I feel really stipid and at sea about this .
I touched a car when turning into a road before Christmas .I gave name and address etc ,I said I thought we could settle without going through insurance .There was no damage to my car .There was some damage to paintwork on her car - not dented or scrathched ,it looked like the paint hadn't " set " and it had rubbed off . She did say that the car had been resprayed a few months ago .
Her car is 16 year old Nissan Micra ,mine is a 10 year old Ford Focus
It took ages for other driver to contact me ,in fact I texted her in case she'd lost my details .
She came to see me in January ?february with a quote for £780 .She said she was surprised at the amount ,it was more than the car was worth .She was surprised that the bumper was deemed damaged .
We agreed she'd get more quotes and I sent her details of places .
She's recently come back to me with the orginal quote and 2 others ( verbal ) for about 600 each .
The quotes include replacing the back bumper which I honestly don't think I damaged - surely it would have caused some damage to my car ?
I feel I should say I've changed my mind and now think - as the estimates are so high - that we should go through insurers .But I worried that this is unethical because maybe the delay is so long that her insurers won't accept a claim ?
Should I offer her cash ? How much ?
I've looked online and can see that her car has been a cat c and cat d insurance write off before she bought it .Extensive damage is listed to the rear wheel arch which is where I damaged the paintwork .
Can anyone advise me ? Please .