to my own quote for this

[macdaddydoodah]

My DH dented lovely neighbours car whilst attempting to squeeze into too small a space. It's a cereal bowl sized dent in the middle of the bonnet with no obvious damage to paint work.

Lovely neighbour got a quote for repair, us both thinking we would avoid going through insurance but it's come to an eye watering £650! Imagine next step is to contact my insurance company but wondering if I should be getting my own quote - to me it feels like this price is inflated because they know it's going to be paid for by insurance, maybe IABU?

This happened to DH. he reversed into a car in a car park. We said we would pay but the quote the other owner got was £900. It didn't look anywhere near that much damage.
We just handed it all over to the insurance, he had protected no claims bonus and his premium didn't go up. They wrote to us some time after to say the repairs had come to £860.

It's what we pay insurance for after all.

I think because your dh caused the damage he doesn't really get to negotiate the price.

I'd have thought him well within his rights to negotiate a price with a panel beater. He's not trying to negotiate a different price with the actual owner of the car is he? That would be ridiculous - but to settle for the first and only price would be equally absurd.

Go to a dent repair specialist. there's one I see driving round near me that does mobile repairs. They can be very cheap if it's just a dent with no paint damage.

How on earth, though, did he manage to get a dent in the middle of a bonnet? Did he sit on it?

It would be a massive faff to get your own quote.

The only thing is that because we went through the insurance the other owner couldn't have the repair done where they wanted. Not much we could do about that.

I don't know if you have any rights when it comes to denting someone else's car.

I think is fine to try to get a second quote and agree with PP that the idea of a mobile dent repair person is good. We had a big scrape on our car (complete with dent) that the garage wanted £450 to repair - nice man came, set up tent at side of road, fixed and re-sprayed for £170. Think the company was called Chips Away or similar (it's a franchise).

And also would like to know how the dent appeared in middle of bonnet?! Sounds so random!

All the best.

But if you wanted your own quotes you are expecting the neighbour to have the car available for you when you wanted your repair person to come round etc. Seems a bit unreasonable.

Try Dentmaster. Nationwide network and guaranteed repairs. Sounds like the type of job they excel at.

If neighbours are lovely and willing to leave car for Others to assess, I would get your own estimares. Think insurance quotes are always inflated.
Of course it may be cheaper for you to take the hit via increased insurance premiums.

If your OH has admitted liability surely its up to y8u and him whether you claim on insurance or pay yourselves?
Surely the overarching goal is for the car to be professionally returned to its former shiny state.!

Surely this would entail the neighbours going somewhere else to get a quote. Why would they when they have got one already?

Whatever you decide to do please ensure DH informs his insurance company or risk invalidating policy.

They should get more than one quote anyway, as everyone is under a duty to mitigate their loss.