Insurance claim process

TheBazman

Hi all

While my wife was parked at a friends house last night (she wasnt in the car), the neighbour reversed into the side of her car leaving a small dent and a few scratches. The neighbour went off a bit saying that she shouldnt have been parked across from his drive blah blah blah, but anyway that is irrelevant. He gave her his number and told her she could get his insurance details off the car. She wanted to know what to do next.

I told her to make sure she has his name, address, phone number, reg, also to get his insurance company and policy number off his disc, and take a few quick photos. Also finally to find out for sure if he is happy to go through his insurance.

Is the next step to contact his insurance, or should she go and get a quote to fix it before contacting the insurance company?

Cheers

andrew1977

Ring your insurance so they have a report on it, give them the other persons insurance details, they will tell you if you can sort it out between yourselves go ahead, get a price from a repair shop, give it to the person who hit your wifes car, if they are not willing to settle that way, your insurance company will go chasing them.
You can also ring his insurance company , telling them you are claiming off the offenders insurance, want to get the car fixed asap and once he admits liability, you get a price for the job, their insurance will send out an assessor to view the damage and try to argue down the price.

Baraboo

I would say the first thing would be to ask advice from your own insurance company. You will not be claiming off them but they will put you right as to the process.

TheBazman

Cheers folks for the advice

ilovecars

get a quote to fix it and give it to the neighbour, i am sure he'll pay for it, going through his insurance will cost him a lot more. i think if someone crashes into you you're supposed to call the guards anyway..

TheBazman

Quick update on this - the car has a little bit of damage on the side on both doors (small dent on each with the paintwork no damaged) The guy is happy to go through his insurance as it is a company car. Anyway my wife got a quote today from a main garage (the car is a VW Golf)....€2200 !! Ultimately it doesnt matter to us but this seems huge - they reckon the car will need to be in for 4 days and will need 2 new doors. They also mentioned something about a depreciation allowance...?

Anyway we are getting this in writing and then sending it on to the guy. I presume his insurance company will send out an assessor before anywork is done?

kayos

TheBazman wrote: »

Quick update on this - the car has a little bit of damage on the side on both doors (small dent on each with the paintwork no damaged) The guy is happy to go through his insurance as it is a company car. Anyway my wife got a quote today from a main garage (the car is a VW Golf)....€2200 !! Ultimately it doesnt matter to us but this seems huge - they reckon the car will need to be in for 4 days and will need 2 new doors. They also mentioned something about a depreciation allowance...?

Anyway we are getting this in writing and then sending it on to the guy. I presume his insurance company will send out an assessor before anywork is done?

Generally yes they will send out an insurance assessor will be out to look at the damage and agree on the repair price.

As for the cost when you factor in the new doors and then the spraying etc etc. 2.2K would be about right I think.

L1011

TheBazman wrote: »

They also mentioned something about a depreciation allowance...?

Depreceation allowance wouldn't be something automatic, but its something people on here have had some success arguing for - basically your resale value is less cause the car has been repaired; even if its a 100% perfect job its still going to show on a Cartell report as crashed/repaired. So you can try to claim a sum off the insurers to cover this...

TheBazman

Cheers - I had not heard of the depreciation allowance before. I presume when/if the claim is agreed then the money (full amount for the repair and the depreciation allowance) gets paid directly to you, rather than the dealer that is fixing it? This is the only way you can get to keep the depreciation allowance.