Neighbours handbrake failed

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So her car rolled into mine and made quite a significant dent, she doesn't want to go through insurance as 'both' our premiums would go up.

So she's proposed arranging fixing and paying for it herself, so we took car to garage with her and they have said to drop it off tomorrow at 9am and it can be collected at 6pm on Tuesday.

It's the school holidays and she expects me to be without a car for 2 days whilst she experiences no inconvenience - apparently her car manufacturer will reimburse her the money she has to spend on getting mine fixed, so no inconvenience for her and she won't be out of pocket either and she can go on about her day(s) with no problems.

Go through your insurance.

My premium has never gone up in these circumstances. Even when I have been 'at fault'.

As for her - what does she pay insurance for? She is prepared to pay a few hundred pounds to stop her premium gong up by £50? Dft.

And you need the guarantee/ accountability that the job is well done.

And you can either get a courtesy car or take your car in at a time of your convenience.

Do it properly and don’t feel bad as she was wasn’t bothered about having you inconvenienced without a car.

Always go through your insurance.

1. if you don't tell them about the incident (ie. break the 'non-disclosure clause in your insurance contract, your insurers could potentially void/invalidate your existing insurance coverage or refuse you insurance in the future ( and other insurers will black mark you/charge you more);
2. you're not to blame for the damage, so neither your premiums or no claims bonus will be affected;
3. the work done on your car will be covered by guarantees on workmanship/parts etc;
4. you can get a hire car through your insurers or their repairing garage at no cost to you, BUT
5. If your neighbour arranges the repair, then she's the customer, and the repair contract is with her. What if it's shoddy work or limited to repairing bodywork when something else also needs doing? You wouldn't know if the car is safe or not.

Why wouldn't you just let her insurance sort it out

As someone who has been crashed into several times now I can assure you that even as the non-fault party your premiums definitely do go up. This is because on the national accident database (reported to by the insurers) it just registers you as having been in an accident not who is at fault.

As @SaladSandwichesForTea states if you quote both declaring a non fault accident and not declaring an accident the premiums do differ.

Failing to declare an accident that has been logged with an insurer will get you declined for insurance for failing to declare a registered accident.

As the person that has been hit (multiple times) I have never had to pay any excess, the at fault party has to pay their insurance excess only.

Not if you by pass your own insurer and claim directly off the other party.

Your insurance states you need to register the claim

Yes, that's true.

You do, but you don't have claim through them or pay your excess - the other insurer can sort all your repairs.

We are on the same page: the premium went up. You may have meant to reply to someone else :)

OP before you decide, do a comparison of renewing your insurance now and see the difference because I'm certain there will be one.

Either go through insurance with your eyes open that your costs will go up, but that you will be sure that there is no more damage than you can't see, or accept that yes, she should hire you a car but she probably won't. And if she doesn't, are you better off paying for that yourself compared to what your premium will go up?

Entirely up to you what you do, but be informed of cost, risk and how far you will dig in.

How has she had no inconvenience if her handbrake failed? Did she not need to get that fixed?

I'd go insurance route, safer all round.

Check your insurance. Mine says I have to report all accidents whether or not they are in any way my fault. I don't have to claim from them but they need to know. I am not sure why you wouldn't want to let your insurers deal with it though. A few years ago a white van man took off my wing mirror on a narrow country road. Cost of repair was less than my excess so I told my insurers but paid for the repair myself as I had no way of tracing the person who did it. They said fine but if you do find out any more information, tell us and we will chase it for you. Insurance didn't go up.

Sorry @SaladSandwichesForTea no idea why I quoted you! Think the thread was moving too fast, lol.

I would not contemplate that at all. Always go through your insurance company, that's why you pay for insurance. There may be more damage than you realise and your insurance can sort out a courtesy car. You would be daft not to

She probably just forgot to put it on (and knows it), which is why she doesn't want to go through her insurance company.

100%

"Handbrake failed" - yes it tends to fail if you fail to engage it. 😉

If you need to use the car on those two days, how about she pays for taxis? It saves the hassle of a hire car.

Yes, you need to inform your own insurers, but you don't need to claim through them.

Yup, far more likely - driver failure!

Your premium will not go up. Just tell her you want to go through insurance as you need a hire car. Your insurance company will sort it out with her insurance company and it won’t cost you a penny.

@GlitteryUnicornSparkles I think that really depends on your insurance company and the level of insurance you take out. I live on a big hill, full of bends that boy racers love. One of our cars was brand new and a write off after a 17 year who had literally just passed his test with his mates decided to race down and crash head long into us. Total write off of a brand new car. Many of my neighbours have also had cars written off.

On the other occasion, someone went into the back of me when stationary at a roundabout, pretty sure he was on his phone, he was wearing flip flops and admitted liability. On neither occasion did my premium go up. My insurance is not cheap though, I live in a city with v high premiums due to theft and uninsured drivers and I obviously live on a road with a high accident rate.

Insurance us a grudge buy, car insurance especially as you legally have to have it and it costs a lot of money. Going for the cheapest is fine until you need to use it.

Yes it does

We are treading into the land of CF ery here. Someone wants a favour but on their terms. As usual our poster is poss inconvenienced/out of pocket. Go through the insurance because that's what the driver of that car would do. You won't be any better thought of if you dont

Do it through your insurance. You will have to declare the accident to them anyway.