Someone hit my mams parked car - next steps?

heretothere

Hi,

My mam is currently in hospital and I live at the other side of the country. Due to non important issues I can't go down for a few more days.

I just got a call from a relative to say someone has crashed into my mams parked car. They are going to go back later and take pictures.

Can I or relative make a garda report on my mams behalf? I have tried calling in the hope that just maybe someone has made a report that they crashed into a parked car.

endacl

any of the neighbours have cameras or ring doorbells etc?

heretothere

@endacl it's possible. A lady a few doors up runs a business from home there is also a centra + a solicitors at the top of the road. Wouldn't have site of my mams house but possibly would see the car leaving. Going by the damage to my mams car they would have to have damage too. She's on a wide residential street about 30 metres back from the corner so how they managed to crash into her car IDK. If they took the corner badly they would have hit cars futher up the road.

The other prob is we don't know when this happened. But one or two neighbours would be conscious of what happens in the street so would hopefully know .

Henry Ford III

Proof is your issue here.

heretothere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122216282#Comment_122216282

Proof of who it is?

Aparently the guard's have 'an idea' but they are fobbing my mam off a lot.

Her insurance have said they will scrap it and offered her a pay out. But should we take that on her insurance? They've said she won't lose her no claims bonus but surely it will cause her premium to go up?

IDK if we should wait and hopefully find the other car because it should be their insurance talking the cost not hers

fitzparker

If she has no claims protection then it wont be affected, that is what it is there for, also if she hasn't been in a crash before she will have alot of no claims years, so it will fall into stepback which she should have on her policy (ie. she has 100% no claims bonus she may go back to 75%) it will not affect her premium by too much.

In my example, i slid on black ice in 2022 and hit a path causing 8k of damage, claimed on my insurance (I did not have claims protection but did have step back, i went from 100% to 75%. my renewal was only €150 extra for the year, and I was able to get them down to almost what it was the previous year. So I wouldn't worry about claiming if needs be, that is what it's for.

Regards the accident, unless you know exactly when it was, i.e someone saw the car do it and drive off at x time, id forget about it. guards aren't going to trawl through hours of footage to possibly see a reg.

How much is the damage? or if you don't know that, how new is the car ( if insurance say they will scrap it, this means it costs too much to repair compared to the going rate of the car in todays world)

heretothere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122286348#Comment_122286348

Thanks that is really helpful. The car financially is not worth fixing. It's a 06 Honda Jazz. But while it might not have high market value it's/ was a good little car and was worth a lot more to her on the road if you get me.

She might just have to take the scrap money and get a loan to buy a new little car. She mainly just uses it for getting about town and out to work, so maybe 10km per day.

I called the garda station myself there now and the garda was helpful. He said the garda dealing with it isn't back on for a few days so I might just hold out and see what he says. Then go with her own insurance. We might get something for about €5k

fitzparker

What is the damage? How hard was the damage if its not worth fixing? it must have been some bang, surely it should be drivable. could it be something to be looked at independently? for example mine was 8k, but that is because the main garage use main parts and put everything they can to get as much from it, I probably could have got it done for about 3-4k.

Did an assessor come out or are insurance just going off photo's

If it was just body damage, for 10km per day, is it worth fixing? (again just to save your mam some money)

Ask the insurance first what they will offer and what the excess is, I presume a 06 Jazz will be 1500, probably less.. you then have to pay your excess first which could be €500. so you may be getting less than 1k back from the insurance company if you are lucky.

I don't think it is worth going through the insurance for something so little.

For someone that drives 10km a day, you really have a choice of any car. you could get a fine run around even a newer year for 2k or less

I wouldn't be spending anything near 5k for a car that will only do 4000km a year or less

heretothere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122286441#Comment_122286441

An assessor did come out. Her mechanic has had a look as well he said €850 then the cost of a new wing mirror and side mirror. So maybe €1,000 all in to fix it. But I do think a fair bit of that quote is panal beating/ buffing which doesn't need to be done. I did say to talk to the mechanic again. He seems like a decent sort.

They've offered her €2k her excess I think is €200 so that'd be €1,800 towards a new car. Which I am starting to think might be the better option.

lawred2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122286191#Comment_122286191

how exactly could they have "an idea"?

without concrete evidence there's literally nothing you can do other than tell your mum to claim on her insurance.

heretothere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122287923#Comment_122287923

I honestly don't really know. This is what I heard 2nd hand from her. So maybe they have seen the car
(the hitting car) else where on the street. There are a few businesses either end of the street which would have before/ after footage but not likely to have caught the actual crash.

I think she will go with what her insurance is offering. Just a PITA! And I hope the fecker has no luck for it

fitzparker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122287829#Comment_122287829

If the car is mechanically safe and fine, then just fix what needs to be fixed, a wing mirror is €50

you could get a 2k car and it could be a **** heap. or take ages to find the right one

you could also approach the insurance company and say you found someone who can fix it for 1000. they may offer you it and you just pay €200 excess and get it fully done.

but if it was me and its just a run around to the shop, i'd cut my losses and put it down as an unfortunate event

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122286376#Comment_122286376

Be careful here, this is not what it seems..

For example if you decide to change insurer next year (or any year in the next 5 - 10 years) one of the questions asked is if a claim has been put in? So regardless of how many years of no claims you have protected, the new insurer will know that you made a claim and price the premium accordingly..

Should be OK if you stick with the same insurer, but you are locked to them for the forseeable..