suspect the quote might cover more work than my son is responsible for. We have asked for a written copy of the quote,to see what it includes.

There was one witness - a manager who my son thinks is unlikely to take sides (my son is a casual employee, and the car-owning colleague is full-time). There are photos of the damage, but they are blurred.

If no agreement can be reached, it will have to go to insurance, and may end up costing more than £500 factoring in future insurance costs (though we do have no-claims protection). What would you do?

£500 for paint damage to a car doesn't sound excessive, it is an expensive process if done correctly. I am speaking from personal experience. You have to weigh the cost against the impact on your insurance.

Can you son get quotes as well, please d want at least 3

Having been through insurance and found out that it's a costly scan, I would suggest he pays over the £500 whilst getting in writing that this is full and final settlement.

You DS agrees he caused the damage after all.

I would pay it
Its not that much for bodywork and when DD had a similar scrape we did go through the insurance at the other parties request and it really increased the insurance premiums
technically you are supposed to tell your insurance company but I am sure plenty don't in similar circumstances

@Fooshufflewickjbannanapants
If my car was damaged, the car would be sorted out at a garage of my choosing. What I would not do is take the car to 3 other places to see if I could get a cheaper quote.
If that wouldn't suit the person who caused the damage I would be going through their insurance.

If it was my car tbh I'd go through insurance but if that wasn't an option if want three quotes minimum to make sure I wasn't being ripped off not the other person. I may still choose the first one!

In your situation, I'd go under the radar and pay the £500 to avoid massive premium increases for a new driver if nothing else. You still have to inform the insurance but I wouldn't want them involved in the actual claim IYSWIM.
Something else to consider is if he's actually driving to work regularly, is he fully insured because that's main driver territory and insurance companies are getting very hot on accusing people of "fronting" and is he definitely insured for commuting? I'd carefully check those before making any claim so you know where you stand with it all.

I would pay it but only if you could get a breakdown of what has been done and ask to pay the garage direct

I was horrified how much 'minor paint damage' cost when someone damaged my car. Its not just a case of painting over the scratches. £500 sounds about right

£500 is not excessive at all for paint work damage. It’s more expensive than people think.

If my car was damaged I wouldn’t be doing the run around to get 3 quotes.

Definitely pay it, it will save both of their premiums increasing, especially your son as he has only been driving fir 10 months. Also as a PP mentioned, there is a chance that the insurers might query him being an additional driver if he is using the car for commuting.

the effect his claim will have on both yours and your sons insurance will amount to way more that £500 being asked for.

i would pay it. but get in writing that this is a full and final settlement! and move on.

Another one saying £500 is perfectly normal. I paid £1k to another driver for the same thing. And that was the cheapest out of 3 quotes.

We got a tiny ding on a vehicle during the recent storm. It's like someone pressed their thumb in, no paint damage. Cost if we want it made good? £300-£500.

Thanks for all the responses. It's interesting that so many people have said they think £500 is reasonable. The scratch marks are shallow and certainly less prominent than the ones pictured on this Checkatrade webpage which suggests the price should be lower: https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/cost-guides/car-scratch-repair-cost/

The other driver has now forwarded his repair quote, which just says "bodywork damage repair". To me, bodywork implies dent repair, not shallow scratch repair. As mentioned in my original post, there were pre-existing dents and scratches in the same area.

If there is no disagreement over fault, but there is disagreement over the level of damage caused, where does the burden of proof lie? The claim is relatively small, so I'm guessing it wouldn't be worth the insurer's while to forensically examine both cars to help determine who is telling the truth, but does that mean DS will be held 100% liable for unrelated bodywork repairs in the vicinity of the scratch?

To answer those who mentioned "fronting", there is no concern with that. My son's job is very casual - just one or two weekend shifts a month, and he often gets there by bus. We let him use the car sometimes for practice, but my husband is its main driver and uses it daily for work.

We do have no-claim protection, but I'm aware they might still put up the premium after a claim.

Either pay it or go through insurance
expensive lesson either way

you cant quibble on the price or I imagine the other driver will just go through their insurance.

Sounds expensive to me, when my husband reversed into someone, it was £120. I reversed into my neighbours car and he was happy with a bit of t-cut so was lucky.

Your son damaged someone else’s car. It was his fault

as PP have said it’s not for the other driver cars to go out of their way to get you a cheap quote.if my car I 'd want it repairing where I want

pay the money or go through insurance

This happened to us. My son was driving my brand new Citroen and he touched the car next to him in the student car park. The car he touched was a typical student car. Old with lots of scrapes. My car had a slight mark I rubbed off with my finger. He didn't think he'd caused any damage but being honest to a fault had left his name and number.

We duly received a request for £800:to repair. I said I needed to see a full break down of what repairs were taking place and a written quote from the garage. Suddenly the request dropped to £100. Still felt they were pulling a fast one but ended up paying the £100 after he produced a quote from a garage referring to slight scrape on the right hand side of the car where my son admitting touching.

You do realise that you still need to report tis to your insurance company? So there is no benefit nit going through insurance, also tbat you need to report it within (I think) 30 days

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