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.

I've never had car insurance that didn't specify explicitly that 'domestic, social, pleasure' also included driving to and from a regular place of work. Even when, as now, it's not actually used for commuting.
@SofiaSoFar 's point is very useful, and I'll be taking note of that.

He can claim directly from your insurers. Just pass him the details. It makes no difference whatsoever. Even if he had no insurance at all.

Even if she tells her insurance. She’s still hit someone’s vehicle and lied about it. Coming clean because she’s in trouble doesn’t undo what she did or mean she’s not done anything wrong. Insurance companies don’t go “oh, you lied and committed fraud, no worries, you’ve told the truth now so we’re all good”.

Not sure why you feel so smug and clever seeing as you’re wrong. 🙄

We're with coop insurance and you have to add commuting if you use it to get to and from work. It's no longer covered under social/domestic use.

No. We have insurance for a reason. We have our own to cover our own damage and damage to other people, and other people have theirs to cover damage to our cars.

The first rule of insurance is inform the insurer about use, mileage and modifications. This is purely on him. You had an accident, you have involved your insurer. You are now out of this. HR? they need to butt out.

I'm banging my head at the continued disinformation being spouted on this thread.

Hopefully OP will come back and she'll get some proper advice on what to do now and see if she can salvage the claim for the damage to her car and her employee's van through her own insurance.

I doubt he was ever uninsured, he wouldn't have been fully covered though.

At the end of the day, HE lied to HIS insurance company. That isn't your problem. Call your insurance company back, give them all the details and let them deal with it.
He clearly lied to his own ins company, to underpay on his premiums. But that isn't your problem and HR can swivel - this isn't their domain. And don't you dare pay him a penny.

P.s. Social, domestic and pleasure usually doesn't include commuting, check your policies people.
It's the same as when people assume they have insurance to drive another person's car because they're fully comp - the answer is in your paperwork
(ex insurance company claims staff member)

I agree. Numerous errors and misunderstandings.

Shows how little people understand and how people might not know what they need to do or should do if causing an accident or being a victim of one, or why accurate insurance is needed and when it will and won’t matter.

Technically if he was driving without insurance etc or the vehicle should not have been on the road I can see his insurance kicking up a stink

as well as the police doing him for driving without insurance etc

Commuting is one of the questions asked

I’m struggling to believe that any HR department would involve itself in this sort of nonsense. ‘Lend you the money’?!! Why are you calling him your employee? Is it your company?

Insurance companies will not pay out if they don’t have to

My reading of the post was that the vehicle was parked (no driver) on private property at the time.

The OP seems to have vanished though.

Not true, some you have to specify, social, social and commuting and then business. As the guy has found out.

If he won't go through his insurance it's his problem OP.

Your job is to notify your insurer and give him your details. His job to claim if he wants to. It's really His problem if he has lied to his insurance company and now doesn't want them to find out. What an irresponsible idiot. What's the point of him having insurance at all if whatever lies he has told invalidate the insurance.

What did you tell your insurer you hit then? Surely you had to give his number plate?

I think you need to ring your insurance company and come clean with all the details. Tell them his details and that you omitted to tell them about him because he put you under pressure to not go through insurance. Tell them, it has now it has come to light that actually he has modified his vehicle so his insurance is in effect invalid and he has now involved your HR department to pressure you into paying for the damage out of your own pocket.

Then tell your HR department to sod off.

You had a car accident.

You went through your insurance.

You've done absolutely the right thing.

The fact he hadn't got himself in order is not your responsibility. You are insured to cover the cost of his damage.

I'd tell your HR (formally in writing) that you don't appreciate the, getting involved and insisting you pay money out and if they continue to involve themselves in an accident between yourself and a third party you'll take legal advice through your car insurance.

The last bit of this. Tell HR to butt out..... Or tell them to claim on the businesses insurance if they are so bothered by it.

He's made modifications, he had the wrong insurance..... This is on him, if he doesn't want to go through insurance, then he pays. I don't see the issue.

My biggest take out from this thread is how many people are commuting to work unaware they are uninsured...

We are with Admiral and had to add commuting on as an additional option...

Paying up is aiding his 'crime' but not being correctly insured. Absolutely his problem, not yours.

Mine auto renews every year so I just check it hasn't gone up much (went down this year), I don't actually fill in a form so I've learnt that it is very important to check the summary that they send you!

More nonsense.

He wasn't driving at the time so police won't care. And even if he had been driving, they won't come after him when they didn't catch him at the time, for a minor non-injury bump like this.

We don't know anything about the cover he might or might not have had - he might have invalidated part of his insurance, or he might not. And even then it may or may not have affected his 3rd party cover, which is all the police would be interested in, even if it was on the public road and they attended at the time.

His insurance won't "kick up a stink". They are a business and will follow their procedures, if he involves them. But he has no obligation to involve them at this point and he can go directly to OP's insurers, as has been pointed out.

Me too.

I don't work so if it were just me SDP would be fine, but probably two or three times a year DH will borrow my car to drive to the office so I need commuting on there.
Once or twice he'll need to use my car to visit a site, and because of this I have to add 1,000 business miles too.

Even our 30 year old classic is SDPC in case he uses it on the odd day in summer.

When you submitted your claim you will have provided his registration number, so your insurance company will have been able to access details of his insurance company thought the number plate. His insurance company is probably expecting him to contact them. He should just do it. No need to tell them about what he was doing that day. His vehicle was parked in a parking space. It was hit when stationary. The driver of the car who hit his van has admitted liability. Consequently her insurance company will cover the costs. I doubt very much his insurance company will be too worried. However, had he hit you then the problem would have been very different. And once this is over, he needs to register his modifications. That is his problem not yours. You can't make him contact his insurance company and you should not pay him outside of the formal process.

Rubbish. The OP has insurance if their boss wants their vehicle fixed they can tell them to contact the insurance company and if their boss doesn’t like it, tough. You don’t get to refuse the insurance details and demand a private settlement. The police would confirm this is correct.

This reminds me of people assuming because they are fully comp they can drive others peoples cars. Not the case. Always treat what’s covered as policy specific and read your documents thoroughly (as an aside I’m with Admiral & commuting was added separately.)