Bumped neighbours wall

[Chellabella]

I accidentally reversed my car into the neighbours wall, it’s about a 25 ft long, low wall and about 4 bricks are missing from the top where I bumped
it but about 3.5 ft of the wall is structurally weak and needs replacing.

We are looking to sort this without going through the insurance. My partner put me
onto his trade insurance 3 weeks ago and is refusing to claim through it this early, if I had my own policy I’d claim on it. However this is my problem:

1). The neighbour is saying he wants the entire wall rebuilt and has quoted 2K!! because whatever repair we do will ‘not match’ as the new bricks will not be weathered like the rest of the wall, and where the cement is around each brick
it will look different. I’ve asked builders myself about matching the cement colour and whilst they can, it’ll be difficult.

2). My partner says that it doesn’t matter and the neighbour gets to decide how the wall is mended as it’s his wall.

3). If only A row of 5 bricks were damaged,
would we be legally obliged to replace the entire wall? How far can you go with the ‘not matching argument’. If my house burnt down in part and the bricks wouldn’t match due to discontinuation of the brick or due to weathering, the insurers wouldn’t knocks down the entire house would they?

4). I have no problem repairing the damage I have done, but feel completely taken advantage of with this and am so disappointed
in my partner who is outside telling our neighbour ‘oh we know it looks a mess im
so Sorry we will fix it to your liking’. 2 grand??? Really?

5. The wall is hideous and 20 years old. It looks an absolute state before I bumped it. We’re not talking about a piece of art here.

Am I legally entitled to repair the wall
so it matches?

How many other vehicles are on this insurance policy? Is he worried the cover for all vehicles will increase, totalling more than £2k over time?

If I were your neighbour, I wouldn't want to be with a wall inferior to what it was before it was hit. So I understand why he's seeking £2k if that's what it will cost. However, from your point of view it sounds excessive bearing in mind the small amount of damage. Thats why insurance is so much easier. It's a shame that your BF's insistence will likely result in you resenting your neighbour for costing you so much money.

Why are you on his insurance not your own? Is your car used for his business?

Thanks for your replies. My partner will be ringing insurance after having some great advice on here so thank you. Essentially I have messed up and want to rectify the damage but don’t want to be financially
crippled because of it if it’s actually
avoidable.

Find a brickie who will rebuild the wall for cash, other than cement it will only cost the time it takes to rebuild it as the bricks can be cleaned up & reused. A good brickie would have it done in under 4 hours.

@Barkingdog2022

HeddaGarbled is not correct wi tbh their advice. Premium collected vs claim amount paid does matter and make a difference

Do you have a source for that? I used to work in insurance, and unless things have changed recently, a claim’s a claim, regardless of the amount.

Unless the bricks were destroyed, can't they just be reused? So that way they'll match.

Why would it go up thousands? Has he had previous driving convictions?

Has he protected his no claims? Or can you not do that with trades?

Find someone who will defraud HMRC ....

You were correct. The amount is irrelevant unless it runs into 10's if thousands.

@HeddaGarbled yes I work in insurance and when the loss ratios are calculated you review premium received vs claim amount paid out. There isn’t a flat inflation cost regardless of the claims amount, you use the amount paid to work out an individuals renewal cost. So if your claim was 2000 or 200,000 for the latter your renewal premium will cost more. There will be a difference between the two given the amounts.

@Gottoomuchgoingon If you have a £1000 and a £10,000 claim you would get different insurance prices whether that’s renewal or new quotes. You would generally put a figure on what the claim cost. With commercial insurance claims experience is shared between insurers so the amount is confirmed and that drives the premium you pay.