WWYD, Partners Partner Hit My Car

[WithManyTot]

This is a WWYD

My car is 8 years old, and has done almost 100,000 miles, so on paper you might think I shouldn't be precious about it anymore. However it was quite expensive when it was new, I've never scratched it, the manufacturer doesn't make a direct replacement any more, this sort of car should easily do 200,000 miles and at least another 8 years.

This evening DP has returned home to report that their senior business partner swiped it in the car park and has scratched the wing and gouged bumper a bit.

If I'd done the damaged, I chalk it down to 'life' and get all my crafting gear out and do an invisible mend, but it would take weeks. They apparently didn't seem keen to go via insurance on an 'old car', and seem not to have opened with "I'm very sorry, I'd do whatever it takes to rectify this..." I also suspect they might deny the incident if I inform our insurance and then it will be an uninsured loss.
I'm also looking at the loss of the car while it is repaired...
There is also the uncomfortableness of claiming against DP's snr partner.

So WWYD, should I report it to our insurance, or just suck it up and live with it?

Go through insurance, definitely.

Thats what you should do anyway, but especially when the person who damaged your car isn’t falling over themselves to apologise and rectify it.

If it's minor/cosmetic and you don't want the inconvenience of leaving the car at a garage for repairs you could use a company who will come to you, like Chips Away. I used a similar company who did a good job.

https://www.chipsaway.co.uk/

I would get a couple of quotes for a repair privately and say to the woman it is either that or insurance. Either way, she has damaged your property and it is up to her to fix the issue

I would ask them for the cost of repairs. They can even pay for it out of pocket or they can claim through their insurance. They have offered to rectify it so that should be fine, theyll probably be happy to pay to repair it.

I wouldn't straight away go through the insurance, I would state, in writing, exactly what you would like to happen:

Your car repaired at a garage of your choice and a replacement car whilst yours in unavailable.

Clear and concise, then up to the person who damaged your car to say yes or no. If no, then go through the insurance companies.

I'd play absolutely dumb in this and message them saying "as you obviously don't want to go through insurance do you prefer to settle with the garage directly once I have a quote?" Just make it fully assumed that as they've asked not to go through insurance, they must obviously be paying for it direct.

Im one of the ones that's happy not to go through insurance for something small and cosmetic. My neighbour parked behind me once, she'd had her licence 5 weeks when she misjudged pulling away from the kerb, and hit the back of my car. She was sobbing. I was fine to go grab a suitable quote. I dropped it through their door and Her dad popped around with the cash (around £300) the very next day. My bumper was sorted and no drama for anyone.

I know lots of people do it and it's not illegal, but failing to tell your insurance company technically invalidates your policy regardless of whose at fault. Not necessarily a problem if everyone is decent and can afford to cover unforeseen costs. However, if the other party starts quibbling about how much to pay etc, you're shafted if you haven't told your insurer about it within their specified timeframe.

Fortunately, you can use this to diplomatically explain why it's vital you go through insurance as you can say your 'older car' is more vulnerable to unseen structural damage and therefore everything needs to be done properly to ensure everyone's safety in the event of unforeseen costs.

This exact thing happened to me recently. It's a quick, non-issue. My insurance would barely have covered it.

We got quotes of around £350 to have it done properly in a couple of hours. But I'm not that fussed about my car so got a nearly perfect job from a mobile garage guy who came to my work. Paid him £50 and it took him about 45 minutes.

My colleague paid.