Car scrape in car park - what to do

[Carscrape]

Someone has scraped or car in a car park yesterday and driven off. We didn’t notice till today. It’s a big scrape on side and door handle. Wha5 is the procedure here? Partner says we should just pay up to get it fixed. I want to get cctv from car park but they need a police or insurance repor5 first. Partner worries if we go an official route then premiums will go up. Grateful for any advice

I would just pay to get it repaired. I had similar recently. Repair cost £250. Such a hassle to get police report and CCTV and even if find the culprit you may find they are not insured.

Screenshot?

contact car park operator to enquire whether cctv a possibility? Driving off without leaving details is a crime

If it was my car I would just leave as it's covered in scratches and dings anyway from driving down tight country lines. I certainly wouldn't bother with insurance.

There almost certainly is cctv , but car park will only share with police or insurer

scrape is big and on door handle as well so not sure cost to repair

Does it need to be repaired urgently or is it just aesthetic and can wait? You could always get some quotes and see if it's worth claiming for.

So contact the police then?

It is like you want something (cctv) but not prepared to do what will enable that

That would be a sensible first step

The value of your car might be a factor. My car was scraped whilst parked, all the panels along the side were damaged and it was written off. I kept the car for I think three hundred pounds so I think it's worked out in my favour, something to keep in mind though.

It’s cosmetic damage but quite bad. My issue was going to the police would put us ‘in the system’ so we’d have to tell insurer and potentially face higher premiums even if don’t catch culprit. But we obviously won’t have any chance of finding who did it without cctv (which we need police or insurance report for). Car is worth about 10k.

The police don't report stuff like this to insurers - they'll just give you a crime number for you to give to your insurer if they need it.

the police will give you a ref number for you to give to car park company

your insurer won’t know about it

although this will be a no liability claim anyway so increase in premium likely minimum

In the insurance contract I think I am obliged to inform of incidents though? So I thought once reported to polic3 there’s evidence

Pay to protect your no claims discount!!! It is only about £6 a year so well worth it!

also every incident has to legally be reported to your insurance company whether you claim or not

But your insurers are only going to find out if you tell them

I'd just fix it myself. It's not worth the rise in premiums.

It does, but in this case, where there's no known third party, there is zero benefit in it and no way that the insurance company will ever find out.

So you report to the police to get the crime number (takes a couple of mins, and no they won’t follow up); then you report to insurer who, because they have a crime number, will proceed will now be able to get access to the cctv.

However, they won’t because it’s not cost effective for them to do so. They will simply cover the cost of repair less your excess (but will arrange it with some extortionate contracted garage, where it will cost 2-3x what it will cost if you just take it to a good local garage) and then they will bump up your premiums and you may lose your no claims bonus, so are disadvantaged when you come to renew.

TLDR - just suck it up and pay to get it repaired now yourself. You pay either way.

Yes, you are supposed to tell your insurance company about any incidents, they want you to do so so that they can increase your premiums. Having a protected no claims bonus will not stop your annual premium from being increased.

OP you have to do the sums and make a decision about whether you declare it or just pay and get it fixed.

What’s the point of having fully comp Insurance if it’s going to twist you into a pretzel like this OP

We notified our insurance company when someone scraped the wing mirror, as we were told we had to do. There was no claim and nothing that the insurance company had to do, but they increased our premium exponentially, despite us paying for the repair. I’d never report an incident that isn’t a claim again.

I’d get a quick local quote and decide from there whether to pay or claim

Because OP can probably pay for the repair herself and save herself a fortune. Claiming on insurance is only a good idea if there's another party involved or if you genuinely can't afford the repairs yourself.

She says it’s very significant

Yep, but when you factor in paying your excess and paying 5 years of increased premiums due to having a claim, it's likely to be cheaper to just stick it on a credit card.