My fault but should I pay for the damage?

[CountryGirl17]

I can admit that it was totally my fault that I drove accidentally into my employee’s VW Transporter in the car park at work. When I told him, I was devastated and he was obviously annoyed.

As I am insured with a social, domestic and commuter policy, I thought the process would be very straightforward, but it’s not. When my employee looked into his policy, he only had social and domestic insurance and then immediately changed his policy to include commuting after the incident. When he told me, my heart sunk as I had technically hit an uninsured driver as he was using his car to travel to work. Though, as it wasn’t his fault, my insurance would cover it. I told him that it wouldn’t be an issue, but he wasn’t confident or comfortable about that.

But, that wasn’t the only issue, as he advised me that he made some modifications to his vehicle, increasing its value and I am not 100% sure that he notified his insurer (that’s my suspicion). He did say to me that he was concerned that any repairs may not factor in the cost of the modifications or could effectively right off the vehicle. Another reason to not go through insurance. Again, my insurance should cover the cost of the damage.

The damage to my car is over £1,500, so I have to make a claim and I am okay pay the £250 excess. Though, my colleague has been really paranoid and doesn’t want to go through his insurance for the reasons that he wasn’t insured at the time and his car was modified. He doesn’t want to take any risks. As he doesn’t want to go through insurance, he has decided to get his car fixed by recommended bodyshop repairer. This repairer offered to do my car too, but they are not recommended by my insurer. This is his choice.

To protect him, I’ve submitted my claim but not involved my colleague. They haven’t questioned it and the claim is going through just fine, which is good. My colleague isn’t bothered that I not telling the complete truth to my insurance company. Now, our HR department has gotten involved because my employee is upset about paying for the damage that my insurance would have covered. I can understand his annoyance, but the complications are not my fault and it was his choice to not go via insurance. If we went through insurance then he wouldn’t need to pay anything! The company has offered to loan me the money to pay for his damage, but I would have to pay it back, which basically means they are encouraging me to pay for his damage. It’s a lot of money and this is a nightmare!!!

AIBU to not pay out as I am insured or should I pay out as he works for me and it’s not his fault? I don’t know what the right thing is? Thanks.

”hysterical” is a misogynistic phrase. But you think what you want and I’ll think what I want 👍 enjoy your Wednesday 🫶 ciao

OP, not your issue to have to pay for it, you could offer to do so if you want to avoid an insurance claim, which many people will do, but given you've already started a claim yourself, it's of no benefit to you to pay for the damage yourself now, tell him to take it up with your insurer. Just have to hope you haven't lied about not damaging another car when you've put the claim in for your own car.

And she will have done something wrong. Future tense 😂She will have done plenty wrong even if she phones her insurance now. The whole post is about the original incident.

I read it in the only way that anyone would read your comment. There’s a big difference between “if you tell your insurance then you’ll have done nothing wrong” and “if you tell your insurance then you’ll have done nothing wrong by telling your insurance but will have still done lots of other things wrong”.

You were either completely wrong and are now backtracking or you communicated what you meant so badly that no reasonable person would understand what you meant. Either way, it’s no one else’s fault and there’s no need for you to start throwing shade and insulting posters who politely clarified your advice.

So is “smug”. It comes from insulting women who were pretty as superior to women who were smart. How embarrassing for you.

Insurance companies must pay out if there are grounds for doing so. If they don't pay you can make a complaint and pass it on to the ombudsman if you are not happy with the decision.

I think you should contact the insurance company and give them the full story. If not and they find out you could be put on the insurance fraud register and will only be able to buy insurance from an expensive specialist company.

Absolutely do not pay out!!!! It's not your fault his insurance isn't fit for purpose.

Have you told HR that you offered to go through insurance and he refused? I am gobsmacked that they think they can make you pay!!!

Please, do not lie to your insurance company.
Go through your insurance company for everything, it is not your fault if his insurance company are not aware of modifications he has made. If you don't keep this above board at your end, it will get very, very messy
That's why you have insurance.

I mean if you’ve fabricated another story to your insurance in order to settle your own claim for your damage, then I don’t think you have the option to go through insurance for colleagues car now. Going back to tell them you did in fact hit another vehicle and withheld that info would probably void your whole policy and leave 2 unfixed cars.

The way I see it you can either tell your colleague you’re paying nothing and hope they accept that, or you agree on a value you are happy to contribute to their repairs.

You’ve got yourself in quite the pickle now. In future just tell your insurance the truth and advise them that the involved party does not want their vehicle fixed or to be part of the claim.

There'll be no exclamation marks left for everyone else to use before long, if this thread continues as it is.

Once again, he doesn't need to contact his own insurer. He can get OP's insurance details either directly from her or even without her knowledge by putting her reg' number through askMID and then simply start a claim directly with her insurer.

I struggle to understand why people post 'advice' which they've just made up in their heads by deciding that their way of thinking something works must be correct, just because it should be that way in their opinion.

Motor insurance policies have very specific conditions, processes and procedures which aren't open to opinion. MNers deciding that the 3rd party is going to be in some sort of trouble, or that OP's insurance won't pay out "because private property" are incorrect.

@SofiaSoFar

I struggle to understand why people post 'advice' which they've just made up in their heads by deciding that their way of thinking something works must be correct, just because it should be that way in their opinion.

It's not only infuriating - it's sometimes dangerous. People give advice that's not true because they think it's 'common sense'. The problem with forums is that there's no one fact-checking the content.

As a friend of mine memorably wrote 'The internet is like having Guernica explained to you by a troupe of clowns'.

As a friend of mine memorably wrote 'The internet is like having Guernica explained to you by a troupe of clowns'.

@WalkingOnTheCracks That's a brilliant way of describing it. 😂

I would not pay a cent, through insurance or nothing. His choice. And HR are a load of incompetent idiots.

He wasn't uninsured.

Someone crashed into me at uni, I contacted my insurance told them what happened and they changed my policy to cover business too as social and domestic doesn't cover you for travelling to a place of work or education.

I'm so relieved to hear this, I was starting to think that I must not understand how insurance works after all. A number of people had said the colleague was going to be in trouble with the police, and I wondered how on earth when his car was parked off-road and he was nowhere near it!

Anyway the OP never came back, I wonder if this was simply a 'wind 'em up and watch 'em go' exercise. 💆

Not your fault his insurance is messed up. Go through your insurance.

You have insurance for a reason - use it.

Confused in American.
We actually have similar here, a difference for commuting although most people only qualify for it if they have more than one car. It would also make zero difference in an accident of this type when the other driver is so clearly at fault. It also would be impossible for one person to make an insurance claim on their side off the accident without the other person's insurance company being informed as well. It would be listed as having no insurance at all if someone tried that, and then they would get all sorts of tickets and future fines for not being insured and even later charges of attempted insurance fraud in your specific case for attempting to only claim an accident through one insurance and not the other.
I don't know what the fines or whatever are for not having commuting insurance, but here not claiming it to both insurance companies would lead to higher penalties for both parties when it is eventually found out.

This!

if you now try and add it onto the claim it likely won’t be covered as you didn’t tell them about it, and they would have asked you if other cars were involved.

you’ve screwed your self over from many directions in my opinion.

I can't imagine how you would be able to just say to the insurers now, "Oh by the way, remember that car accident I reported, the one with 1500 quid damage to my car? Well I actually hit another car, that's how it happened, here are the details of the other driver."
There must be serious implications of that.

Too late for you, but these threads are useful to others, always go through insurance. That's what it is there for. And do not be persuaded by other drivers not to go through insurance - there's usually a reason why they don't want too.....
Remember that things like a small scratch to a bumper can end up costing a lot of money as often the entire bumper has to be replaced.

I think he is being way too paranoid, insurance companies will not punish him for not saying he has driven to work its hardly the crime of the century, I would be encouraging him to claim via the insurance. Most insurance updates are done at the end of the year, this is what my insurance told me anyway

This.

In 30 years of driving I also have never heard of social and domestic not covering the journey to and from work.

Its nonsensical. People don't just have a spare car to go do the weekly shop, they take it to work daily. What would be the point of such restricted coverage....

I've just checked mine and DH. Social and domestic covers the daily commute. It doesnt cover business use which is what I presume is confusing some.

@Willyoujustbequiet on some (not all) policies it is an optional add on. Examples have been given above. No confusion here, it's my job to know about different types of car/van/bike policies.

Reading with intrigue

He’s an idiot ! Why should you go through the trauma for him!!

A couple of things spring to mind here, as the other driver's actions aren't making much sense.

1. You were at fault, and admitted this. There is no need for his insurance to be involved, he can claim directly from your insurance company, therefore not being insured for commuting/modifications is pretty much irrelevant.

1. If he's chosen to pay for a private repair rather than claim on your insurance, that's down to him. But no way should they be involving your employer. This is a personal matter (even if it happened on company property), and even discussing this with them is well out of order. You can't change the fact he's already told them, but they should not be getting involved.

1. If he is insured as stated, the fact he's obviously gone for the cheapest policy possible whilst not being honest is his problem.

1. Personally, I think he's only done this because he's actually uninsured. Either that, or the insurance on the vehicle is in someone else's name. If he claims on your insurance, they will automatically check he has a valid policy, and if he doesn't he obviously has a DBS bigger problem. This is the ONLY reason I can think of for him not to claim from you, otherwise none on this makes much sense!

You can actually check here whether his vehicle is insured at all on the Motor Insurance Database, although this won't tell you if the insurance is held in someone else's name.

https://ownvehicle.askmid.com/

Good luck, I hope you get this resolved to your satisfaction.