Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

WIBU not to hand over insurance details?

59 replies

MinistryofRevenge · 28/12/2015 11:55

About nine o'clock last night, there's a loud knocking at my door. DD goes to answer it, and standing on the doorstep are a man, a woman and a teenage girl. The woman says something to DD along the lines of "had she found it difficult parking the car" - I went to the door, because I was in fact the person who had parked the car and so best placed to answer, and it transpires that these are new(ish) neighbours who had parked in front of the house yesterday afternoon. Not a problem, there was space for me to park between their car and my next-door neighbour's because I'm brilliant at parallel parking so I'd parked in the space available.

The woman then asks for my insurance details. I asked why, and she told me that I'd damaged her car. I'm pretty sure I'd not touched her car, though I was parked very close to it.

She then said that if I didn't want to give insurance details, then we could sort it out privately. The reason I didn't want to give insurance details was because I hadn't damaged her car - I'm certain I would have noticed if I had touched it. The man (who I guess was her DH) said that if I didn't want to sort this out with them, he'd have to report me to the police as a hit and run driver - I told him to do so, because if their car had been damaged, I'd rather go through proper channels.

So, WIBU not to give details? Normally I wouldn't have an issue with this, but they were acting strangely aggressively - not just the turning up mob-handed on the doorstep late at night, but the woman in particular loudly repeating questions like did I find it difficult to park, do I have parking sensors, why did I park so close to her car, do I generally just damage other peoples' cars and drive off (I walked back into the house after this last one, and they spent another five minutes ostentatiously taking photos of my car). It may well be that the front of her car was in fact damaged (though I didn't investigate - I didn't notice anything wrong with it when I was taking the shopping from the boot of my car, but I had no reason to inspect it closely), and if someone has hit her car, she's perfectly within her rights to want to have the damage repaired. But the whole episode felt a bit off; if they think that I was responsible, wouldn't it be more "normal" behavior for one person to just come to the door, say that they thought I'd reversed into the car, and exchange insurance details, without all the posturing, loud accusations and strange questions?

It may just be that they've put my back up with their strange behaviour, and I'm happy to give my insurance details, but tell my insurance company that I'm confident I haven't hit their car, and leave the two insurers to sort it out between themselves, but I'm wondering whether I'm being set up to take responsibility for some pre-existing damage. Just the way that she opened the conversation with "did you find it difficult to park" and the constant questioning. I work in financial crime, so I'm possibly a bit cynical. WWYD?

OP posts:
MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 30/12/2015 22:27

You don't always realise you've hit something. I very carefully drove into a parking space once, dh in the passenger side. He got out and commented on the scrape down the side of the next car. Then he looked at the front of my car and said um, I think you caught that car. Neither of us felt or heard a thing. If he hadn't noticed the other car we've have sauntered off completely unaware. Blush

I left my details on the windscreen. She was not a happy bunny when she rang. I gave her my insurance details and left her to it. I did feel bad at the thought of her having to take her car off for a quote, book it in, arrange a hire car, all the faff with the insurance company etc but it was an accident, I didn't do it on purpose.

I didn't make a claim for my own car, it wasn't damaged at all. Bit of a rub on the paintwork which polished out. I have a big 4x4 and hers was a little hatchback. Felt very guilty at that.

wasonthelist · 30/12/2015 22:37

I was sitting in my car in the car park at work once when a felt quite a bump. I got out and walked to the back where a woman was parking her car. She wound down her window and said "I didn't hit you".

Mmmmcake123 · 30/12/2015 22:52

As well as taking lots of photos, note down the time they called and diarise what they said, all useful when arguing later. Big faff, good luck

DecaffCoffeeAndRollupsPlease · 30/12/2015 23:10

Someone reversed into my car in a supermarket car park and didn't notice. I waited for them to come out of the shop and they refused to give me insurance details and accused me of lying. Just an anecdote to add to those saying it's possible to hit someone's car and not notice.

Bunbaker · 30/12/2015 23:44

"I did feel bad at the thought of her having to take her car off for a quote, book it in, arrange a hire car, all the faff with the insurance company"

But you don't sort out quotes, book it in, get a hire car etc. The insurance company sort all that out for you.

ExitPursuedByABear · 30/12/2015 23:53

They are trying it on. An ex neighbour tried this on with me. Called the police who fired him off.

Takeparacetamolandstopmoaning · 31/12/2015 00:03

I was also coming on to say don't speak to your insurance company. Wait and see if she puts in a claim. Any contact like this can affect your premium next year even if they don't pay out.

Dipankrispaneven · 31/12/2015 00:05

I think it's interesting that they started out by shouting the odds at your DD. For one thing, that demonstrates that they didn't see what happened. But it also suggests that they came round determined to bully her because she's a young girl and, probably, an inexperienced driver and they thought they'd get away with it. Having started it, they couldn't really stop when you turned up - and they clearly continued trying to bully you, again probably because you're female.

I doubt that you could hit a car with a towbar without feeling it, it's not the same as touching bumpers.

magoria · 31/12/2015 00:10

If you are anything like my neighbour you are paranoid when you reverse as it costs a fricking fortune for tow bars!

I agree with the above posters. They didn't see anything. They started on your DD first and you would have felt it. Tow bars are nothing like crumple zones.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page