Should I still report to insurance if settling privately?

legomanx51v

Hi folks
Wet windy saturday yesterday and I was in an industrial estate after getting a wheel alignment done. Drove it up and down a road in the industrial estate to check it was driving straight. It was, good stuff. I pulled in left off the road (but still pointing straight ahead) to do a U-turn and to put an address into the GPS.

When I moved off to do the U-turn I didn't realise there was a car coming from behind me. I don't know how fast he was going but I only saw the car in front of me when I was nearly halfway into the lane and braked suddenly. I would have been doing 5kph or so.
I didn't think I hit him as I didn't hear anything but was shook so reversed back off the road and stopped.:(
He stopped a few meters down the road and then did a U-turn and came back to me. I thought I was going to get an earful so I waved and got out to apologise.
Turns out my licence plate & holder (both plastic) had scraped the left side of his rear bumper. My licence plate had fallen off and was 2-3m down the road. He had scratches on his rear bumper.

I apologised and would like to pay to fix the damage since it doesn't look crazy insurance expensive and I have 5 years NCB. He said the car had a new rear bumper painted 3 months ago as it was in an incident previously. He gave me the name of the bodyshop that did the work.

We swapped details including pictures of discs and licences. He had a learner permit and the car is his girlfriends with no L-plates and there was no accompanying driver.

I went home, rescrewed the plate on and wiped the scratches with a damp cloth and they are not really visible, I have a polisher and think it will probably look decent enough with that. I rang the bodyshop he mentioned and said that if/when they bring the car in to let them know I'm happy to pay for the repairs.

I'm wondering should I report this whole scenario to the insurance company but tell them I'm dealing with it privately? His disc shows the same insurer as mine. I don't want to be left open to some ridiculous "PTSD/whiplash" claim but don't want the insurer screwing me over either... Any advice

Long post but wanted to describe it all!
His car is blue, mine grey.

ba_barabus

Report it.

And from a look at the front of your car you did more than just clip him with the reg plate.

I wouldn't be worried about the cost to respray his bumper, it doesn't look to need new parts from the pic.

legomanx51v

My gut feeling is to report too. Whats your thinking behind it? Covering my ass in case things get difficult? Would it affect renewal even if they don't have to pay out?

Johnnycanyon

legomanx51v wrote: »

My gut feeling is to report too. Whats your thinking behind it? Covering my ass in case things get difficult? Would it affect renewal even if they don't have to pay out?

If you report it and pay for the damages yourself they will probably still roast you on renewal, I would keep it to myself.

colm_mcm

Johnnycanyon wrote: »

If you report it and pay for the damages yourself they will probably still roast you on renewal, I would keep it to myself.

They only roast you if they have to pay out AFAIK.

The damage would not be consistent with whiplash type scenario so I’d say it’s unlikely the other party would claim for PI.

Johnnycanyon

colm_mcm wrote: »

They only roast you if they have to pay out AFAIK.

The damage would not be consistent with whiplash type scenario so I’d say it’s unlikely the other party would claim for PI.

You could be right but I would check into it.. When it comes to renewal you can't put down "no accidents" on the form after telling them you had an accident.So with red tape and the likes you could end up paying..But again I am not sure.

mickdw

A fair few marks on your own car op.
That will need a tidy I'm sure too.

ba_barabus

colm_mcm wrote: »

They only roast you if they have to pay out AFAIK.

The damage would not be consistent with whiplash type scenario so I’d say it’s unlikely the other party would claim for PI.

Yep. You can report it with no impact if there is no claim.

As regards personal injury people make odd claims for odd reasons.

legomanx51v

Just took a photo at lunch. The scratches aren’t very deep. I might take a polisher to it sometime and see if they look better

legomanx51v

Ok so I rang the insurer and told them the exact details as in the above post and that I have pics if needed.
They said they will put this info down as a note but not a claim and it will not have any bearing on my premium.
They also said that if he does ring in to claim then I have the option to “buy off the claim amount” (as long as it’s just the bumper fixing). So I suppose if he chances an unreasonable personal injury claim etc I can let insurance deal with it but if it all goes well as we agreed privately then it has nothing to do with my insurance.
We'll see what happens I suppose