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Car Damage

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Dusty Bin | 18:06 Sat 05th Jan 2019 | Insurance
16 Answers
My daughter's car was sitting parked outside her work where she has a part-time job. From the window where she was working, she watched as a customer parked their car next to hers. As the male driver got out of the car, he whacked his car door against my daughter's car's driver's side wing mirror. The wing mirror casing has been scraped and cracked. She has since discovered that the driver's side window now only partially goes down before jamming as it seems to have come off its regulators.

After witnessing the damage being inflicted to her car, my daughter approached the car driver, who denied damaging her car. He refused to give her his details and left the site, so she reported him to the police. My daughter has his car registration number and has CCTV footage of the incident recorded on her workplace's cameras, which the police have viewed.

My daughter reported the incident to her insurance company and they told her she would have to pay a £750 excess fee in order to process a claim herself and they suggested that she claims third party. We don't understand what that means.

We believe that the repair cost (incl. labour) for the wing mirror is going to be approx. £380 and approx. £280 to fix the window regulator, so £660 total.

As my daughter is completely blameless for the damage, she feels very upset at being made to pay £750 when she only earns £40 per week.

The police have told my daughter the damage was not intentional so they are not prosecuting and advised my daughter to settle the issue with the other car driver. The police promised that they will speak to him and are passing on my daughter's details to him to make contact with her.

One week on from the incident, we have heard nothing from the other driver.

What do you think we should do now?

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does sge gave fully comp? is 750 her normal excess? id be inclined to fixit and start a small claim
try citixens advice
Question Author
sge?
^^ Does she have fully comp
Question Author
Yes, she has fully comp with a £750 excess.
Your daughter can pay £4 to get hold of the other driver's insurance details:
https://www.mib.org.uk/check-insurance-details/check-a-vehicle-not-at-the-roadside-after-an-accident/

Then she can ask her own insurer whether they'll assist in claiming against that insurance. (If not, she could try contacting the other driver's insurer directly).

Alternatively she can bypass the insurance system altogether and threaten to sue the other driver (following through with court action if required). That would then leave him to decide whether or not to claim on his insurance. (If he didn't he'd have to pay your daughter from his own pocket). Assuming that the driver was the registered keeper of the vehicle she can get his name and address by submitting form V888 to DVLA:
https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla
She'd then need to send a formal written demand to his address (using Royal Mail's 'Signed For' service), stating the amount demanded, the reason for the demand and that legal action would follow if payment wasn't received within a specified period (of, say, 21 days). If he failed to pay up she could then take court action against him to recover the money using the Government's online claims system:
https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome
Sorry I can't help Dusty, long time since I dealt with Motor claims - I was assisting as Bednobs struggles with the keys.

Hopefully someone will have more ideas.

Citizens Advice may well have info.
Crossed
Suggest whether daughter's insurance own policy has legal expenses cover which, if so, should help. Also, I think the law was changed a while ago so that you can seek recompense direct from a liable party's insurer if that party is being unco-operative.
Some good advice here. At the risk of stating the obvious: Make sure your daughter keeps a full record throughout of all actions and correspondence and also a diary relating to this matter until it is fully resolved.
sorry, yes i do have a problem with sideways fingers (rheumatoid arthritis) which often renders my posts unintelligible!
thanks mamya.
I would send a demand to the other driver (D)
then a letter before action
and then start a claim in the small claims court

and let (D) contact his own insurance or not ....

citizens advice will assist
Question Author
Thank you all for the advice, especially buenchico for the detail you went into.

Cheers!
That video footage is fortunate. I suspect we've all had experiences where damage has occurred and there's no evidence to prove anything or identify anyone.
Not worth the claiming unless she already has no, no claims.
It was a long time ago but this may help to show that insurance companies try to dodge at first. I was rear-shunted and when I sent a claim in to the other party's insurance company they said I should claim off mine. My reply went something like,"I do not insure my car for your client to run into it, please pay up" whereupon they did.

This was in the mid-Sixties, so possibly irrelevant today.

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