Car scraped in car park

adocholiday

Just want to make sure I haven't missed something here. A woman was trying to park her car beside mine in a car park and scraped the front wing beside the wheel arch. The damage looks minor enough, small dent with no crease and some deep scrapes in the paint work.

She waited around for me to come out in fairness to her and she gave me her name, phone number, and I got a pic of her insurance details from the window and I took a picture of the damage.

She said she wants to pay for it herself, and my father in law is a panel beater so it shouldn't be expensive, but is there anything that I should be doing now to cover myself? I just don't want to be footing the bill for this is all.

Liam McPoyle

adocholiday wrote: »

Just want to make sure I haven't missed something here. A woman was trying to park her car beside mine in a car park and scraped the front wing beside the wheel arch. The damage looks minor enough, small dent with no crease and some deep scrapes in the paint work.

She waited around for me to come out in fairness to her and she gave me her name, phone number, and I got a pic of her insurance details from the window and I took a picture of the damage.

She said she wants to pay for it herself, and my father in law is a panel beater so it shouldn't be expensive, but is there anything that I should be doing now to cover myself? I just don't want to be footing the bill for this is all.

Ring your own insurer and advise them of what happened. Tell them the other party fully accepted responsibility for it, is going to cover the damage and that you are letting them know for notification purposes only.

Yer one seems like she is sound but nowadays you cannot be too careful with insurance.

I've heard too many cases of stories been changed to fully trust what anyone says tbh.

adocholiday

Rod Munch wrote: »

Ring your own insurer and advise them of what happened. Tell them the other party fully accepted responsibility for it, is going to cover the damage and that you are letting them know for notification purposes only.

Yer one seems like she is sound but nowadays you cannot be too careful with insurance.

I've heard too many cases of stories been changed to fully trust what anyone says tbh.

Just out of interest why should I contact my insurer? In the event that this woman doesn't pay up what will my insurance company do that I can't do personally?

thebiglad

There is no need to contact your own insurer - if you do so they will open and record an incident on your file, that impacts your risk profile and regardless of fault could impact your premium.

You say yourself the damage is minor and quite possibly within your excess anyhow so even if she does not follow through and fix the car (very unlikely in the circumstances) you are not going to claim on your own policy anyhow.

If she messes you about (again, seems unlikely) just go directly to her insurer.

This seems fairly straight forward

By the way as someone will suggest it eventually, you do not need to contact the Gardai or a Solicitor

Barr

There is no need to call either Insurer.

She was honest enough to wait for you (many wouldn't).

Get the quote and go from there.

Liam McPoyle

adocholiday wrote: »

Just out of interest why should I contact my insurer? In the event that this woman doesn't pay up what will my insurance company do that I can't do personally?

Its nothing to do with her not paying up, it's to do with the fact she could turn around to your insurer and say you drove into her and she now has a sore neck.

You are also obliged to inform your insurer of any incident that occurs that may give rise to a claim, it's part of your policy conditions.

Liam McPoyle

thebiglad wrote: »

There is no need to contact your own insurer - if you do so they will open and record an incident on your file, that impacts your risk profile and regardless of fault could impact your premium.

You say yourself the damage is minor and quite possibly within your excess anyhow so even if she does not follow through and fix the car (very unlikely in the circumstances) you are not going to claim on your own policy anyhow.

If she messes you about (again, seems unlikely) just go directly to her insurer.

This seems fairly straight forward

By the way as someone will suggest it eventually, you do not need to contact the Gardai or a Solicitor

That is incorrect.

I'm not telling the op to register a claim, I'm telling him to make a record of the incident with his insurance company, as I said in my first post, for notification purposes only.

Delacent

Rod Munch wrote: »

That is incorrect.

I'm not telling the op to register a claim, I'm telling him to make a record of the incident with his insurance company, as I said in my first post, for notification purposes only.

Nope, biglad is correct. Any notification on your file can affect the premium - there was an insurance actuary on radio a while ago suggesting as much.

Person seems very genuine. Cost will be quite small, no reason for her to play games.

beauf

Rod Munch wrote: »

... for notification purposes only.

I think you are missing the point. Even if there is no cost or claim, it may effect your premium. Bizarre maybe, but true.

adocholiday

Thanks for all the input everyone. I informed my insurance company before reading more of the replies so the notice is now against my policy unfortunately but at least all is above board. Got a quote from the father in law which seems reasonable so will take it to the lady and see how it plays out. Thanks all

Liam McPoyle

Delacent wrote: »

Nope, biglad is correct. Any notification on your file can affect the premium - there was an insurance actuary on radio a while ago suggesting as much.

Person seems very genuine. Cost will be quite small, no reason for her to play games.

I don't believe that.

Firstly I work in the industry.

Secondly I saw it first hand with my wife's policy. Someone reversed into her in a petrol station and accepted liability. I rang her insurance company in the following days in case they had a change of heart, they noted it on the file and that was it. That was 3 years ago this year and nothing further has come of it on her insurance.

beauf wrote: »

I think you are missing the point. Even if there is no cost or claim, it may effect your premium. Bizarre maybe, but true.

See above.

Liam McPoyle

From Aviva's policy booklet.

Please let us know immediately, about any event which could lead to a claim.
We are very proud of our claims service, We know that this is when you need
us most and we provide a speedy and, efficient service to make the process as
easy as possible for you.

Source

Every insurer will have a similar condition in their wording.

thebiglad

Rod Munch wrote: »

From Aviva's policy booklet.



Source

Every insurer will have a similar condition in their wording.

It will not lead to a claim have you read the circumstances and OPs post?

Referring to an earlier poster, also in the Industry and 100% assure you it will affect the premium

Too late now anyhow...

Liam McPoyle

thebiglad wrote: »

It will not lead to a claim have you read the circumstances and OPs post?

Referring to an earlier poster, also in the Industry and 100% assure you it will affect the premium

Too late now anyhow...

Have you read my posts?

I fully explained why the ops insurer should be advised, to protect the op and his insurer in the event the other party decides they do not want to pay up and they try and blame the op.

Just read through some of the threads in here about how people have been shafted by other drivers who seemed sound when the incident occurred but then had a change of heart.

The policy wording is very clear.

ANY event that COULD lead to a claim.

Regardless of the circumstances, if your vehicle is involved in an incident with a third party your insurer must be notified.

If you do not do this then you are in breach of the policy conditions and leave yourself exposed to your policy been cancelled or a claim not been paid.

There is no middle ground.

Bogus, misinformation can end up causing difficulties for people when it comes to their insurance.

Special Circumstances

Rod Munch wrote: »

Have you read my posts?

I fully explained why the ops insurer should be advised, to protect the op and his insurer in the event the other party decides they do not want to pay up and they try and blame the op.

Just read through some of the threads in here about how people have been shafted by other drivers who seemed sound when the incident occurred but then had a change of heart.

The policy wording is very clear.

ANY event that COULD lead to a claim.

Regardless of the circumstances, if your vehicle is involved in an incident with a third party your insurer must be notified.

If you do not do this then you are in breach of the policy conditions and leave yourself exposed to your policy been cancelled or a claim not been paid.

There is no middle ground.

Bogus, misinformation can end up causing difficulties for people when it comes to their insurance.

Further to Rod Munch's post, and using the same insurer as an example.... you will NOT be quoted for new business with Aviva and some others for up to 5 years now as you have been "involved in any accident or loss".

Note that culpability does not enter the equation.

You have been involved in a notifiable incident/accident/loss and you must declare this with many (all?) insurers for new quotes for up to 5 years.

beauf

Rod Munch wrote: »

..

Firstly I work in the industry.

...

My personal experience is insurance companies will try every trick in the box to raise the premium and not pay out on a claim. If your experience is not that, wonderful. But it has not been mine over many years of deal with insurance.

Delacent

Rod Munch wrote: »

Have you read my posts?

I fully explained why the ops insurer should be advised, to protect the op and his insurer in the event the other party decides they do not want to pay up and they try and blame the op.

.

It would seem you have not read the op's post. The op was parked and not in his car at the time. Ww don't as yet have self driving cars!

Its a minor scratch. His dad is in the business. The cost might be €100-€200 tops.

You notify your insurance company of an incident even not your fault, its goes on record and you can be fairly certain of premium increases and lack of interest from other insurance companies when shopping around

And a scratch is hardly a "notifiable' incident.

Atlantic Dawn

Some people are grand saying they will pay for damage and might assume in their little world that a 6 inch scrape on a brand new car would cost €24.99 to fully repair, when you give the real world quote of €300 odd they tend to tell you to feck off.

Liam McPoyle

beauf wrote: »

My personal experience is insurance companies will try every trick in the box to raise the premium and not pay out on a claim. If your experience is not that, wonderful. But it has not been mine over many years of deal with insurance.

That is nonsense, bar stooling, Joe Duffy listener nonsense.

When a claim is declined it is usually because the policy holder fcuked up, pure and simple. Whether it was because of something like non disclosure or a breach in the policy conditions, a claim will not and cannot be declined without a cast iron reason. If there isn't a cast iron reason for declining a claim I guarantee you that if the individual makes a complaint to the FSO then the FSO will find in favour of the customer.

The avenues of appeal that are available to insurance customers in this country means they are hugely protected and if the insurer makes a decision to decline a claim they have to be 100% right for their reasoning. There is no middle ground, there is no declining a claim on a whim.

Its a case of people blaming the insurer for screwing them over because they are too pig headed to admit they themselves screwed up somewhere along the line.

Of course there have been cases when claims were wrongly declined and ultimately the claimant was rightly compensated but to suggest that its an endemic practice in the industry?

Dont make me laugh.

Delacent wrote: »

It would seem you have not read the op's post. The op was parked and not in his car at the time. Ww don't as yet have self driving cars!

Its a minor scratch. His dad is in the business. The cost might be €100-€200 tops.

You notify your insurance company of an incident even not your fault, its goes on record and you can be fairly certain of premium increases and lack of interest from other insurance companies when shopping around

And a scratch is hardly a "notifiable' incident.

How pray tell would his insurance company know that?

Say Im driving along and clip a parked car. No witness around. I hop out of my car and take the details of the other cars insurance company, ring them and say that their driver crashed into me, sure I've a dent in my car, there is a bit of their paint work embedded in mine, who's to say my version of events isnt what happened?

On a daily basis I see crooks, try on's and out right liars when it comes to insurance claims. It is a cottage industry in this country. The advice I give on here is from experience and is to help people not get "tricked" by their insurer.

The fact of the matter is that a large section of Irish society are money grubbing bastards and will go to any lengths to try and get a pay out.

There was an article in one of the newspapers recently about the proliferation of engineered accidents happening in car parks around the country whereby drivers were deliberately driving into the path of innocent people reversing and then lodging claims against them.

Im sad to say it but when it comes to insurance in this country I do not trust a single person out there. Money is the root of all evil and can turn otherwise completely upstanding people into crooks.

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Some people are grand saying they will pay for damage and might assume in their little world that a 6 inch scrape on a brand new car would cost €24.99 to fully repair, when you give the real world quote of €300 odd they tend to tell you to feck off.

Exactly.

Delacent

Rod Munch wrote: »

How pray tell would his insurance company know that?

I think you misread the post I replied to - The poster said that the op should contact his own insurance company - so if he rang his own insurance company and told them a car scratched his car, they'd put it on file and therefore they'd know about it. And once there's anything on your file even it totally not your fault, you can see premium increase.

beauf

Rod Munch wrote: »

That is nonsense, bar stooling, Joe Duffy listener nonsense.

When a claim is declined it is usually because the policy holder fcuked up, pure and simple. Whether it was because of something like non disclosure or a breach in the policy conditions, a claim will not and cannot be declined without a cast iron reason.....

That doesn't seem to explain how I've had claims refused and then on appeal or complaint upheld. or where claims against me have been dismissed, but yet my premiums still increased despite no claim ever being paid out. I must have imagined it all. Bit of a flat earth scenario, isn't it. Because you've never experienced it, it doesn't exist.

beauf

Delacent wrote: »

I think you misread the post I replied to - The poster said that the op should contact his own insurance company - so if he rang his own insurance company and told them a car scratched his car, they'd put it on file and therefore they'd know about it. And once there's anything on your file even it totally not your fault, you can see premium increase.

I know I've read at least one thread where another poster had this problem.

SteM

beauf wrote: »

That doesn't seem to explain how I've had claims refused and then on appeal or complaint upheld. or where claims against me have been dismissed, but yet my premiums still increased despite no claim ever being paid out. I must have imagined it all. Bit of a flat earth scenario, isn't it. Because you've never experienced it, it doesn't exist.

But everyone's premiums are going up. Just because a claim hasn't paid out doesn't mean that is reason for your premium going up.

beauf

SteM wrote: »

But everyone's premiums are going up. Just because a claim hasn't paid out doesn't mean that is reason for your premium going up.

I've decades of experience dealing with insurance companies across different sectors.

SteM

beauf wrote: »

I've decades of experience dealing with insurance companies across different sectors.

Not sure what your point is. Rod Munch says he works in the industry but you dismiss what he says, don't know why your years of experience dealing with insurance companies is any more relevant.

beauf

SteM wrote: »

Not sure what your point is. Rod Munch says he works in the industry but you dismiss what he says, don't know why your years of experience dealing with insurance companies is any more relevant.

You mean I should Ignore my own first hand experience, over many years, instead take the advice of someone who could be anyone, on the web.

How are you with helping out a prince who accounts are temporarily frozen, just need a small loan to get it all sorted out?

My point is I'm not talking about recent price rises. I would have though that was obvious.

SteM

beauf wrote: »

You mean I should Ignore my own first hand experience, over many years, instead take the advice of someone who could be anyone, on the web.

How are you with helping out a prince who accounts are temporarily frozen, just need a small loan to get it all sorted out?

My point is I'm not talking about recent price rises. I would have though that was obvious.

Yes,yes you've had years of experience we get it. You can talk about flat earth scenarios and princes all you want. You never said what premium rises you were talking about, we're all supposed to know.

Liam McPoyle

beauf wrote: »

That doesn't seem to explain how I've had claims refused and then on appeal or complaint upheld. or where claims against me have been dismissed, but yet my premiums still increased despite no claim ever being paid out. I must have imagined it all. Bit of a flat earth scenario, isn't it. Because you've never experienced it, it doesn't exist.

Why were your claims declined?

In declining a claim the insurer is bound to give a reason why.

beauf

Been a different reason every time. Sometimes they give a new reason if the original reason is challenged. One time they accepted first hand account of someone who hadn't even witnessed the accident. They dragged that out for two years.

A different issue, but interesting....
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/apr/16/no-fault-claims-car-insurance-aa

adocholiday

OP here. I have experience with bodywork quotes and I knew straight away it'd be a few hundred euro. My FIL said it'd be €400 prob and that'd be as cheap as it'd get. I expect that when the woman involved gets the quote then the tune will probably change so I'm happy enough to have reported it.

On another note I see from her insurance policy disk that her cover is due to expire in about 2 weeks. Where does that leave me in terms of making a claim against her retrospectively? If I get the work done say and she drags her feet on it and her insurance expires, what happens then?

Liam McPoyle

beauf wrote: »

Been a different reason every time. Sometimes they give a new reason if the original reason is challenged. One time they accepted first hand account of someone who hadn't even witnessed the accident. They dragged that out for two years.

A different issue, but interesting....
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/apr/16/no-fault-claims-car-insurance-aa

If you have had multiple claims declined by different insurers then logic would dictate that the problem hasn't been with the insurers tbh.

On the link you provided, thats pretty disturbing. I know for certain that the company I work for do not load for non fault claims nor do they decline people that have had non fault claims (once the claims are settled) but if it is a practice that has begun to sneak in then Id hope a proper review is carried out by the central bank and / or insurance Ireland.

A non fault claim is a non fault claim, it is morally wrong to punish people that have done nothing wrong, there is no ambiguity.

adocholiday wrote: »

OP here. I have experience with bodywork quotes and I knew straight away it'd be a few hundred euro. My FIL said it'd be €400 prob and that'd be as cheap as it'd get. I expect that when the woman involved gets the quote then the tune will probably change so I'm happy enough to have reported it.

On another note I see from her insurance policy disk that her cover is due to expire in about 2 weeks. Where does that leave me in terms of making a claim against her retrospectively? If I get the work done say and she drags her feet on it and her insurance expires, what happens then?

Even if she lapses her policy with her own insurer and goes off elsewhere they are still liable for your damage as they were insurer concerned at the time of the accident, ie, they held the policy when the damage occurred.

Hopefully she is as stand up as she appeared and you dont have to get her insurer involved.

beauf

Rod Munch wrote: »

If you have had multiple claims declined by different insurers then logic would dictate that the problem hasn't been with the insurers tbh..

... or that it's standard operating procedure in the industry in a lot of companies.... Is also a logical possibility....

Anyway it's irrelevant to the OP. Let's leave it there.