Hi guys...one for the experts!

Just been rear ended in my E46 . I was stationary at the lights and a Focus went into the back of me, no idea how fast, maybe 15mph?

Hell of a bang, but the damage to my car is minimal, luckily she went into the bumper and my metal work has escaped any damage. It's also luckily not split the plastic of the bumper, just gouged it/dented it. So a fill/paint will sort it out.

The young girl was really sorry about it and didn't want to lose her NCB's and wants to ideally not to go through insurance. Turns out the garage I use and really rate for bodywork is one she is friends with the owner at.

So I'm happy enough to take the car there for a quote, she can pay the bill and my car will come back looking lovely (as it always does from there).

My question is whether taking a week to try and go down this route is wise, as will that forfit my right to take it through the insurance company? How long is too long? I am just worried if the quote is too much and she kicks off then I won't have the insurance avenue open anymore?


Although it's her not wanting to use the insurance I think that may be best from my point of view too. In Feb I was crashed into at the front, and the car was Cat C'd, I was paid out and had it all repaired etc. Now if I was to go through the insurance I bet the fact it's been Cat C'd will really hammer any payout if they chose not to repair it?

Cheers for any advice!

 

I was going to do this after I was hit but it soon turned nasty so ended up going through the insurance route.

Yeah it's an ideal situation not to involve insurance but they have to be notified anyway.

 

They don't mate that's a popular misconception,there's absolutely no need to inform them if you don't want too.

To the op,best thing to do is get her to meet you at the bodyshop with the car and get a quote your both happy with and that you agree with the bodyshop that she will pay for it and no corners cut.

By all means mention it to your insurance company in an informal way by stating everything's in hand,you know the girl involved and the damage is so minor that it's not really worth claiming over right now but you'll see how it plays out.

Point is she would have to be very clued up and stupid to try and get away from the claim as its a rear ender and she's a youngling in insurance terms,probably a grand excess.

I'd say your pretty safe overall.

 

I always thought you were meant to tell your insurance, whether claiming or not. They ask any accidents/convictions etc, not any accident you have claimed for.

 

right this happened to my mum few months ago.

basicly shes got a mk4 fiesta fairly mint. anyway this young girl reversed into it aged about 19 didnt want to risk her ncb. my mum said fari enought as we all make mistakes.

she said she reccomened a body shop etc.. they quoted £180 to do it.

my mum wanted another shop to do it ao got a few prices ranging from £290 min - £300.

and in the end 3 weeks later. her dad phoned up saying your out of order and crap saying they been quoted 180 etc etc... so my mum said im doing you a favour.. and said theyll go though insurance (she had insurance detail first)

she told insurance the story they were fine about it all. and the young girl lost her ncb.. her problem i guess.

but aslong as your happy with bodyshop its at etc etc id say go for it.

think when you were younger how much ncb made it cheaper.

Ash.

 

You don't,why would you if it's all sorted out?Ive been in the bodywork game and I've never heard of it,it's usual internet speculation.
My insurance company have only ever asked me about FAULT claims as well as I had a non fault 3 years ago, I mentioned it on my last renewal and was told its of no interest to them whatsoever.
Of course it could be policy dependant but it's definitely NOT a legal requirement,my missus had a total claim of over £20000 in our Beemer and we never informed them and dealt with it all ourselves,it made the process a lot smoother.
There's loads of myths involving insurance/accidents etc,like you've got to phone the police in an accident,it's an "offence" to leave the scene of an accident,if you've got trade insurance you need to have the car reg number on the policy.
It gets boring after a while!!!

 

take the offer of her sorting it out, if you go through insurance will count as a claim....

 

If you both meet at the body shop and agree terms etc get her to write it down agreeing to pay etc, never ever trust em to pay, the body shop guy will stand back and let you two fight over it and still demand payment, unless it's in writing it never happened

 

Im sure you have too report rta within 24 hours too police just incase you need too claim if you dont come too agreement and you have nt reported it she can refuse too pay happened years ago to a friend the guy said he would pay him self then after a week told him tough and he was unable too claim as accident was not reported?

 

hit up the insurance, in the end you will get fucked over otherwise
as for light damage
wifes friend was bumped and saw no damage so didnt worry
i looked and while her laguna bumper looked ok her boot floor was up and split and wiring trapped and damaged blowing fuses and no lights
dippy cow didnt even get a reg


hope you took pics, they could try the reversed into ME thing and you get fucked
i have a claim pending and guy who hit us said it was not his fault pic cleared that one up with no hassles
(i put a pic on my thread)

 

Every policy ive had the last 5 or 6 years has had written into the policy that ALL accidents no matter how minor and regardless of fault must be reported.

 

I informed my new insurance regarding 2 incidents even though they were none faults that are on my insurance and my proof of ncb form. One wasn't even anything to do with me a friend borrowed my transit and crashed into someone (his insurance) and the other was a big stonechip off an uncovered lorry and my policy went up.
You definatly need to report this to the police as its classed as an rta but regards the insurance I'd get money for the job ASAP or threaten insurance or you'll loose out.

 

Does not need reporting to the police, no one was injured....

 

It's still an accident and all accidents on a public road need to be reported

 

Only if you want to ruin her ncd. If she is paying and your happy with the garage and repair then that's fair enough. Your not suposed to drive over the speed limit but everyone does. Trouble is the rip off insurance quotes and everyone claiming for whiplash so you can't blame her for trying to save a bob or 2

 

it was on rip off britan the other month, if you have a accident weather you claim or not you have to tell them as it will void you insurance other wise, few people got caught out on the tv,
its shit as it will put your insuance up to i got rear ended a few years ago and the insurance company tryed bang mine up because it was a claim even tho it was 100% there fault.

 

Complete and utter nonsense,the police only get involved to take details anyway,they cannot apportion blame.
Where people come up with this shit from I'll never know.
As I stated previously it's policy dependant as we enquired when we had the BMW crash listed above and were told if its in hand and were happy no problem.
Everyone complains on here about high premiums,why do you think that is if they need to employ x number of extra staff to deal with people ringing up cos their neighbours hit their £300 golf and cracked an indicator lense?
How do you think these ambulance chasers get their victims details?Like when a guy had a personal injury claim firm pay out £3000 to his " victim" when he broke the wing mirror off her parked car!!!he paid her in cash to sort it but she informed insurance and they ended up giving her compo!!!
If the op's happy with just getting his motor repaired then let it carry on and don't involve them,not everyone on this planets a cunt!!
Daiburnsy who posted above may recall his insurance company getting involved in this very type of thing with lounsy's 318is when the person who hit him totally admitted liability,his ins co agreed yet dais ins company waded in and Louns ended up losing about £1300 cos dais insurance company failed to claim the storage costs from the other side.when realising their mistake they took the money from Louns payout leaving him with £500 for an £1800 car.
Not always worth involving them as they want their cut as well then,it wasn't long ago a big firm got done for "massaging" non fault claims like adding £300 admin fees onto garage bills,adding days to hire cars that were returned on time.
The whole industry is a scam,I know from first hand experience and could tell you some stories about it but not on an open forum!!!

 

I have had a non fault claim like others say and you have to declare it afterwards and your policy goes up....but not much TBo.

I would get a couple of independent quotes yourself, and then if your happy with halving them, tell them it will be £xxx in cash within 48 hours or your going to declare it to your insurance company...

I know a few people who got ripped off by settling outside of insurance companies, and at the end of the day it's YOU who is doing them the favour and not the other way round.

if in doubt, ring your insurers with her reg number and ideally a witness to hand, and leave it to them.

 

A problem with claiming on someones insurance if it's their fault 100% is that for some reason, Ive found my own insurance to rise...

Police don't need to be informed or called unless one of the drivers refrains from giving you their details.

Insurance companies I wouldn't have thought would need to be told if you weren't going down the insurance route. Unless im mistaken but I wouldn't see the point (unless you need to document when the accident happened if things went pear shaped?)

 

You must tell your insurer about ANY 'accident'. Within a specified time frame which is usually 48 hours or as soon as praticable. To clarify police only need to ATTEND if the road is blocked or there are injuries. For your own good however you should report each and every 'accident' to the police and get a log number for it.

I would always go through insurance. I didn't one time and it bit me in the arse and cost me a crap load of money!

 

is that all???

ever since claims management industry came in, everything is a rip off. For a courtesty car they charge for example at least twice the cost it would cost you and i to rent a car. And considering these are national insurance companys dealing with national rental chains, probably 4 times what it really costs them

and thats just the courtesy cars

An example. A friend had her door bashed in by a puller outer. Car off road for a couple of weeks. The claims management company was charging over £90 a day for the courtesy car

The daily rate for a corsa on europecar is £37. Have it for a week and its £20 a day, 2 weeks £18 a day.

how the fuck can they justify it???

 

^^^^ yeah it's just the tip of the iceberg of course.
Seriously though,it's quite scary how the whole process works and ironically it's often the garage at the end of it that gets rammed up the arse with it.
For example,I quoted on a mates Chrysler voyager,quoted at £40 p/h inc vat,so roughly £32 p/h which is cheap,an unit/a business costs realistically £18000 AFTER tax to run so an average 40 hour week needs to generate at least £1500 to make even minimum wage for the owner.
Prick assessor comes back with a max price of £23 p/h INC vat!!!
So £18 an hour ex vat,2 men on min wage say £13-15 p/h time you sort their NI etc and it ain't happening.
No matter where I went I couldn't make the figures work.
He eventually came back on £30 p/h inc vat after my mate point blank refusing to go elsewhere.
He then renaged (sp) on a previous verbal agreement that he would supply a new grill @ £350.
I told him I wouldn't be able to get it without written confirmation that I'd get the money as this was around the same cost as the job and the cheeky prick told me he'd need too see a copy of my invoice that I'd paid and then add 30 days on to pay.
Fucked them off then.
The darker side is recovery and storage,there's no set rates and quite frankly I did it literally on the attitude of the person on the end of the line which went from £15 per day to £30 storage and from £150-350 per recovery.
Don't forget the police recommended one was my top rate as a minimum recovery charge and often if you rang the police to report an accident he would turn up before them even if your car was drivable,I've even had an old boy down the garage who told me the copper INSISTED on his car being recovered despite the only major damage being a burst tyre where he'd hit the kerb so the scam goes back to the law as well!!!!

Accident management companies are total con merchants as well,realistically you can earn more money through the commission they give you than you do from the repair.

It's one big con and IMO everytime you phone your insurers for a minor incident such as this that can easily be sorted amicably your playing into their hands,what if the op's bumper had a few chips on it,maybe some scratches?theyll now be fixed for free as you can't paint round them!!!the girlies happy she's not paying a £500 excess plus a premium increase of at least another £500 plus a black mark on her record,who loses?no one.
Go insurance route and everyone whos involved pays more,bodyshop boy has to wait a month for his money rather than getting it there and then,the victims premium stays the same,girlies premium also.
Frankly I can't see what possible reason you'd have for contacting them if it can be settled amicably,other than being just a complete and utter cunt.
Another point is how the fuck will they ever find out otherwise?
A point that totally negates the need to speak to them,why would you and then pay more on next years premium,oh and maybe get your car cat c'd just because an assessor didn't like the look of it so it then becomes worthless!!!
Even a bump against it officially repaired at an "approved bodyshop" will go against its value in the future and they now have a record of it because you decided to inform them.
To me it's a bit like when you buy something in a shop and the dolly bird rings up the wrong price on the til in your favour by mistake,you don't notice til you walked out and drive off,do you go back with the money,mention it in front of her boss who's standing next to her or just think "it must be my lucky day"?
Of course you should go back and do it but realistically your not doing anyone any favours,your losing out,she gets a row,it takes just as long to ring the mistake back into the till so the company actually ends up losing more than the item cost in labour to make the mistake etc etc etc!!!
As the op pointed out above,there's been no problems so far,it's all getting sorted at a place they both agree on,they'll both be there to see the price so no-ones being hoodwinked ,bodyshop boys happy with the work so everyone wins.
Simples.

 

you should spill the beans on everything. Youre not in the business any more so you cant surely be under any confidentiality agreement. And even if you were it would be against a limited business that doesnt exist any more

 

How about getting your facts right before posting utter drivel?

 

Police have never been interested unless someone is hurt and if not, take no details and do t turn up.

Yes you should tell your insurance, but am sure it is noted as you being more likely/prone to be involved in an accident and so a higher risk.

As you are doing her a favor I would insist it goes to that bodyshop straight away, the work is quoted and if agreed, paid upfront to the garage on the day the car goes in.

 

Well you never know,maybe after a few beers one night I'll start typing !!! But you do need to be careful as our business name came up a few times regarding the fact we had a lot of breakdown/recovery work from a local accident management company who subsequently got investigated.
Nothing's ever come of it and in all honesty we lost more from the recovery work than we made,you can't frigg it either as we were vat registered and most companies pay via cheque so that keeps Cameron's "morally bankrupt " population at bay!!!
A lots been covered previously but tbh a lot of the shit,I'd say 90% is caused due to the utter despicable shithouse rats that are insurance companies which IMO are the biggest crooks of all.
They drag out paying,then pretend not too have received your invoice so try to start your payment again from scratch,the constant phone calls when you've got one of their clients cars,trying to get the excess twice,phoning at 8pm to ask if they can collect a car you've recovered just to save £20 on storage "the drivers on his way now"....course he is!!!
Naively,I once allowed one of them to take a car even though the cheque was written to the wrong firm as I spoke to someone who said they were writing the new cheque now to catch the last post....cheque arrived 3 months later with the name spelt deliberately wrong again just to avoid paying.
I caught one once trying to recover a car I'd put in the overspill carpark while we were working,he thought he was very clever until I politely pointed out that my breaker bar would connect with his head unless he put it back quickly complete with my cheque,which he didn't have as this was 7.30 am and he was due to collect the next day,clearly chancing his arm.
Came back three days later with a cheque for the original amount,told him to fuck off and come back with my 3 days extra storage,which he did in cash!!!
Tbh mate that's why so many firms quote double or treble for insurance work,think of it as an "inconvenience" payment because I can pretty much guarantee they will fuck the garage over in some way.
Sad fact is in any sort of business involved in the car game,particularly bodywork,is having to adapt,the work coming in off the street has slowed so much that the insurance companies offer so called bread and butter stuff that keeps your head above water,the thought of regular cheques is tempting yet the reality is your dealing with an industry that revels in taking so long to pay there's a good chance they'll never need too as you'll be bankrupt by then,that's from a good assessor I knew who's worked this game for 35 years.
Horrible game to be in,I still wake up sometimes in a cold sweat thinking I've forgotten to do something business related then I realise I never have to get stressed over it again.
Just glad I had something to fall back on as if that was my life for the next 30 years or more I'd be seriously considering doing a "reggie perrin".

 

Sort of sums up the whole situation in a couple of paragraphs!!!

 

I would not go outside insurance for a variety of reasons, including that the contract would be between the girl and the garage so any complaints about work, aftercare etc would not be something you could grumble about. Looks like she wants the work done cheap by a friend. No deal for me. Probably quite interesting questions here about the commercial nature of a contract where made at mates rates too but off topic really.

 

This was just copied from the Internet!!
Sometimes after a car accident both parties agree they would rather handle the financial issues themselves than contact their insurance companies. But, if you decide to make an agreement to receive a payment from the other person involved in the car accident or you agree to give them a payment instead of using your insurance company to handle the claim, you still need to file a crash report with the police. You don't know what the other person in the car accident will decide to do or say later. With a police report there will be a legally documented description of what occurred just in case something else come up from the car accident later.
So as far as my facts go these are not just my facts so suck a fart out of my arse! Prick.

 

As much as the website you pasted from has what I would regard as the right ideaI.eI.e having a paper trail, it is not a legal requirement nor would a single sided biased statement hold much water. Their use of the word need is self serving from a preservational stance, not a legally mandatory position.

 

The Internet only tells the truth. Yeah, of course it does.

Police will only ever get involved if there is personal injury or third party damage. If you report an accident to the police, they will ask if anyone is injured and if you swapped details. If that's all covered then they will tell you it's a civil matter and the police do not need to be involved. I have this first hand from when I've reported an accident.

 

So, you have copied & pasted from a website with no clue either? PS reported for the insult, enjoy your infraction

 

sounds true to me

although you do realise that issac seems to have read a book or 2 in regards to the law

 

The insurance company may insist you tell them of all accidents, even if it was sorted amicably totally outwith the insurance. And if you declare it, they WILL increase your premium, even if it wasnt your fault, even if the car was parked on the road and you were tucked up in the house watching the TV. You've had an accident/claim, that makes you more risky statistically than someone who hasnt.

However, if it was all done and sorted outside the insurance, they have NO record of the accident, so unless you go blabbing about it to them, they dont know, and will never know it happened.

 

My girlfriend reversed into my car once at about 5mph and took a bit of paint off my bumper.... does this mean i should have reported her and risked increasing both our premiums.... of course not!! I just got it repainted.

Thread starter - IMO she's hardly done any damage to your car... just do as others have said and get her to meet you at the bodyshop... when they quote you there and then just get her to hand over the cash there and then... all sorted!!

 

Exactly!!!
It's incredible how stupid some people are on here,it's like handing yourself into a police station because you did 34 in a 30.
Yes it maybe against the law but nobody got hurt,injured or out of pocket for it!!!
As for insurance companies upping premiums for non fault claims doesn't that sort of sum up why you only tell them if necessary,ie the other party won't admit liability etc.

 

Cheers for the constructive replies guys!

Well...I've had a few quotes, which is basically a fill/repair/paint the bumper, and I let her know this would be between £3-400 cash to be sorted.

Anyway she has now come back to me today and said, actually she wants to use the insurance, and can I use that garage we agree'd on, as she wants to get her car repaired too.

Now I reckon she is only Third Party, and wants me to use this garage so her mate that runs it can add her repairs onto my bill, paid for by her insurance (fraud?!)....which I am a bit pissed off about, cheeky bitch!.

Anyway, I'm happy enough to go through the insurance, but will use whichever garage I feel like, mind you they will probably write it off again anyway. (Due the fact it's already Cat C, and rather than fill/paint for cash, a new bumper, painted, with reverse sensors etc will probably soon add up). But she must be fucking stupid?! I'd rip someones arm off for a £3-400 cash deal to settle!!!

Her excess will probably be most of that amount, she'll lose all her NCBs (that she originally wanted to hold on to), and if she isn't FC then because of my insistance on using a garage closer to home, then she won't have her car repaired either?!

What is she thinking?! Ahwell....whatever I guess!

Bit of a bummer I'll now have two-non fault claims on my file, but still, shit happens.

 

if she goes through her insurance they will prob send an engineer to agree costs so her garage won't be able to add her repairs to the same bill.

who is the the repairer out of interest as i run a network of 170+ bodyshops accross the uk.

 

What a stupid girl to change her mind and go through the insurance.

Seeing as you were rear ended, haven't you got whiplash too?

 

what a donut why would u not just take 300-400 bill its gonna cost her a lot more than that in the long run.