hit a parked car but it’s not road taxed, how to proceed?

[Renataz]

a mercedes car was badly parked, a good foot away from the kerb, and my sister hit it and scraped the side when trying to squeeze her car up the road.

I googled if it was mot and taxed. it’s got a mot since december but is on a sorn. so it should not be on a public road. no idea if it was parked by its owner or is a stolen car.

the lack of road taxed presumably means it’s insurance is null and void so if she reports this to her insurer does that mean they don’t have to pay out so her premium may not rise after all? no idea how this works.

So what happens if sisters goes to mercs insurer who says the car was illegally on the road (untaxed) so nothing to do with us as the policy only covers him if he obeys the law which he hasn’t.

Will her insurer go to the mercs owner directly?
Im thinking not? Will they go direct to the police and he's in trouble and potentially get his car impounded and sold if he doesn’t pay the hefty uplift and storage costs and fine.

not her problem i know but it’s all unknown territory for us!

you could get a door and panel out the scrappy and get a mate to fit and spray for under a grand. he might prefer that. no police involvement. no raised premiums for either of them next year.

Your sister obviously scrapped this car. From what you've said though I doubt you'll hear anything apart from a call asking for £2k.

Sister wouldn’t go to Mercs insurance, sister would go to HER insurance. This has nothing to do with the Merc owners insurance.

I wouldn’t tell insurer until they get in touch as it’ll make her premiums go up

No - the merc owner will contact your sister’s insurer and claim the repair costs off them directly.

The insurer might report the car as untaxed and uninsured depending on their own policies, but they might not. It’s a totally separate issue.

This additional context makes it even more complex because it sounds like she doesn’t actually know there was any damage? I’ve never been in this situation but I’ve always been told to take pictures / videos especially if you can’t wait for the other driver because as much as you’re doing the right thing leaving your details, people are cheeky and will try and palm off other damage on to you. Your sister should have taken a video / pictures to show what was her and what was already there.

If dhe scraped it while she was squeezing past then she was driving slowly, of course she knows if she hit it, why would you think it was a wheelie bin. If she's so exhausted that her mind plays tricks maybe she shouldn't have driven home.

yet her car has no damage…..?
that’s why i’m thinking maybe it was abandoned like that and the noise was something else and she put two and two together.

she has photos from yesterday. the car was not there when she left for work in the morning so no idea what it looked like before now, so no “before” pictures.

thanks. typo. it’s meant to say sisters insurer not sisters. a whole word seems to be missing.

Come off it, should she be driving if she cannot tell if she was too close to a stationary car? Or to know of she had touched something to the extent it had caused damage?

If there was no damage to her car, this is all a bit nuts. What does she think touched the other car, if there is no sign on her car?

A 2014 Merc estate is not an 'older car' that is likely to be written off by a light scratch, which is all we'd be talking about if your scenario is accurate

An uninsured driver hit my car (he was VERY keen to not involve insurance….).
I just did what I had to do - inform my insurance and leave them to sort it out.

I wouldn’t worry. Sounds to me like it’s been dumped. Foot out from the kerb and Sorn. Sorry I wouldn’t even bother. Serves whoever owns it right.

Thanks everyone. The driver phoned and it’s all gone through the insurance. He was happy to do cash or insurance so my sister chose insurance. So that’s it done and dusted.

Lack of road tax/mot doesn’t necessarily void their insurance.

At the end of the day you damaged their property - you’re responsible for indemnifying them either privately or through your insurance

Giving strangers my number isn’t normal for me. Nobody needs my phone number for an insurance claim. If I hit a parked car I might leave my reg number and insurance company number but I have no reason to give my own phone number to the other party.

so your sister hit a parked car and instead of phoning your insurance with the reg no your on google and mn for scammy excuses about it being SORN! Nice

she left her phone number at the time, in line with what the law requires you to do, so the owner could contact her. once he rang she told her insurer his name and policy number. it’s done and dusted.