Someone drove into the back of my car - what happens with the claim now?

emerald_isle

Hello everyone
I need some help here. It's the first time claiming from a car Insurance and don't know what usually happens.

With my husband, we bought an excellent car a few months ago, in a great shape, 1 owner, low mileage and we did a good service on it along with new tyres etc, so the car is inside and out literally AAA.

Yesterday someone drove into our car and hit us on the rear bumper, fortunately, the impact wasn't major but the repair can be costly.
This gentleman admitted fault straight away and passed his details to us, he called his broker as well to let them know about the incident.
Today I called his insurance company to file the claim and they told me that an assessor has to inspect the car and that they need to check who is at fault...

What will happen next?
Who is going to repair the car / where? Can I choose the garage?
Who is going to pay the repair?
Do we have to repair it in a garage and then the insurance company will reimburse this cost to us?
What if the cost of the repair is too expensive?
The average market value of the car is somewhere between 6k - 6500...

I am so concerned about this, we don't want our car to lose its value after this incident and of course, we don't want to have it written off as we have spent a lot of time and money on it to maintain this beautiful car in an excellent driving and cosmetic condition.

If someone had similar experience and could give some sort of advice here, I would be grateful.

You can even pm me if it's better.

Thank you in advance.

Toyotafanboi

As the injured 3rd party you can chose where you want to repair the car. Insurance companies will try and coerce you to their repair partners but you are not obliged to use them.

You take the car to the garage that you want to fix it, ask that garage to give you an estimate to repair. You pass that estimate to the insurance company or the garage may do that on your behalf if you ask them to.

The insurers may send out an assessor but if the damage isn't too bad they may take the estimate at face value or maybe just ask you to email photos.

In terms of costs to repair and whether it will be written off etc, it really depends on the cars itself and the level of damage. On a car you reckon is worth about €6k, the damage would need to be fairly extensive to write it off. If you post a photo we could tell you more.

emerald_isle

Thank you for the reply.

I have no clue how to upload a photo

The damage is on the rear bumper (needs to be replaced), the bumper's inner "metal holder/rack" is folded and it seems that the bootlid is not closing / opening well.

That's what is visible, the mechanic/repairer might see more things that we can't see

punisher5112

Leave it up to insurance, unless they will pay outside of it.

Insurance you can claim on theirs or yours and yours will claim off the other driver insurance..

It's up to you and as above where you are happy for repair to be done.

colm_mcm

Don’t panic, if the other party had insurance then you’re all ok. There is an industry around repairing cars so the car should be good as it was last week.

emerald_isle

Thank you all for the replies

I tried to upload a photo, I am a new member and I can't unfortunately...

It's the 1st time that we are dealing with a claim and we don't know what to do, we are reading a lot online about write-offs and that Insurance companies are trying to pay as little as they can...

We are just concerned about what's next and how long it will take

punisher5112

emerald_isle wrote: »

Thank you all for the replies

I tried to upload a photo, I am a new member and I can't unfortunately...

It's the 1st time that we are dealing with a claim and we don't know what to do, we are reading a lot online about write-offs and that Insurance companies are trying to pay as little as they can...

We are just concerned about what's next and how long it will take

It doesn't take very long unless the other driver disputes it.

I'm waiting over 6 years for a claim where I had an independent witness and they still dug their heels in. Now it's a weird case as the insurance company folded.

emerald_isle

punisher5112 wrote: »

It doesn't take very long unless the other driver disputes it.

I'm waiting over 6 years for a claim where I had an independent witness and they still dug their heels in. Now it's a weird case as the insurance company folded.

6 years? That's too long...

I thought that a case stays open for 2 years, did you go to the court or something?

emerald_isle

Check photo here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hzno90lwaka3c8g/CarPicture.jpg?dl=0

colm_mcm

emerald_isle wrote: »

Check photo here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hzno90lwaka3c8g/CarPicture.jpg?dl=0

punisher5112

emerald_isle wrote: »

6 years? That's too long...

I thought that a case stays open for 2 years, did you go to the court or something?

It was setanta and it's still ongoing.

Lantus

Driver went into your rear which essentially will be 100% their fault. Contact their company and make claim. Send them pics etc. Choose your garage and get a courtesy car. Pick up when finished. Job done.

mgbgt1978

OP, you are also entitled to claim a percentage of the repair cost (it will vary by year of car and amount of claim) to cover depreciation on your car due to it being involved in an accident.

delboythedub

If somebody drives into back of your car thats his and his insurance companys problem and if your car is not road worthy /NCT problem after said incident write a registered letter to his insurance stating that you may need to hire out a car. END

emerald_isle

Thank you for all the info!

His company told me that n assessor will contact me in order to meet us and have the car checked, will they estimate the cost of the repair?

I will have the official dealer and a second garage to check the damage and provide an estimate of the repair as well.

Do I have the right / entitlement to ask his insurance company to pay the repair cost based on my mechanic's estimate or I will have to accept their assessor's estimate even if it's lower than the one I will pay at the end?

Thanks again!!

emerald_isle

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

OP, you are also entitled to claim a percentage of the repair cost (it will vary by year of car and amount of claim) to cover depreciation on your car due to it being involved in an accident.

Thanks for that!!!

I was thinking of it but I wasn't sure if I can actually claim a % of the repair cost to cover the depreciation on our car

For sure the car will lose some of its value after this incident

Is there a law about that or something that I could refer to??

Thanks again.

bazz26

You need to get your own assessment done on your car so bring it to a good body shop of your choice and get them to assess the damage and give you an estimate of repair. From the photo that bumper is destroyed and needs to be totally replaced imo. I'd also have the boot and under body/rear of the car checked as it looks like it got a fair whack from behind and underlying damage may not be visible from the outside.

The other party's insurance assessor will examine it themselves but remember that it's his/her job to limit the payout to the best of their ability by their employer - the other party's insurer. They will just make sure that the repair is not being over exaggerated.

Doltanian

Were you injured? if you were you will need to see a doctor or hospital and start keeping copies of the paper trail.

emerald_isle

Doltanian wrote: »

Were you injured? if you were you will need to see a doctor or hospital and start keeping copies of the paper trail.

Thanks for the message.

Fortunately, no one were injured.

Only the cars are damaged.

emerald_isle

Hello everyone

Thanks for your messages and advice.

Still, we are trying to understand the process, we are claiming straight from the 3rd party's Insurance as we don't have a comprehensive cover on ours, today we received a letter from our company to fill a claim form and that they will send an assessor etc...

I rung them to ask what is that all about and they told me that they have opened a case as we called the claim assist line on the day of the accident, but we didn't ask to open a claim whatsoever, we only wanted instructions on what we had to do the moment that the other driver drove into us......
Then she told me that "Okay, I will close the claim, thank you, bye", that was it, I can't handle so much politeness and assistance from their side!

Anyway, we have gone to a garage (Official Dealer) last Thursday to ask for an estimate, they told us that they will e-mail us the estimate but they can't replace everything as that will raise the cost a lot so we need to fix everything that is repairable to avoid a write off etc etc.....

What write off?? For a bumper and the bumper clips (plus labour and paint)??

Anyway, they haven't sent us the estimate yet...

What a hassle!!!

***Does anyone know a reliable Irish website to calculate the open market value? ***

So far I am searching through all the websites that are selling used cars and spoke to several dealers to determine how much they are evaluating these cars today and found out that an average OMV is somewhere between 6500 - 7000 and still, we can not find one with same condition and mileage as ours.

cml387

To be brutally honest, although it may be your pride and joy it's only a car worth about 6000 euro.
A simple job of a new bumper and respray will be up to 1000 euro.
Chassis repair will add considerable to that. Over 2000 euro and the car may be beyond economic repair in which case the car will be written off.

You can still accept the write off cost from the insurance company and repair the car yourself, but it will be classed as a write off by the insurance companies and so affect the market value

emerald_isle

cml387 wrote: »

To be brutally honest, although it may be your pride and joy it's only a car worth about 6000 euro.
A simple job of a new bumper and respray will be up to 1000 euro.
Chassis repair will add considerable to that. Over 2000 euro and the car may be beyond economic repair in which case the car will be written off.

You can still accept the write off cost from the insurance company and repair the car yourself, but it will be classed as a write off by the insurance companies and so affect the market value

Thanks for the reply

I would never accept a write off and I would never accept what they would think its my car's value...

I have not seen one car like that and I will never be able to find another car of similar condition, as I said those cars are selling around 6500-7000 average price but not even a single one is of similar condition and mileage.

Why should I pay the prize for their client?
He should pay attention on the road and not on his phone whatsoever...

I am so frustrated with all this

Especially for €2000 they just cant write off a car, by the way the estimate is €1600 incl courtesy car etc, today I will send it to the insurance company.


Thanks again.

cml387

I'm surprised that the guy who ran into you is not picking up the tab him/herself.€1600 is not bad for the damage caused and it would cost more in lost NCB and you don't need to involve the insurance company at all.

emerald_isle

cml387 wrote: »

I'm surprised that the guy who ran into you is not picking up the tab him/herself.€1600 is not bad for the damage caused and it would cost more in lost NCB and you don't need to involve the insurance company at all.

Who knows... I have no clue.

If he was willing to pay it by himself, I wouldn't have a problem to be honest.

I just want my car to be fixed

I have always kept it in immaculate condition and I can't stand it in this condition

Hopefully it will be sorted soon!

cml387

Just phone him up,tell him the bill and ask if he'll pay rather than going through the insurance.

Skatedude

emerald_isle wrote: »

6 years? That's too long...

I thought that a case stays open for 2 years, did you go to the court or something?

Not sure, same thing happened to me, rear ended while waiting at a junction, their insurance offered 500 quid even though the cheapest 2nd hand car of the same model was 4500+ , 2 and a half years later they only upped the offer to 2300. finally gave up and accepted it as it was going nowhere.

emerald_isle

Hello all,

Still waiting the insurance to "speak" with their client and check if he accepts liability when he did... They confirmed that the car is repairable at least.

They are playing aroumd, they are not paying anything for the depreciation and the dont care about the impact that this damage will make on a future sale, what am I supposed to do???

I feel so terribly sad and angry

When they are quoting us, they give prices of 2000 and 3000€ for car insurance but when it comes to pay for the damage their client caused, they just dont care...!