about this accident

[PHANTOMnamechanger]

advice please.

never been involved in an RTA at all in 27 years of driving. Then early last week, someone ran into the back of me when I was stopped at a zebra crossing. Absolutely their fault, not looking at the road ahead - saw the traffic queued in front of me start moving off and did not realise there were people crossing in front of me on a zebra. Admitted they were to blame and were apologetic. Fortunately no one hurt and not that much damage to car as only low speeds involved due to busy traffic/slow moving queue, so police not involved - just exchanged details with other driver who wanted to pay for the repairs rather than go through their insurance. Unfortunately we did not get details of any independent witnesses. They have now had the quote from our preferred garage, who we have used for the past 15 years and trust completely, and are demanding we get another quote, or offering that they can get 'someone they know' do do the repairs 'much cheaper'. Not keen at all about being pressed into doing this their way. Hate any sort of confrontation and can just see them not paying up. Had already informed our insurers of all the details and they are ready to step in and take this up on our behalf if necessary. Should we have to get another quote? Should we pass it to the insurers to take on without further ado? Can we pay for the repairs ourselves and THEN get the insurers in if the other driver refuses to pay? holiday coming up soon and need it all sorted smoothly. right PITA!!

The pp who had to get three quotes was made to do so by her insurers because she didn't want to use the insurer's preferred repair shop. If you go through the insurance they will sort it out. Ime the insurers will not require additional quotes if you are taking the car to a repair shop on their list.

sophie, when we told our insurers they warned us that 90% of claims that are allegedly going to be settled privately DO end up coming back to them. No idea if other driver has even told their insurers or not, but I know we are obliged to - just in case this came out at a later date and invalidated our insurance then!

ah yes, thanks wow

It's always best to leave it to the insurance company to sort it out.
If you arrange the repair and hope that the other driver will keep their promise to pay, you are in for stress, argument and possible heartache.

Also the garage are more likely to do a proper job if the insurance company are paying rather than for a private individual.

You've paid for the insurance company to sort these things out. Let them do it!

I had similar, and we agreed on two quotes, one my choice one her choice. I actually got a third as mine was very high, and we went with the third which was recommended by a mutual friend, who knows about cars, and turned out to be the cheapest.
I thought that was reasonable. Obviously if you only get one you could end up with it way cheaper or expensive so it's best not to.

For ours she was happy to go with her choice or the third, and perfectly fair enough cause the original I went with was ridiculously expensive. Funny cause they were reasonable the previous time I used them.

The person I used also sent the bill straight to the other person, which suited us both.

Wowfudge is right, if going through another garage the insurance will ask that, that's where 3 quotes comes from- it's not a rule regarding people doing it off insurance.

This is why you have insurance- use it, even if you were not at fault. A lot of people do 'off the books' then claim through insurance. There are a lot of scams like that about at the moment, also a lot of people purposefully causing RTAs for scams too.

No don't pay for repairs and then claim, the insurance may well refuse if it's not to their liking. If their making you uncomfortable always do insurance, don't let some possible cowboy touch your car.

If anything Dee's idea would be the best compromise if you wanted to do privately: you get one, they get a quote from a verified garage and see the difference, perhaps even get another?

I'd chose insurance personally though.

thanks everyone for the advice, hope it's all worked out soon!

When we damaged another car we were so mortified about it, we'd have hated to cause the other party even more inconvenience than we already had, by expecting them to run around getting quotes. We were more than happy to go with their preference.
I don't think it's at all unreasonable for you to go with the most convenient option for you. You've already had the shock of an accident and will have to do without your car when it was fixed.
Also, for future resale value I'd want to be sure that the fix was a professional as possible by using a decent garage and not just someone they know that will do it cheaper.

I just cannot understand why on earth people involved in RTA want to settle privately a lot of the time. It just baffles me. Insurance is there for a reason - never settle privately. You never know you might have some unknown injuries which just appear after a few weeks / months and then you'll have issues. You owe the other driver nothing - do not engage, they are at fault, let your insurance company deal with it.

It's hard when you know the person though. You don't necessarily want to piss off a friend even if you never really liked them much to begin with.

i was hit by another car (very slowly, no human injuries)

and he wanted to avoid the insurance companies, so i said to him to arrange quotes, but i wanted to know who they were so i could research them

he's now mailed to say he wants to go through insurance (i'm a lot happier)