To not pay for a car accident

[Manchestermanchester]

I was reversing and touched a car at low speed (they were stationary). The guy instantly says he wants my insurance details etc. So I’m thinking agh excess and premium increase.

I then look at my car to find no damage. There is no way I could have caused the damage to his car. I drive a tiny car, it has plastic bumpers.

I’m refusing to pay for the repairs. I haven’t been provided with a cost etc. I would rather I went to my insurance company and asked them to prove the damage. People think I should just pay.

Just go through insurance then. But I would be more inclined to pay it assuming it’s not high value. How much is it?

If you are responsible for damaging another vehicle on a road or public place in a road traffic collision then you are required to exchange details at the scene of report to the police within 24 hours.
Did you take photographs of the scene and your vehicle's?
Did you find any witnesses?cctv?dash cam?
You cannot just hope this will go away and should deal with it.

Clearly if his car is damaged where your bumper touched it, then your car must have done something. Just because there’s no damage on yours doesn’t mean it hasn’t done some damage to his. Give your insurance info and leave it to the experts.

I would let the insurance handle it - you may ind his damge "disappears" when they get involved

Give it to your insurance. They are very experienced in dealing with fraudulent claims and if he is having you on they will defend it.

So you’ve accepted liability for the accident but you’re disputing the quantum (amount of damage). You still have a legal obligation to report the accident to your insurers and they will look into it for you. But just because there was no damage to your vehicle doesn’t mean there was no damage to the other party’s. I work in insurance and often we deal with cases where there can be extensive damage to our client’s vehicle eg. in a hit in the rear scenario but no/hardly any damage to the vehicle at fault. It depends on various factors such as make and model of vehicle, speed of impact etc.

you reversed - your fault
give it to the insurance to deal with

I’d also go through the insurance.
My SIL touched a car and caused no damage except the tiniest scratch. She gave her details to the driver and offered to pay the amount to fix it. The driver took the money to fix it... then a few days later SIL got a call from her insurer saying that they had been contacted to say she’d been in an accident with even more damage than there was on the night it happened! Now she’s in the shit with her insurer and is essentially having to pay twice.

I had a decade old Citroen that damaged a new Mercedes in an identical situation to the one you describe. I was clearly in the wrong

I had someone claim they just ‘touched’ my bumper. It’s a mounded unit and her green paint was all over the dent & so the whole thing needed replacing,
The garage quoted less than £200. DH told her the amount expecting her to pay rather than risk insurance excess - she thought we were trying to scam her -we weren’t- and went through insurance. It would have cost her more in the long run.
You hit a car, he asked for insurance details -you don’t want to pay for something you don’t think you caused-fair enough. Just go through insurance but please know there are some decent people out there (like us) who are trying to save people money BUT not without providing you with a detailed garage repair quote. No quote no cash!
Go through insurance.

I caught someone’s car like that once. Unfortunately there was a lot of damage along the side of her car that clearly wasn’t me, it was obviously historical damage, it was rusty! She claimed that I’d scratched all the way down her car. There was no damage to mine at all, it really didn’t match up. Luckily for me I had protected no claims and as I wasn’t claiming for any damage on my own car I didn’t have to do anything. She was understandably annoyed at having to take time off to get quotes and get it repaired but I think she was pulling a bit of a fast one. It was an accident though, I didn’t do it on bloody purpose.

An ex did something similar in reverse (pun not intended) - he reversed into a parked car. His was 4 years old, the other car was 2 years old. The impact was significantly reduced because it happened on snow on a slight downhill slope, so the stationary car slid backwards for a few feet rather than staying still.

The owner got away with £0 due to there being a barely scuffed bumper. The ex's car, however, had to be scrapped, because the tiny impact, just the right place, caused the entire rear crumple zone to, well, crumple.

@Campurp exactly! The owner hasn’t called me back yet. I don’t need the stress.

@MitziK so you went through the insurance?

@MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig did you go via the insurance?

@Nicknacky what’s the guarantee that they don’t claim the damage on their insurance? If I actually done damage to their van, whatever. But as I didn’t, I don’t know why I should pay anything.

@Onemorehitandillcrumble there is no way I caused the damage. There is pre-existing damage. Reversing slowing into a van and I caused his bumper to crack but my small Yaris that has a plastic number didn’t have any impact? I can push in my bumper, it won’t cause that damage.

@UnexpectedItemInTheShaggingAre So you had no damage to your car but a big heavy van had his had plastic bumper smashed? The bumper can withstand a large amount of weight.

You hit their car. Go through insurance if you think they are at it.

My car was hit from behind and had a scratch. It was in the garage for two weeks while the back end was repaired.

@KarmaStar waiting for them to contact me. Why would I put a claims on my car insurance when I possibly don’t have to? Yeah cool it’s “lying” or whatever, but they are thieving insurance companies and this man is trying to scam me.

How is he trying to scam you? You damaged his car and straight away he asked for insurance details, if he was going to scam you he would have wanted cash.

@Livelovebehappy no it’s literally not clearly. It’s Preexisting damage and he’s trying to get money from me. Look at a van - you know that bar where people and heavy items are placed on - that’s apparently go broken by my plastic bumper.

@Nicknacky I didn’t cause that damage. Was that not clear in the post? It’s pre-existing. He’s already damaged his bumper and the slight tap from my car going at a very low speed (I was creeping) than he thought this would be a good time to get some money.

There is zero damage to my car apart from a scuff which is unnoticeable. The damage to his car is too far up for it to be reasonably caused by my car. Also how could my plastic bumper that crumples on impact damage his van and not crack?

How do you know you didn't cause it? Just because your car is fine doesn't mean you didn't damage his van

Go through insurance. It's what they're there for.

Apologies everyone I said car but I meant van!