Insurance Advice needed please - BSB Brands CarPark fiasco
 

Leaving Brands Yesterday in my wifes HR-V with her & 2 passengers
in the **** carpark (actually a field of mud) exodus
There were 3 lines of traffic trying to get into one queue
A guy in the line next to me on the right drove his car into my r/h turned front wheel in a effort to join the queue, he scrapped his front wheel arch and unclipped the spoiler at the front on his Fiesta
we exchanged tel numbers & addresses
there is no damage to Claires HR-V
there is a small 5mm blob of collection of his black paintwork on the alloy on our car
clearly showing we were staionary IMO

however he called this morning saying I drove into him

We called Claires insurance co. before this to inform them of the facts

What do you think ?

how does that work then ?

you pay for your damage and he pays for his.
and you both wish you never told the insurance company.
as you will both have it on you record for the next 3 years or so.
Not what you want to here but unless you or him have a independent witness
I cant see it going any other way.
Good luck though :confused:

he didnt have any witness as he didn't speak to anyone else, bugg*red off after giving me his details (Just him & his wife in the car
It was also pretty dark by then
(even gave me the wrong tel. number !)
I was in the car with Claire & our next door neighbours, James n Lucy (do they count as witnesses ?)

knock for knock
 

so as there is no damage to our car, how does that affect us ?
cheers

If I were you I would tell him you have witnesses and remind him that making a false claim and statement is fraud, which is not taken lightly by insurance companies. be interesting to hear the view of one of the police officers on the site here

unless the other bloke can prove it was 100% your fault (which sounds pretty unlikely), his insurance is almost certainly going to have to pay for his repairs, and his no claims will be affected (ignoring any protected no claims or similar).

If you do not claim from your insurance ,because there is no damage to your car ,there should be no cost to your insurer.

BUT... if the other bloke formally claims against you, the claim could still be held on the Insurance database and there is an argument that you would need to disclose it in future insurance applications. Just because there was no cost to YOUR insurer does not mean it was a nil cost incident, and it is doubtful whether you could call it a "100% Recovery" incident

Its a total pain in the @r5e, but I would be tempted to use the legal cover which, hopefully, you have with your policy to let the bloke's insurance know that you will strenuously deny any responsibility. If the other insurance company know:

a/ They are going to have to pay for his repairs anyway
b/ If they insist on a claim, its going to be refuted and may involve additional cost to them

They may suggest to their client that he's on a loser and he'd be best to drop the claim against you.

The fact you had witnesses in the car can't do any harm, but they will obviously not be viewed as being entirely neutral .

If you can get the bloke to drop the claim without going through the legal route, great. Otherwise I'd do the necessary admin to ensure you don't get an undeserved blot on your insurance record.

Sharpy,

You aren't going to want to hear this but it is now all too late.

If you don't have protected No Claims Bonus on the car you will be looking at a reduction of 2 or 3 years depending on who you insure with.

Th e reason being is you have made your insurance company aware of an "accident", in doing so they will have opened a "claim file", as soon as they do that your NCB is compromised and your clean record only reinstated by getting a 100% settlement, either financially or in yoir case in principal dissolving you of responsibility.

Keefer is right in that this looks like a classic "knock for knock" claim, further complicated by being on private ground with no obvious roadway or give way markings at the point of impact.

You will need to decare the incident in future insurance quote seven if your bonus is protected as 99% of insurnce companies ask "have you had any accidents, claims or losses in the last 'x' years ?"

You can only answer yes as you have had an accident, blame at that stage is irrelevent.

Even if he drops the claim, unlikely now as he has caled his insurer, your fate is already decided as soon as your insurance company were made aware.

Sorry to hear it though.

Pietro

thanks, it's Claire's insurance with me as a named driver, she has protected NCD
(she even works for the insurance company !)

you are right about the lack of markings ! apart from mud rutts !! LOL

I think he can go whistle IMHO

no damage to the HR-V

as far as I'm concerned he pushed into us, he damaged his car