So someone drove into the back of gf's car...

Jimmy Bottlehead

Got a call yesterday from my girlfriend, she'd been in a tiny tip.

She was sitting at traffic lights, truck was behind her and rolled forward into her. She said it felt like her car stalled, but more violent.

Driver got out, asked if she was ok, and they inspected her car (a '05 Yaris). Driver said no visible damage, and girlfriend was in a bit of shock, so she said "seems that way", so he got back in and drove off.

She got the number plate, and seen the truck park outside a traveller halting site. I took a walk down there, but the truck is too close to the site to risk grabbing a photo of insurance details (assuming there is valid insurance).

Anyways, she took it into a garage for a check this morning. Structurally it's grand, but boot is out of line a bit and paint has a crack - to fix it would be about €400.

The girlfriend is (obviously) kicking herself for not getting insurance details, but what's the best move from here on out?

Red Kev

Contact your own insurance company anyway and give them the reg and description of the truck, they'll find out who it's insured with and they'll deal with it.

You could also approach the driver/owner of the truck and ask them if they are willing to pay a cash settlement but you don't have to do this either.

The Royal Scam

go to the garda and report it first just so there is a record of the incident

H3llR4iser

Conceptually speaking, I don't know how this would work:
the truck driver is of course liable, he was available to take the blame however you girlfriend intrinsically waived him by saying "everything is fine" on the spot.

Now you are genuine and found some hidden damage afterwards, but I am afraid the whole "says ok on the spot, then talks to family/friends and comes back for compensation" thing is one of the most used forms of insurance scams in the world. It's really easy to go home, reverse into a wall and then pretend it's damage from the tip the day before. It's not your case, but the truck driver - and his insurer - have no way of knowing it.

Also, I would warmly recommend not to sneak up and take insurance details, it would add further suspicion to your eventual claim...better if you (and/or your girlfriend, since he has no idea who you are) try to find a way to talk to him.

Maybe her insurer will be able to track down the truck's insurance company from the registration number.

Anyway, golden rule: no matter how small the tip is, always take the details and never immediately dismiss it as "it's nothing"; Modern cars have a lot of plastic parts that tend to go back to the original shape, hiding potential underlying damage.

Max Power1

The Royal Scam wrote: »

go to the garda and report it first just so there is a record of the incident

- good advice
- lmao @username dispensing said advice :P

Jimmy Bottlehead

H3llR4iser wrote: »

Conceptually speaking, I don't know how this would work:
the truck driver is of course liable, he was available to take the blame however you girlfriend intrinsically waived him by saying "everything is fine" on the spot.

Now you are genuine and found some hidden damage afterwards, but I am afraid the whole "says ok on the spot, then talks to family/friends and comes back for compensation" thing is one of the most used forms of insurance scams in the world. It's really easy to go home, reverse into a wall and then pretend it's damage from the tip the day before. It's not your case, but the truck driver - and his insurer - have no way of knowing it.

Also, I would warmly recommend not to sneak up and take insurance details, it would add further suspicion to your eventual claim...better if you (and/or your girlfriend, since he has no idea who you are) try to find a way to talk to him.

Maybe her insurer will be able to track down the truck's insurance company from the registration number.

Anyway, golden rule: no matter how small the tip is, always take the details and never immediately dismiss it as "it's nothing"; Modern cars have a lot of plastic parts that tend to go back to the original shape, hiding potential underlying damage.

Believe me, I know. I told her after, and she's been kicking herself ever since, but it's her first crash of any kind and she completely panicked, which is understandable.

She's called into the Garda station but they just told her to talk to the insurance company. They didn't seem to take any record of it, apparently.

alias no.9

The Royal Scam wrote: »

go to the garda and report it first just so there is a record of the incident

By doing this, the Gardai will contact the registered owner of the other vehicle and request they produce License and Insurance within 10 days, your GF will also have to produce her License and Insurance. They will make the other parties info available to you if you need it, explain the full story as it was explained above, there should be no problem.

H3llR4iser wrote: »

Conceptually speaking, I don't know how this would work:
the truck driver is of course liable, he was available to take the blame however you girlfriend intrinsically waived him by saying "everything is fine" on the spot.

Now you are genuine and found some hidden damage afterwards, but I am afraid the whole "says ok on the spot, then talks to family/friends and comes back for compensation" thing is one of the most used forms of insurance scams in the world. It's really easy to go home, reverse into a wall and then pretend it's damage from the tip the day before. It's not your case, but the truck driver - and his insurer - have no way of knowing it.

Also, I would warmly recommend not to sneak up and take insurance details, it would add further suspicion to your eventual claim...better if you (and/or your girlfriend, since he has no idea who you are) try to find a way to talk to him.

Maybe her insurer will be able to track down the truck's insurance company from the registration number.

Anyway, golden rule: no matter how small the tip is, always take the details and never immediately dismiss it as "it's nothing"; Modern cars have a lot of plastic parts that tend to go back to the original shape, hiding potential underlying damage.

The notion that someone would go home and reverse into a wall to facilitate making a €400 claim is just laughable, possibly the least ambitious scam in the world.

Tallon

And so starts the 'You should have done' posts :rolleyes:

OP, what's done is done, no point worrying about it!

Go to the Gardaí and report it, and get something to say you've reported it, then ring your insurance company and explain exactly what you did above!

Tea 1000

alias no.9 wrote: »

The notion that someone would go home and reverse into a wall to facilitate making a €400 claim is just laughable, possibly the least ambitious scam in the world.

I think he meant that people accidently damage their car later and then come back trying to blame the first incident. Not that they'd go home and deliberately do it.

H3llR4iser

Tea 1000 wrote: »

I think he meant that people accidently damage their car later and then come back trying to blame the first incident. Not that they'd go home and deliberately do it.

It was just an example, folks. An extreme one of course, but an example. It could be accidental damage, it could be something done or purpose (misaligning a door or boot doesn't require crashing into a wall, just a bit of knowledge and a hammer/screwdriver).

In all fairness, I've known people that would go all the way to keep broken parts (e.g. mirrors, bumpers and the likes) in their garage, ready to put them on the car in cases such as the above, to claim even as little as 200 euro. Do not think that because you would not do it, nobody would...

Jimmy Bottlehead

Ok, so she's spoken to the insurance company... but they've said if the claim isn't settled by end of August (when her renewal is due), it'll affect her premium.

Thoughts?

dgt

Ironically I had to straighten the back of a yaris once, a truly miserable job.

My advice is make sure you get the same year of boot/bumper etc, other years are slightly different here and there making it a pain to fit the likes of the wiper motor, wiring even the bloody number plate lights changed for 02 models :mad:

DIESEL TOM

Red Kev wrote: »

You could also approach the driver/owner of the truck and ask them if they are willing to pay cash settlement

do you real think he should walk into a halting site and start asking for cash settlement ?

Jimmy Bottlehead

dgt wrote: »

Ironically I had to straighten the back of a yaris once, a truly miserable job.

My advice is make sure you get the same year of boot/bumper etc, other years are slightly different here and there making it a pain to fit the likes of the wiper motor, wiring even the bloody number plate lights changed for 02 models :mad:

Thanks, I'll let her know.

Ok, so she's spoken to the insurance company... but they've said if the claim isn't settled by end of August (when her renewal is due), it'll affect her premium.

Any thoughts on the above post?

NobodyImportant

Yup, unless they have money back from his insurer, it will cost her.

Now, even if it goes on say until October, they will have to re-instate her bonus and give the money back for any insurance increase. I would be wanting to make sure that they have found who that guy is insured with so that the claim at least will go through (more than likely). If it turns out he is uninsured, good luck, forget about it. Find out that first before deciding to go ahead.

bazz26

Have I got this right? She is claiming the cost of repair €400 off her own insurance? Surely it isn't worth loosing your NCB for €400, not even taking the excess on the policy into account?

scamalert

what sort insurance gf has is it only third party or fully comp,even if its fully comp worth a read trough all the small letters of T&C,otherwise renewal might turn for higher price because of claim made.
Only trouble i see here is that people are getting back at such events after they have happened,as driver and she did inspect damage and agreed none was done,you found some was done inside boot and paint crack-that will make driver who bumped into her more angry,as he will see it as coming back for cash at him ,once it was said no damage was done :cool:

Jimmy Bottlehead

bazz26 wrote: »

Have I got this right? She is claiming the cost of repair €400 off her own insurance? Surely it isn't worth loosing your NCB for €400, not even taking the excess on the policy into account?

No, she wants to claim it off his as he hit her from behind.

bazz26

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

Ok, so she's spoken to the insurance company... but they've said if the claim isn't settled by end of August (when her renewal is due), it'll affect her premium.

Thoughts?

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

No, she wants to claim it off his as he hit her from behind.

But up at the top you said it will affect her premium. If your gf is claiming off the truck driver's insurance how will it affect your gf's premium?

Pro Hoc Vice

bazz26 wrote: »

But up at the top you said it will affect her premium. If your gf is claiming off the truck driver's insurance how will it affect your gf's premium?

From the OP "Ok, so she's spoken to the insurance company... but they've said if the claim isn't settled by end of August (when her renewal is due), it'll affect her premium.

Thoughts?"

If the other insurance company does not accept liability and pay the claim by renewal date it is a live claim on her policy so they say will effect her renewal.

OP I'm not so sure if the insurance company can do that I may be corrected by someone with more knowledge on that issue.

kirving

Maggotz wrote: »

Take the keys from her and don't allow her to drive again. Women drivers are all the same. Shocking she didnt notice the damage

Great advice there. Without an xray machine, it's nigh on impossible to tell how badly damaged a modern car bumper might be. But let me guess, you can tell by just glancing at it?

seamus

Saying it looks fine at the side of the road is of no consequence and doesn't hurt the chances of a claim. Your gf is not a qualified mechanic so claiming that she said the car was fine is legally irrelevant.

As above, Gardai then insurance company. Let them deal with it.

seamus

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

Ok, so she's spoken to the insurance company... but they've said if the claim isn't settled by end of August (when her renewal is due), it'll affect her premium.

Thoughts?

Standard practice. When you have an open claim on the system, your NCB is suspended and won't apply at your next renewal. I think once the claim is closed you can retrospectively claim the discount but I may be wrong.

eirator

I was a witness of something very similar. I nearly got into a fight over it because I told the woman who was hit from behind to take all the details off the guys windscreen and call the guard and not move until they had been out. This was as she was starting to agree that there was no damage. Luckily for her the cnut that hit her from behind had nearly run me off the road in an over taking stunt a mile further back. Needless to say I got a fair amount of abuse from the guy that hit her but at least I got some thanks from the girl who said she wouldn't have know what to do if I hadn't have told here.

No Pants

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

She's called into the Garda station but they just told her to talk to the insurance company. They didn't seem to take any record of it, apparently.

Go back to them and get it logged. This is why they should be called at the scene. They may claim it's a civil matter, so you reply that you think you may be injured. Whrich isn't a lie.

Jaysis, the Gardai can be so lazy compared to other police forces. Is it any wonder Shatter can close stations when they can't even be bothered to keep records.