First car accident and he fled the scene

[carsaretheworst]

Hi all, hoping you can help as we are confused and shaken up!

Last night, DH was getting his work belongings from the passenger side of the car. Our street doesn't have off-street parking so has cars both sides parked as is common where we live. The road is wide so cars can pass still and pull in for traffic to go past etc.

As he was getting his things, other cars went past him with no issue.
All his lights were on and the road is lit by street lights, it was 6pm. A car sped down the road (recently a school girl got killed by a driver doing this round this area and we are by a school, so whilst speed limit is 30 people go around 20 and he was going 35-40). He caught DH's door as he went past and knocked DH.

The car stopped, shouted, DH went up to him and he smelled of alcohol. I was watching the whole thing from our window as I normally sit at the bay window in our bedroom in the evenings. I ran down and filmed the whole thing. The driver refused to give details and drove off.

DH's been told his car will be written off. We use it all the time and he needs it to get to school. Does anyone have any advice? We've filed with the police etc and because of him fleeing and the alcohol, the police checked ANPR last night to see if he was still driving but we heard nothing back.

Do we just now buy another car and claim the money back later? I am so confused. His car was a 2007 Mercedes with a year's MOT so probably only worth £1500? I'm not good at cars!

@VeniVidiWeeWee

So, this happened last night and they've already sent you a letter and have declared the car a write-off without examining it? Is that correct?

By email I imagine, everything comes by email .

@VeniVidiWeeWee

So, this happened last night and they've already sent you a letter and have declared the car a write-off without examining it? Is that correct?

The insurer we work with will do this just from photos, essentially fast-tracking the write off, if the vehicle is worth less than a certain amount. This mitigates their losses as usually the insured will be offered credit hire until they receive the total loss payment.

I got a courtesy car when mine was written off but as soon as I agreed a figure they wanted the car back, but you may be able to negotiate a few days while you get a new car. I think I got a week which isn’t long but I suppose the courtesy car is racking up daily costs.

No, it doesn't. With my recent claim not one email. And the car had to be assessed before being written off or repaired.

@VeniVidiWeeWee

So, this happened last night and they've already sent you a letter and have declared the car a write-off without examining it? Is that correct?

When my dad wrote off my car I had a letter in about 10 minutes after the call. Everything is now done by email. I didn’t even get a physical copy of any of the paperwork.

@carsaretheworst that sounds lovely!

If you have the registration the police will surely be able to track down the driver / owner of said car .

My car was broken into many years ago now and insurer wrote it off economically because the cost of repairs to the door etc in their opinion exceeded the value of the car . As it was , and after checking with the insurer , I loved my car so got it fixed myself and kept my very reliable but yes old car .

You may be able to buy the car back from the insurance company. You could then just replace the door from a scrap yard. Any car older than a few years will be written off by the insurance company.

It might no effect your no claims but you will see a premium hike next year as you DH will been seen as a higher risk as he has made a claim. Just because it isnt his fault doesnt mean they see him as less of a risk

You must be really shocked. Drunk drivers are scum.

Unfortunately the insurance process is likely to add insult to injury. It's likely to be expensive, to feel like a kick in the teeth, and some insurers will make your DH repeatedly describe the accident.

The following all applies if the third party insurer will not pay out. Even though you know the car registration, if the keeper denies being the accident driver their insurer will probably contest the claim.

Your insurance may include a courtesy car, however these are only provided until your car is repaired or written off. So you might not get one at all if your insurer is already confirming the writeoff.

When the car is written off you will get the market value of your car minus your excess. As a PP mentioned there is often negotiation here, insurers giving low initial offers which get increased. You can dispute the decision to write off, or depending on the type of write-off you can buy the car back.

If your car is written off your policy ends, but if you are paying monthly then in most cases you still need to pay. This is because paying monthly for car insurance is technically taking out a loan for the entire premium that you pay back over the year. And your new car will need a new insurance policy. If the old policy only recently started this can be a considerable extra expense.

Depending on your insurance, there may be no or limited coverage for any injuries DH sustained. Just because he seemed OK doesn't mean he's not been hurt, some injuries aren't obvious straight away. It depends on exact terms and whether your insurer tries to wriggle out of paying.

"Fault" to a car insurer isn't really about who caused an accident, it's about who pays. Therefore this claim goes down as at-fault for you, with a corresponding greater insurance premium in future. I wouldn't trust what your insurers have said; they could be assuming the other driver gets found and change their mind if it's not.

So yeah, a shit situation all round.

On the other hand if the drunk driver can be traced, and was insured, and their insurance pays up, things look somewhat better. No excess, no at-fault claim on record, a hire car may be available (but beware! these have pitfalls that can cost you £1000's!).

Either way you'll probably spend the next few years getting ambulance-chasing lawyer spam calls, just to add a final insult.

(PS: My opening line was not meant to sound sarcastic!)

Contact your insurer and give them the number of your Police crime report.

DD1 had her car written off by an uninsured driver (dont be surprised). MIB dealt with the claim. The money for the car came quite quickly but the personal injury (DD suffered severe whiplash) took over a year to settle.

Not some young driver in an old rust bucket but a middle aged man in a reasonably modern car.

The insurer I work with writes cars off without seeing them, sometimes telling policyholder that will be the outcome before seeing pics.
It's pretty simple really:
Car more than 10 years old for example, probably worth no more than 2/3k. Cars are usually written off if the cost to repair is more than 50/60 per cent. Even the most minor damage can cost more than 1k.
Write it off, pay policyholder pronto, sell salvage. Most efficient and cost effective way of doing it.

So the door is damaged? Does it close? Can your DH just not the car? Or does insurance become invalid once the insurance company deems it a right off? I still used my car for a few days when somebody hit mine, but this was many years ago.

Find out cost of replacing door from local garage if that is all it is
Talk to your insurers
If you can repair and want to you may come to arrangement
It s not for you to go after the other car driver leave to insurers

You'll just need to go via insurance.

My car was written off in an accident last summer. They picked it up the same day and took it to the garage, and brought me a courtesy car.

I got a call within 48 hours saying it was un-repairable and they were offering X for the car. The money was in my bank account within the hour. But as soon as my car was written off, they took the courtesy car back so I did have to go a few days without a vehicle.

As soon as I heard my car was a write-off, I contacted the local garage and arranged to see some other cars and I had a new car within three days.

I'm with Tesco but I was really impressed by the experience - they were really professional and everything went very smoothly.

We’re going through something similar at the moment @carsaretheworst and the girl that hit us is now lying about what happened 😫 Expect it to be a long drawn out process.

@activitythree

He caught the door. Until the damage is assess you have no idea that it will be written off. Even if it is you could always buy it back and repair. And when you take out insurance go for a policy that offers a courtesy car when you have a write off because they time between accident and payment you have no transport.

The insurance company have said it's a 'total loss basis' because the damage outweighs the value.

We've just learned you can buy it back so will do that as it has a lot of MOT on it, 10/11 months worth.
Of course, it would be illegal to have a passenger. So will do the work route.

@gobbynorthernbird is correct. They assessed based on pictures. They are recovering the car for their warehouse but unless there's a change, it's written off.

We've had three emails now:

1. total loss basis
2. personal injury legal claim (we are not going to pursue this as injury is minor)
3. no claims is unaffected

OP, if you want to retain the vehicle check that they won't charge you for storage and recovery.

@safariboot I think he is insured, we did do a vehicle check and everything else was in order. We have his licence plate and also I took a video of him admitting he's involved, it shows him etc so he can't deny.

However, I am concerned about the lengthy process.
He refused to provide details and left the scene (we now know why) so I am hoping committing a crime makes him automatically guilty? he can't just try 50/50?

What is the injury? It may become an issue in the future.

Did you involve the police?

If you buy the car back it’s still down as a write off - category S I think and you can’t sell it like that.

Just go through your insurance - their job is to win your case for you. They'll contact his insurance company/him and deal with it on your behalf - try not to get too stressed about it all.