Motoring incident

saddlesoap

Hi
Last week I had an incident with my car and another driver and need some advice.
I live in a holiday caravan site where I live in an apartment just inside the main gate. There is a row of apartments here. Most of the residents park right in front of there house just like me, parallel to there apartment but because the man who lives next to us is awkward so I normally just drive straight in and park at a right angle. Last week I was reversing out when I heard a noise and looked to the left and there was a car there. Now I did look around and saw no one. I got out and so did he and I looked at both cars he had a small scratch on the passenger side of his bumper and I had a scratch on my passenger door. All he said to me was he was in my blind side and I didn't see him and that we ll sort it later As he lives in another apartment

My boyfriend came home and fixed the mark on my car there is still a scratch there but not that noticeable. He went and looked at the neighbours car with the neighbour and saw only a scratch that could easily be fixed. This evening my neighbour came to our door with an estimate to get the scratch fixed and he is going to get another one for a cracked bumper and that he want to hire a car out for the few days the car will be in the garage. He also said he had witnesses of it being my fault.

So my question are? If I was reversing out before he came in the gate should it not be his job to avoid me?
It was on private property does that make a difference? The witnesses is the land owner.
I don't under stand how by scratching his car I broke his bumper unless I hit him. I don't see how I reversed my passenger door into his bumper.
I not asking him to fix the scratch on my car I just don't want and cant afford to fix his.
I'm still not sure who is at fault. He thinks its me but I think because it was on private property that we just fix our own cars.

Any advice welcome

Also if this is in the wrong trend please move

Thanks

Mikros

1. It doesn't matter if it was private property
2. It sounds like you reversed out in front of him and he hit into the side of your car. But it is the person who is reversing out that has the obligation to make sure the way is clear.
3. A person whose car is damaged is entitled to repair it to a standard they are happy with, within reason.

No one here can advise you on the specifics of what happened as we are only getting one side of the story. If you can't agree on who is at fault your insurance companies will likely have to get involved. Equally if you feel the amount for repairs is too much you will also have to get the insurance involved.

No Pants

There's no right of way when reversing. Sounds like you are at fault. The other details you gave are irrelevant. The other driver can get his car fixed wherever he likes and you'll have to pay for it. If you don't agree to that, he can contact your insurance company directly.

cruizer101

I would say normally when you are reversing it would be your fault, however the way you describe it his front left corner made contact with your left front door, unless you were flying out it does kind of sound like he crashed into you. What way were you turning as you reversed. Maybe you could draw a diagram to explain it better.

Also when you say everyone else was parked parallel and you at right angle does this not mean the back of your car is sticking out into road.

No Pants

cruizer101 wrote: »

I would say normally when you are reversing it would be your fault, however the way you describe it his front left corner made contact with your left front door, unless you were flying out it does kind of sound like he crashed into you. What way were you turning as you reversed. Maybe you could draw a diagram to explain it better.

An assessor may agree, but I think the best the OP can expect is a 50/50 judgement from the insurance companies, which suits them, but both drivers get ****ed equally. However, I think that's a big ask once the OP mentions reversing.

mickdw

You are likely at fault.
You cannot just decide that you were not just because you don't like the repair cost.
Let your insurance deal with it. By all accounts, they have very much tightened up on repair bills so I don't see a huge profit making scheme for the other party.
Was the other car a valuable car or a 500 euro piece of junk?

saddlesoap

Hi
Thanks for your reply's.

No the back of my car is not out on the road as there is loads of space for cars to pass it. this is the way the land owner told me park it, that's not a problem.

Its not that I don't want to pay to fix his car. Its that When we got out of the car we both looked at each others cars an he told me the scratch was worse on my car and that his was a small scratch. But the price he got quoted is a couple of hundred euro I cant imagine a small scratch costing that much. In fairness there are a lot of other marks and dents on his bumper Its Those I don't want to be paying for. It says in the paper he handed me, that they will spray the whole bumper. Now I don't think I should pay for the whole bumper maybe a part of it would be ok as I would be paying to repair damage he dId to his own car. He is also saying the bumper is cracked but we have no idea where on the bumper it is cracked i.e if its the drivers side It wouldn't have been my car that did it.

I have never been in this situation before so I am a bit worked up about it. I rather not go through the insurance and I don't think we will come to an agreement.

Mikros

Without knowing the make, model and year of his car it's hard to say if it too much - but you don't really just spray a small part of a bumper / panel on a car - you do the whole section so the finish will match. As a rough figure a full bumper repair and respray would be around €200ish. Ask him to get three quotes to make sure the price is in the right ball park.

Unfortunately if you are in the wrong you will have to come to some agreement or else it will go through your insurance.