AIBU To have expected this stranger to have acted differently and WWYD?

[Birthhippy9]

Myself husband, toddler and baby were sitting in the car park of a big shop this afternoon with engine off discussing where to drive next when "Thud" a car who was aiming to park in the space to my right went into the back of us bumping our car forward, a few scratches and two gouges to the right side of the bumper under the lights some of his paint on there and he has similar to his left side of his front bumper. I was a bit shaken as I had the children with me and the bump really took me by surprise.
He drove through and I could see he was thinking about driving away then stopped and got out.
I said "could I get your phone number?" and went to see what the damage was, it was quite a shunt so I was surprised at how little was resulting.
His response was to swear at me and say "Your car's not worth f*ing anything anyway" (My car is only worth £2-3k) and I respond "I've not had this before what do we do? Do we need to call insurance companies?" He swore a bit more and said "You shouldn't get me to pay my excess for something you could use a but of T-cut on" I asked what that was and he told me I could get it from Halfords for a couple of pound. He gave me his name and mobile number after my husband got out of the car.
FWIW I spent an hour in Halfords and they said I'd need to spend £36 on materials for the scratches which would take the best part of a day to sort but I'd need to get the gouges done by a body work person and they thought it would cost £200 from a garage if I dealt with the scratches separately. I texted that to him and received no reply. Are my premiums going to go up do you think as I'd have to answer "yes" to "have you been in any accidents in the last 5 years" question?

AIBU to have expected him to act differently and WWYD in this situation?

I hope this stupid eejit gets a HUGE premium as a result of this.

He is responsible, he should have given you his details straight away and apologised the dirty louse. As for the text saying he would pay nothing...absolute poppycock. He doesn't know what damage he's caused!

Your insurance should NOT be affected, as it will go through his, as it's HIS fault. If they try and put your premium up fight back, as they've no right.

Let your insurance company deal with it. To be honest with such an aggressive other party I would definitely not try to do it alone. You pay your insurance company to deal with things just like this.

I was hit end of last year and once the details were passed on - name , address, reg number - there was no further contact between me and the other two cars involved. It was all sorted out fairly quickly though.

Diamond is a woman's insurance company as far as I know, so he's probably a named driver.

I think you will make this harder on yourself if you try to go it alone, rather than through insurance

My company have contacted him direct and although initially he repeated that he's not paying anything he did however agree that I was parked stationary when damage occurred and so he has in a round about way admitted liability even though he had the cheek to say my parking caused him to run into me! When I arrived there were cars either side and when we came out (you know how Ikea can be a time-warp...) there were no cars near us at all. He just came in far too fast then behaved like an ogre. My insurers are organising repair and hire car. Thank you so much for chumming me whilst I was shaken. I think you're all great :)

so he knows he hit you, he refuses to acknowledge that he's got to pay up for the damage, and he swore at you for him hitting you?

report it to your insurance company - they will pursue it, you won't pay excess because he will pay it through his insurance.

£15 a yer increase is not a lot of money.

My husband's brand new £17k car was 'run over' in a car park a few years ago.

The woman who did it damaged five cars trying to get into a regular sized parking space. She told my husband, after she had stopped wailing, that she had 'decided to admit liability'.

My husband was very polite/possibly a little sarcastic and said he agreed as there was no way his parked car had jumped out in front of her and frightened her.

I digress...glad you got it sorted!

A friend of mine was reversing out of his drive, lots of parked vans about from building works on road, car came up the road and bumped his bumper. He admitted liability (he was reversing and didn't have clear line-of-sight, so assumed he was in the wrong) and the woman driver subsequently claimed abuot £4000 for damage (barely touched the car - he was barely moving) and whiplash (ditto - and she shouldn't have been going more than 30mph on this road, so whiplash a complete fabrication).

The insurers paid up and he got a hike in premiums. I think it should have been knock-for-knock. He'll never admit liability again

Oh and his car was slightly scratched. Not even dented.

Well done OP and very pleased things are moving in the right direction.

Just a point to everyone on the point of admitting liability - never ever do this.

In almost every insurance policy there is a clause requiring you to not admit liability because that right is reserved by the insurer.

It amazes me how some people do not know what insurance is for. Please Dont misunderstand me i don't mean that in a cheeky way but this is what I do for a living and I have this conversation all the time. Your insurance company agree to repair your vehicle after damage in exchange for a premium. This is a claim against your policy. They are not there to investigate to see if it might be possible to claim from someone else although they may agree to make initial enquiries but will prob put a time limit on this. If the circumstances allow most insurers will try to recoup these costs from the other party. If you have legal cover this should include your excess. If you hold off on repairs pending liability which some people have appeared to suggest, then this can cause problems down the line. For example if your insurer has enough evidence to want to take the man to court they are unable to do so til actual costs are incurred. If you leave the damage and it worsens eg rust forms the other party is not liable for these costs as the onus is on you to keep costs to a minimum. Also your insurer is well within their rights not to pay additional costs. There is no guarantee of recovery even if the circumstances show you're not at fault. It depends if other party accepts fault to their insurer or not. If they deny it then you have to prove they did do it. If there is no hard independent evidence then the other insurer will not pay out. Plus even if they decided to pay out because their insured does not cooperate which does sometimes happen they will often insist on seeing the repair documents before hand. It can be a minefield so you are always better letting your insurers deal with your claim. All that being said you are not in the wrong he is the guilty party and your insurer should do everything reasonably possible to get the costs back from him/his insurers. I reall hope they get him by the short and curlies as third parties like this drive me crazy. You cause a bump you tell your insurers you've been a bit silly and had a bump then it all gets dealt with. Simples

As pendent says you should never admit liability at scene. Exchange details and then pass them to your insurers. This is because sometimes you might feel an accident was 100% your fault but it might be the case that once you give the description to your insurers they might say you weren't wholly to blame. Accidents can be both parties fault and in some cases neithers.