Car park collision, who at fault?

[dolol]

Sister had a collision this morning and wants to know who will be deemed as at fault

Car A driving along the car park row in a straight line, likely slightly too fast

Car B has reversed parked in the space. Is about to drive off, having done all observations. Crawls forward slightly to check left and right as visibility obscured by big vehicle parked to the left.

Car B (bonnet only a few inches out of the bay) collides with Car A who was doing some speed. MPH limit in car park when checked retrospectively was 5mph

All occupants fine but damage to the side door of Car A
Car B has paintwork damage near the headlight which will need buffing out and probably a new lower splitter

YABU - Car A at fault

YANBU - Car B at fault

Or possibly 50/50 fault? If 50/50 fault who would pay the excess? Thanks so much :)

She won't have the opportunity to just pay the excess. They might not even have one. The third party's insurer will fix their car and your sister's insurer will reimburse them.
Her premiums will go up. They would even if the accident wasn't her fault.

When you say go up, how much by do you think

She’s really worried the premiums will go up by hundreds of pounds.

I have no idea. I don't know your sister's age, vehicle, postcode, occupation, or any of the other things that decide insurance premiums.

It will increase between 20/50% depending on several factors, She wont find out until renewal time

For info, I'd do an insurance quote via a comparison site including the incident info to see what comes up, it must be quite common, it may not go up by that much?

As usual on MN there's lots of guess work and incorrect assertions when it comes to anything vehicle related.

Your sister doesn't have pay the excess if she doesn't claim for her own damage, regardless of who's found at fault.

Anyone telling you differently is wrong.

If she only has minor scratches that she's either not bothered about or could repair very easily, it may make sense to not claim herself.

No one can say for sure what will happen to her premium next year. It may be loaded but there's no guarantee of that.

I had an accident a few years ago where I caused quite a lot of damage to the side of another car whilst reversing out of a parking space. It was 100% my fault. The other driver claimed through my insurance.

Cost me nothing at the time (no damage to my car) and my premium went up by about £80 annually. I did have 10 years + NCD at the time of the accident so your sister might be hit harder as a new driver.

Her excess is £600 and the insurer have said that she will need to pay that to the garage for the repairs… what?! It’s only paintwork. Surely that can’t be right?

@TeleTropes

I don’t think she will save much by paying for repairs on her own car so she may as well claim for the lot.

As a young/inexperienced driver she may have a large excess so claiming for her own damage could get very expensive indeed, depending on how fault is apportioned.

Two things that don't seem to be getting picked up on here. Assuming your sister (Car B?) really was just a bit out and stopped, Car A had to be driving a lot closer to the parked cars than they should have been. If that was the case, if they noticed Car B, but too late to completely avoid a collision, they certainly could have begun to turn away from the parked cars, but not soon enough to avoid part of the car hitting Car B. If the damage to car B is on the outside edge of the driver's side headlight, this is the most likely case. You said "right side" but I have no idea if that means right side looking at the car, or right side from the drivers perspective. I would think that an accident investigator would be able to tell this by the placement and direction of dents/paint scratches.

It will be right, yes.

But, as I said above, she doesn't need to pay the excess at all if she doesn't claim for her own damage even if she's found to be entirely at fault.

B is at fault.

How many panels did she hit?

of course it could be be £699 and It could be over £600…. It’s a skilled job painting a car.. they don’t just get a roller brush out 🤣

Its not guess work, if car A claims on her insurance, her premium will 100% go up, that is how insurance works. Especially as a new driver

Who would cover the other cars insurance if she didn’t pay any excess?

Car B is at fault.

They were stationary but moved from a parked position without full visibility into the side of a car that has right of way. Hitting the side of Car A indicates that Car B was moving into Car A at the time of the collision (however slowly).

Car B is at fault.

Car B St fault......Car A had right of way

If your sister is found to be at fault her insurance will pay the 3rd party's costs.

Her excess is nothing to do with 3rd party claims, though.

You could be right but I think you're overestimating just how much insurance companies 'investigate' .. they're absolutely useless. If there's no police involvement (obviously not for a fender bender) they will choose the path of least resistance and find the person 'not giving way' at fault without considering anything else.

Your sister's insurer will reimburse the other driver's insurer.

If she's found to be at fault she has two options, 1) pay her excess and get her car fixed while her insurance funds repairs on the other car. 2) don't pay her excess so don't get her car repaired. Her insurance will still be funding the other cars repairs and it will still be a claim against her.

Got you, thanks. I didn’t know they would reimburse them without her paying anything excess wise

She only has to pay £600 if the damage costs more than that to repair. If it's £200 she'll just pay £200, but then she won't claim for her damage. Next step is to get a quote, as she's already contacted her insurance company, then she can decide whether to get the paintwork repaired or just live with it.

Car B as car A had right of way. If car A was going dramatically over the speed limit then possibly 50/50.
I had a car pull out on me in a car park and they were found at fault by the insurance company.

What? That's the whole point of third party insurance (which is the legal minimum cover).