Damaged car in carpark

[cornersleeper]

I damaged someone's car in the car park the other day. Damage is absolutely minimal - way less than my insurance premium would be. I could have left without leaving my number but I left my number and an apology. The person is saying they want to go down the route of insurance. Do I have to accept this as it was on private land?

Maybe go on a refresher driving course if you're driving into parked cars!

I think your attitude shows why they are quite right to go through their insurance company. 🙄

Because going through insurance is a lot less hassle for them and less time consuming.
Their insurance company will sort out the repair with no need to go around visiting garages for quotes which would be take time.
They may well also arrange for a replacement car whilst theirs is being repaired.
Would you pay for a hire car whilst they are without theirs? Probably not.
Always go through insurance.

It is in your own best interests to go through insurance.
My other half scraped a neighbour's car and £300 was agreed. He came back a week later looking for £900.

So I have contacted my insurer on your recommendations and discovered I am not even insured... I have also posted in legal as I need to know where I stand legally.

Yes I know it is shit ans I feel awful. I have had an extremely stressful year and somehow missed that our address had not updated. The only reason I wanted to pay off insurance originally is our excess was £350 with aviva. Now I'm in a proper mess

This is my message on legal:

I changed my debit card but my aviva car insurance comes off that rather than as a direct debit (not sure why). When we moved house I got new house insurance and assumed they had changed the address on both house and car but apparently not- so when the card didn't work they sent me a letter to say my car insurance would be stopped unless I have them an updated card- but I didn't get the letter and so the insurance cancelled. But I didn't know! So I have been driving round for six weeks with no insurance. I damaged someone's car in a carpark and left them my number. She wants to go through my insurance but I have contacted them only to discover I have none! Where do I stand legally?

Did you notice the insurance payments not been taken from your accounts?

The right thing to do is to first ensure the other person is made right.

Hopefully they'll have uninsured driver cover, expect the insurance company to then pursue you to recover their costs.

If the other party does not have uninsured driver cover, I'd still offer to pay their costs. But give they didn't want to go through direct payment, expect them to report you to the police or via their insurer in order to check you're not just trying to dodge going through insurance...

Your basically screwed
You have been driving with no insurance that in itself is an offence
You hit another vehicle while driving without insurance
You then asked the other driver if you could settle without involving the insurance company which will make it look like you knew you had no insurance

You could well end up in court on a driving with no insurance charge as well as you next insurance premium going up quite a bit
All of this is worst case scenario

So I have contacted my insurer on your recommendations and discovered I am not even insured... I have also posted in legal as I need to know where I stand legally.

If the other driver has uninsured driver cover, she should be able to claim through her insurance as normal and get her excess and costs back. It shouldn't affect her no-claims either as the accident was your fault.

However, her insurance company will probably come after you to try and recover their costs, so you may find yourself being reported to the police for driving without insurance - and the consequences for that are a £300 fine and six points (minimum) or if it goes to court, an unlimited fine and a ban (though this is unlikely).

Ffs.

Their insurance premium would go up, even a no fault claim.

You damaged their car.

Because people back track

Why aren't you insured? They have to write to you etc to tell you, you aren't insured

OP says she didn't tell her insurance company she'd moved house.

She had house insurance with the same provider as her car insurance, and didn't realise by just updating the home insurance it wouldn't automatically update the car insurance too.

Two separate policies, two totally different sections of the company means notifying every single provider regardless of the headline name

Oh dear op, this is a bit of a pickle. And I agree that it will sound as thought you knew but we’re trying to hide that you didn’t have insurance.

This. You really do need to contact them about every single policy.

Unfortunately as OP originally didn't want to go through insurance, it's going to look like she knew she wasn't insured to start with.

On a separate but related note, did you also remember to update your V5C and driving licence when you moved?

They contact you multiple times to tell you they're cancelling your policy.

You're looking at a big fine and points for this OP.

That very kind of you to point that out. I had done all of this, I had just believed I had told them my new address because I had done the house insurance. Total mistake on my part and I am hugely lucky it wasn't a major accident I was involved in.

Were there witnesses? Next time don’t leave your number.

That’s a crime, why would you recommend OP commits further offences in future? Would you be happy for someone to do a hit and run on your vehicle? 🥴

No problem. I'm sorry I can't offer any advice on the actual problem.

For minor cosmetic damage it’s cheaper in the long run for both parties. Wouldn’t be happy but it has happened loads of times. Worse things happen at sea.

if the other car is on finance then the repair needs to be impeccable (=expensive) or the financial penalty can be great.