Third party has gone into radio silence....

[markjay]

Crazyfool

Straight to your insurance company and let them sort it out

It’s what we all pay for ....

I agree, but only if he can't find-out who the other-party's insurer is.

If he knows who the other-party's insurer is, he will be better-off claiming directly off the other-party's policy and not involving his own insurer (other than notifying them of the incident as he is obliged to do anyway).

I have done that successfully on a number of occasions. I always insisted that my own insurer makes a not that this is 'notification only' and not a claim on my policy.

The reason you do not want your own insurer involved (if you can help it) in cases where it's the other-party's fault and they have accepted liability, is because once you involve your own insurer the matter is out of your hands and the result can be both unpredictable and undesirable.

I have seen cases when the own-insurer either accepted a completely illogical version of events provided by the other-party (having changed their story), or just agreed a knock-for-knock liability when there was no reason to do so, simply to cut-down on the amount of paperwork their end. And your insurer's decision is final and cannot be appealed against (other than, maybe, via the Ombudsman). Once this happens, you are slammed with excess, potentially also with additional penalty for using an MB dealer of your choice instead of the insurer's own repairer, and you may also be asked to pay for the rental car if you accepted one.

On the other hand, if you claim directly off the other-party's insurer, and they refuse to pay-out because their client changed his story, then you still have the option of either not repairing your car, or having it repaired cheaper at a local body shop instead of the dealer etc, without it having any impact on your own policy, other than the mandatory notification which - as said - you had to provide anyway.

But it will not affect your renewal premium, because the premium is only affected by actual claims (made against your own policy or the other-party's policy), but a notification-only of an event that did not lead to an insurance pay-out will not affect the renewal premium.

 

[markjay]

When we were in Israel for a week in March, someone grazed the CLS in the airport car park. Not fun to come back to. Repair cost was just under £1,100 with a specialist. Although it took some chasing due to Covidness, my insurers have coughed up and, in spite of NCD falling to just 2 years, my premium has only risen by £50.

All in all a real pain, but that's what insurance is there for.

Sorry to hear that. Was there no CCTV in the car park?

 

[markjay]

Had a similar situation with our old 2002 transit van.

Young lad in a BMW ran into back of it (in snow) while it was parked up. Dented in one of the doors and marked bumper.

Got a number and an email address from him and he said he would pay repair cost.
From memory I think the contact details he gave us at this point was his gilfriends.

After speaking with repair garage he arranged (think it was his dad) they explained they were just doing a cheap (favour) repair to keep cost down. We said no and at that point they stepped aside as did not want to be stuck in the middle.

We explained to the lad it needs a repair to as before condition, not a cheap fix and cost is not our concern.

He then went silent mode so we asked for his insurance details, again silence.

We spoke to the police (after our own insurer) and told them the details (we had pictures of incident/ a lot of damage to his BMW) and that he was refusing to give us the details.

Within less than a day the police rang back with his full name, address and insurance details.

Contacted his insurance company with all the info.
They were surprised as there was no incident on file (which he is obliged to inform them of I think).

They sent an assessor out, he had a look, asked us after discussion if we wanted to keep the van and arrange our own repair which we agreed to.
A few days later we received the agreed amount which I think was around £1100.

Silly by the lad as if he had worked with us he could have had a much better outcome.

In summary the police in Stirling were certainly prepared to get us his details as he was refusing.

This is precisely the scenario I was aiming to in my posts, and the outcome the OP should have.

 

[jdrrco]

Sorry to hear that. Was there no CCTV in the car park?

Not once the accident management company tried to get to see it, although when we booked the parking space there was....

 

[LTD]

Fair enough but, for me, life is too short and work too busy for me to be chasing around finding people when I/the OP has documented liability and I pay a premium to an insurer for them to do the chasing and repair at a garage of my choice.

It’s all just a question of balance ....

 

[pmcgsmurf]

This is precisely the scenario I was aiming to in my posts, and the outcome the OP should have.

Exactly, should be fairly straight forward.

 

[Crazyfool]

I managed to catch him out by phoning via the home line. He must have been driving at the time because although I could hear everything he said, the quality isn't amazing. anyhow, I kept him on loud speaker and recorded the conversation from my ipad. He's agreed to pay, so what with this and the text messages stored, I have a reason to pursue if he messes me around.

 

[ernie]

I managed to catch him out by phoning via the home line. He must have been driving at the time because although I could hear everything he said, the quality isn't amazing. anyhow, I kept him on loud speaker and recorded the conversation from my ipad. He's agreed to pay, so what with this and the text messages stored, I have a reason to pursue if he messes me around.

Well done! Its too easy to block callers you don't want nowadays, so well to keep a number up your sleeve for these occasions. I had a situation once (not car related) where I got what I wanted using my wife's phone.

Ernie

 

[Teego]

Well done! Its too easy to block callers you don't want nowadays, so well to keep a number up your sleeve for these occasions. I had a situation once (not car related) where I got what I wanted using my wife's phone.

Ernie

He was talking to you while driving and you recorded it. You nailed him.

 

[flowrider]

The police will not provide insurance details. Data protection and all that. Also, it's a damage only RTC with details exchanged (to whatever extent) therefore it is not a reportable/recorable accident. No police action required or taken. I doubt any Constabulary would even create an incident log.

My daughter was caught out on a supposed damage only RTC. The accident was her fault and the police called but as the 4 men in the other car and my daughter stated, at the scene, there were no injuries the police did not create a report and just left the scene. Later we found out that all 4 men in the other car claimed neck injuries from my daughters insurer who paid out!

 

[Crazyfool]

Sorry to hear that. Was there no CCTV in the car park?

No cctv unfortunately

 

[Dazsw]

Weirdly we had the opposite situation here.

My wife drove into the side of a car, damaging the wing mirror and door, agreed with the guy to pay and fix it, we chased them for months asking how much so we could pay then gave up.

About 6 months later had Police at the door as he had reported she left the scene of an accident, didn't give details etc.

Police were fine and we happily gave insurance details, he was trying to claim all sorts of injuries and stuff which where dodgy.

Insurance sorted it out, very annoyed at the time as we just couldn't understand it till we got wind of his claims for injuries.

 

[219]

He was talking to you while driving and you recorded it. You nailed him.

He may well have been hands free

 

[rOckyAMG]

If you have his registration you can get his insurer

 

[Crazyfool]

All sorted! I had the car repaired last week and he paid up.

Glad I managed to catch him out.

 

[Teego]

All sorted! I had the car repaired last week and he paid up.

Glad I managed to catch him out.

Result!