To say a crash HAS to go through insurance

[Chelyanne]

So on the school run and bang... a woman reversed out in to the side of our car.
She asked me if we could not involve insurance and she'd pay for the damage (passenger door, rear wing, rear bumper, side trim and alloy all have visible damage). I said no it has to go through insurance and she left in a huff leaving me with no contact details, I did get a pic of her numberplate on and we have dash cams front and rear too. No injuries to me or 5 kids in the car, she had an adult passenger and they both looked okay too.

Do you think I was being unreasonable saying no to her?

I would report asap. Before she somehow claims it was your fault. Does she know you have a dashcam?

Definitely through insurance as they won't like the quotes for that amount of damage and there may be internal damage too.

They'll then argue. If they can drive off, they were never going to just pay up.

You should report but you don't have to claim through them. As the on fault party, I would advise you too though. Sounds like she's possibly got a few claims and her insurance is high because of it.

Not your issue though really

@SW1amp

Unfortunately, your premium will probably go up if you do it through insurance Mine went up £300 when someone scraped the side of my car, while it was parked outside my house

If that’s potentially an issue for you, I would give her 7 days to pay, and then go to insurance

With dashcam footage, she is unlikely to be able to wriggle out of it at a later date but don’t leave it too long

You have to notify your insurer within 24 hours

YANBU. When a car bumped into me years ago, the woman wanted to have it repaired privately without insurance, then when I provided her with quotes from authorised insurance body shops, she said they were too expensive and she said her husband had a "friend" who knew someone, and I naively took it to her hubby's friend who was a back street garage. The job he did was awful, and you could clearly see where it had been repaired and re-painted as it was so shoddy. The guy was a big aggressive guy and just fobbed me off when I mentioned the finish, so I didn't pursue it. But I vowed never again!

@notangelinajolie

Be aware though, your premiums will probably go up if you go through insurance, even if it's not your fault.

Yes - and this is also why she doesn't want to go through her insurance.

I would be slightly suspicious as to why she would be keen to keep a significant accident away from insurers not really - just because she knows her premiums will go up and it is probably cheaper just to pay for the damage.

The whole motor insurance model in the UK is a nonsense.

My SIL had something similar - t-boned by a teenager who’s dad said I’ll sort it out pls don’t tell I sure insurance etc. He took her car to a dodgy garage and stripped it! Then offered her half the value in cash! Ended up going through the police and getting lawyers involved. Do your self a favour - report to the police and insurers. I was hit and made a claim against the other driver - my premiums did not go up.

@Wombat49 that is playbook what happened to me. Low external damage was a bugger to repair in a modern car and there was damage to other car systems from a tiny knock so the bill ended up being quite high. Too high, apparently .

I think with modern cars with amazing crumple zones and lots of technology, you can't always predict how much a repair will be and so if they are inclined to be, it is easy for them to be appalled by the price and thus refuse payment.

Absolutely not unreasonable. I had a similar situation and refused. In the end it was really expensive as it needed a respray on the door so I needed 3 days of a hire in addition to the cost of fixing the damage. I think the woman who wanted not to go through insurance in my case did not understand the damage she did. Plus I was entitled to (and too) compensation as she smashed up my legs which were painful and badly bruised for a few days (she drove into the car door slamming it into my shins).

You should go through insurance for big damage, and it will probably increase your premium even though you weren't at fault.

DH had this with a man who lived in our black of flats several years ago. Clearly had sight issues as had 'parked' his car by driving it into the side of DH's then eventually stopping when he hit the wall at the back. He didn't consider he'd been in an accident, he hadn't even noticed.

DH left and note and he came round to our flat and told DH he'd get his mate to fix it (it was an Audi with full Audi Service History and DH wanted it fixed properly by a registered garage not the mate of some bloke who can't even tell he's crashed into a car and a wall).

DH said no and he screamed at him. It ended up going to court, FFS. DH won because we'd taken photos which clearly showed the paint from this man's car all up the side of DH's.

People are weird. Claim on the insurance.

You absolutely must go through insurance. When this happened to me in the exact same circumstances, the other driver was trying to give me cash there and then. I refused. Turns out she had no license, it wasn't her car and therefore obviously not insured. She was arrested and taken to court. My insurers had to pay for repairs and she had to spend the next two years paying me weekly to reimburse me the cost of my excess.

She's probably got a big excess.

Which she won’t have to pay on a third party claim

Report to the police. Sounds like she's uninsured frankly.

Then report to your insurer.

If both parties agree, it is perfectly acceptable not to go through the insurance. But if you don't agree to that then that's up to you.

If she left without exchanging details then isn't it a hit and run?

It maybe that she doesn't actually have insurance in which case she is a danger to everyone and needs to be reported.

@sillysmiles

If both parties agree, it is perfectly acceptable not to go through the insurance. But if you don't agree to that then that's up to you.

As someone who worked in this field I'd not advise this...many times I would see people agreeing to settle it out of insurance, then they'd end up claiming because what they thought was minor damage wasn't when they got to the garage. It'd then transpire that it wasn't reported at the time and this then goes against what is written in the agreed terms of the insurance... it also just generally causes more conflict.

It has a large dent so will be pricey to repair.
I know from a previous crash that this level of damage is likely to be in the thousands not just a little buffing out needed. No idea if there could be more serious damage but it did feel a bit off driving it home though I was a bit shaken by it too.
I've done all my reporting, I'm not worried about insurance hikes tbh as we'll pay whatever we need to for the cover we want.
Annoyed the insurance will not give me the upgraded courtesy car we pay extra for because they don't have her contact details.

Another nope from me. We had a similar accident. Did report it to our insurance but agreed to consider a private repair as the car that hit me belonged to a neighbour. My DH helped him by getting a friend to tow his own car for mate's rates. Our thanks were the neighbour threatening to report me to our insurers for not having declared that I use the car for work (I had). He waited till DH was out to come round and try to intimidate me - the fool 😀. Never again.

@araiwa

Why would you think that you can tell her how to pay to get your car fixed. It's up to her if she pays it or gets her insurance to pay for it. She doesn't have to claim off her insurance if she doesn't want to. Insurance companies both need to be informed of incident but how she pays is up to her

I think you are a bit confused. (Or maybe it's me.) When someone says they "don't want to go through insurance" it means they don't want you to contact your insurance company to ensure your car is fixed. They want you to trust them to fix your car instead of trusting your own insurance company. Even if they do pay up, this only makes sense for both if both are intending to keep their premiums down by fraudulently hiding the accident from their insurance companies.

When someone asks "not to go through insurance" they are asking you to collude in fraud for the mutual benefit of both.

I work for insurance.
No matter what you need to tell your insurance company.
If you wanted to sort yourselves it would be a notification only.
But I would advise to always claim, let your company deal with it for you.
The amount of people I speak to who have tried to sort it out themselves and they get shot in the foot because the third party decides to not comply and their are left with a beat up car.
Great you have dash cams.

doesn't have to go through insurance if she was willing to pay the expense herself. She shouldn't have drove off regardless.

I'd never not go through insurance, been bitten by that one before. Its relying on them to actually be decent and pay up, ensure the work is done to a proper standard and not well I'm only paying £100 as my mate will do it, and it's an awkward position as if they don't pay up retrospectively reporting to insurance is obviously frowned upon as its part of the terms that you report all accidents. Premiums don't actually rise that much if the worst is not substantial.

Make sure you put it through insurance, and if you've any school run people witnessed be sure to include them, as well as your dash cam evidence (the fact she hit the rear quarter of your car is neither here nor there) otherwise the lady will be saying you waved her out and drove on so damaging your car on hers. Or something.

@sillysmiles

If both parties agree, it is perfectly acceptable not to go through the insurance. But if you don't agree to that then that's up to you.

Assuming both parties have insurance, and notify their insurers as they are required to do, what advantage do both get from not involving insurers? In other words, if their is no crooked motive on either side, why would anyone not involve insurers?