make an insurance claim

[tiredandhungryalways]

A neighbour reversed into my parked car damaged one side quite badly and would prefer to pay for it themselves. The cost at an insurer recommended garage is 2000.00 and they are now offering to ask a different garage to repair it, a friend of theirs. I am not sure if damage is just cosmetic or mechanical as well I am inclined to think both. Should I just make an insurance claim even though their premium will be affected? I feel it's a silly question but the driver was crying and I feel so sorry for her having been in that position in the past. My worry is if we go with their choice of garage and the work is not done properly we won't have a leg to stand on. What to do?

[specialsubject]

yes, the insurance repairs are VERY expensive. If the OP's car is more than a few years old it will be written off. with just a dented panel she can buy the 'wreck', get a new panel, have it put on, go through the write-off procedure and job done. The car will lose most of its resale value but the compensation from the insurers should balance that out.

all very daft really. But having also been the victim of a stupid 'I reverse out of my drive and don't look', go through insurance.

[KitKat1985]

For that level of damage I'd be going through insurance for sure. As for why a £2k bill for a car not worth much more than that a lot of the charge is for labour. Well done for sorting it.

[Littleallovertheshop]

Well done, hope it all goes smoothly here on in

[tiredandhungryalways]

All done We have informed neighbour and insurance company thanks for your help!

[araiba]

to clarify - you should inform your insurance that your car has been in an accident but that it is for information only, you are not making a claim.

in an obvious case of it being the others fault- contact their insurance and they will sort it out easily for you

[PoshPenny]

The whole insurance thing can be an absolute rip off. I chose to go with my own preferred repairer rather than the insurance approved one in a similar situation last year. The difference between official list price for parts and what you can actually buy them for, plus the difference in labour rates is unbelievable. However, as youre the victim, it's your choice what you do. You could find some other body shop, get them to inspect it and see what they would charge and then make an offer to settle with your neighbours based on that quote. Nothing to stop you adding a bit on to cover hiring a car yourself if there isn't a courtesy car. As an example I offered to settle for £300, they were prats and wanted to go through insurance so I had a pickup truck courtesy car for 4 weeks to replace my Land Rover and then the repairs were £750 as my guy charged his bells and whistles rate with VAT and full whack for parts but that was how they wanted to play it... I sometimes wonder how much their premium went up.

[AppleCrumbled]

Even if you were not at fault I think your insurance premiums would be affected at next renewal according to the confused link below; data shows you are now more likely to be in another accident having been in one, also if it's on your small print, by not reporting an accident you could cancel your insurance.

www.confused.com/car-insurance/articles/car-insurance-traps-to-avoid

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-3052191/How-drivers-insurance-costs-soar-no-fault-accidents-don-t-claim.html

[araiba]

You contact your insurer not hers. If you do not tell your insurer you might invalidate your insurance if you have an accident later.

this is wrong

[pudcat]

You contact your insurer not hers. If you do not tell your insurer you might invalidate your insurance if you have an accident later.

[tiredandhungryalways]

It was the garage the insurer recommended that said it would cost 2000 at least he did mention probably up to 3000!

[britbat23]

tired some garages charge vastly over-inflated rates for jobs, and perhaps this is especially the case if they think an insurer will pick up the bill but since you aren't liable for the cost of replacing this door, it's really not worth worrying about.

The difference in cost between garages can also be down to the difference between sourcing a brand new door and getting one from the scrapheap; maybe your car has an unusual paint colour that needs to be matched; maybe locks will need to be changed; if there are airbags in the door they will need to be armed, etc. Car doors are complicated and safety-critical.

(PS have you received confirmation of this cost directly from the garage or from the woman who's trying to persuade you to not to tell her insurance?)

[tiredandhungryalways]

Ah daddad that would make sense!

[DadDadDad]

Because the car door is new, they don't take it off an existing old car worth £4500!

That's why you can get into write-off territory: a car that could probably be repaired is written off because the repairs cost more than the replacement value of the car.

[araiba]

contact her insurer directly

they will want to sort it it out quickly and will give you a temp car

[tiredandhungryalways]

Insurance it is, but the car is only worth 4500 so I'm confused why the garage are charging 2000 to replace a car door? Very odd

[britbat23]

If she did £2,000 worth of damage by reversing into your stationary car then she is an incompetent driver and deserves her insurance premium to go up. But that's by-the-by.

She should be financially disadvantaged by her own carelessness and she's pretty brazen to ask you to take on the risk (?dodgy garage) and the inconvenience of not going the insurance route (no courtesy car for you!) just to save HER a few bob.

The brass neck of some people: she crashes into your car and now she wants you to make HER life easier.

[Bailey101]

Also, now that your insurance know, even if she does pay for it herself she'll still have to declare it come renewal time. Her premiums are likely to go up either way.

[specialsubject]

tell your insurers, that's what you pay for.

she's done something stupid and so has to suffer the consequences. Ignore blubbering. No need to be anything other than polite but she needs to suck it up like an adult.

[Catphrase]

Id tell her the insurance are already dealing with it as they already know (even if she pays to fix it via her mate, you will still need to declare it at quote time as presumably they already know).
She can pay the insurance directly if she doesn't want it to go through hers. She will also deal with the insurance rather than you, so it won't be you dealing with it IYKWIM.
To be honest i know a lot of 'back street' garage bodyshops and they do a better job than the insurer ones, but that doesn't mean her mate is one of those!!!
Let it go through the insurance, its up to her if she pays them directly or lets her insurance pay. But it gets yours fixed, back on the road and you a courtesy car for the interim. The rest is for her to deal with

[m0therofdragons]

Dh had this and we were suckers and went along with it. Missed out on a courtesy car so had to struggle for 3 days with no car which is hard with 3dc. Never again.

[Bailey101]

Just tell her that you've notified your insurance, as your policy stipulates you must, and that they've decided to claim from her insurance. Pass the blame onto them, they won't care

[tiredandhungryalways]

My husband thinks we should go through insurance too, I was hoping not to tbh but looks like we will be. It's not a new car a 59 plate but my biggest worry is what pp said, if anything goes wrong later we will have to pay ourselves. I'm going to be a wimp and let my husband speak to them

[Oysterbabe]

Claim. She can always pay off your insurer herself to protect her premium but it will be $$$$

[tiredandhungryalways]

Yes that's the second thing we will need a car as we only have one which insurer will provide. This is going to sound lame but how do we go about telling them we are going through insurance? Hate confrontation!

[Bailey101]

I wouldn't let the mate look at the car - you'd be best doing everything officially from now on.