Car Smashed | GTAMotorcycle.com

Car Smashed

KawasakiGal

KawasakiGal

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Need Advice

Our seemingly nice neighbour smacked into my car when coming down the shared drive in September( I was parked on the street across the road), he failed to navigate correctly and didnt turn the wheel and went straight into my rear bumper. I was going through a move and other things, and we agreed to settle privately as he did not want to go through insurance, quote for repair was 1200.00.

After presenting the quote he gave me three options:
1. Repair the car at his shop - keep in mind a buddy of his, I cant even make out the shop name because the whole business card is in Chinese, I do not know the quality of work of this shop etc and do not want to trust it.
2. Pay me 500.00 cash (less then half the cost of the repair)
3. Go through insurance

He is still completely admitting full fault, I left frusturated (as he kept saying sorry, and I said well I dont think its fair that the only option is to take it to the shop that you trust when your the one that made the mistake and smashed into my car in the first place!)and took his insurance. I have pictures of his car as well that is still damaged.

Will I have issues with my insurance company, being that I thought it would be repaired out of pocket by him?

Also lesson learned: never trust that people will actually pay!

Any help is appreciated.

Jenn
 
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CAll your insurer and explain the situation to them exactly as you have here. You legally have 1 year from the date of the accident to make a claim for damages in Ontario. They will take his insurance info, call his insurer and confirm that he has a valid policy and that he is at fault. You will not have to pay your deductible and it will not affect your rates or policy. It will be listed as an At fault accident on his record whether he chooses to claim for his own damages or not.
You are in the driver's seat. DON'T get pressured to go to a place that you don't trust!
 
KawasakiGal said:
Need Advice

Our seemingly nice neighbour smacked into my car when coming down the shared drive in September( I was parked on the street across the road), he failed to navigate correctly and didnt turn the wheel and went straight into my rear bumper. I was going through a move and other things, and we agreed to settle privately as he did not want to go through insurance, quote for repair was 1200.00.

After presenting the quote he gave me three options:
1. Repair the car at his shop - keep in mind a buddy of his, I cant even make out the shop name because the whole business card is in Chinese, I do not know the quality of work of this shop etc and do not want to trust it.
2. Pay me 500.00 cash (less then half the cost of the repair)
3. Go through insurance

He is still completely admitting full fault, I left frusturated (as he kept saying sorry, and I said well I dont think its fair that the only option is to take it to the shop that you trust when your the one that made the mistake and smashed into my car in the first place!)and took his insurance. I have pictures of his car as well that is still damaged.

Will I have issues with my insurance company, being that I thought it would be repaired out of pocket by him?

Also lesson learned: never trust that people will actually pay!

Any help is appreciated.

Jenn
Click to expand...

This is entirely a convenience decision, there is nothing "wrong" with any of those options.
 
caboose483 said:
**** him.

Go through his insurance.

Rule #1, you're #1.
Click to expand...

True that!!

I've been down that road already.
Wasting my time, when its not even my fault. The person at fault should be the one inconvenienced, not the one receiving it in the pooper
 
Plus, there is also the cost of a rental veh for the few days that your car will be in the shop. I'm sure that your neighbour is not willing to pay for that. It sounds like you've given him a chance to protect his own record and he is screwing around. I agree with the above posts.......look out for #1 first
 
If this ever happened to me I would give that person the opportunity to pay themselves. However I would also collect their insurance info upfront and make them aware that if they don't pay in a timely fashion I will go through their insurance.

- You hit my car
- I'm doing you a favour by giving you a chance to pay
- The car would not be going to a body shop of his choosing (unless it's a legit, well known body shop.. then maybe..)
- If that is some how unsatisfactory I'm sure the police can help.
- I get estimate, you give me $ or I go through your insurance.
 
I went through a similar situation when a guy hit me in a parking lot by backing up into my car. Originally we agreed cash, then I showed him the quote from 2 different shops and when he saw it he told me to go through insurance. When I contacted the police they said I would be classified at fault (who BACKS UP into someone anyway!?) that I would be lucky to get anything out of him.
I told him that yes we'll go through insurance and he immediately changed his mind.
You did nothing wrong in this situation and do not let him bully you into paying you less, or not at all.
I would just tell him outright that you're going to insurance. He will most likely change his tune and pay up because if he's playing these types of games he may already have a bad record.
 
caboose483 said:
If this ever happened to me I would give that person the opportunity to pay themselves. However I would also collect their insurance info upfront and make them aware that if they don't pay in a timely fashion I will go through their insurance.

- You hit my car
- I'm doing you a favour by giving you a chance to pay
- The car would not be going to a body shop of his choosing (unless it's a legit, well known body shop.. then maybe..)
- If that is some how unsatisfactory I'm sure the police can help.
- I get estimate, you give me $ or I go through your insurance.
Click to expand...

I remember when a guy slammed into my trunk he offered to pay. Being the nice guy I was, I negotiated with him. After leading me around in circles and telling me the damage was just $300, I just report it to insurance.

I got a rental while my car was in the shop. So convenient
 
I had someone hit me. He didn't want to go through insurance.
Went to the reporting station and filed a report.
Then spent my time and money running around getting 3 quotes.
He thought that they were high and had "some guy" who would do it.

I gave him about a month to come up with the cash, before I went through insurance.
I did make the mistake of going through a company "approved" through the insurer.
Basically that just means that an appraiser doesn't have to come out and look at the vehicle before work is started.
They did less work, took three or four weeks and charged more than my second quote. The rental minivan cost a small fortune.
 
RockerGuy said:
I remember when a guy slammed into my trunk he offered to pay. Being the nice guy I was, I negotiated with him. After leading me around in circles and telling me the damage was just $300, I just report it to insurance.

I got a rental while my car was in the shop. So convenient
Click to expand...

Everyone thinks that they can replace a bumper for $300 lol
 
I've been in this mess, with 2 kids driving my cars and my own challenges.

Dont get bullied, nor waste a bunch of time letting him present endless options. You have a price to fix the vehicle, he can payup or his insurance can.
Call your insurance provider and let them know what happened as you have written above. Tell the other driver its going through insurance, he may change his tune pretty fast and want to settle, you've given him opportunity to do the right thing, he declined to make good on the total value of the repair.

This is why you pay insurance, let them fix this for you.

Good luck Jenn, car body repair is such a PITA
 
I had an incident last year where I was at fault. I didn't want to go through insurance.
I got one quote from a shop I know (a national chain) the owners. We agreed they car would get fixed for that price and we both left the shop. After I leave, the lady comes back and starts to ask the shop about quotes for rust repair while they fixed the damage, they told her that her car wasn't worth it.
Then, her husband takes it to another shop in their town a few hours away. Quote was DOUBLE the original.
I had the cash, and with past experience as a body mechanic I knew roughly what the damages were.

I did end up paying her, without going through insurance. However, I paid full, in cash to the shop we agreed on. She got a rental out of me as well as it's all fair. I didn't give her the head ache your neighbour is, and I certainly didn't try to pay half the cost...

I'm glad someone gave me the chance, but I also held up my end of the deal
 
The guy should pay everything you ask plus buy you roses every month out of gratitude. If he's trying to squeeze you for even more than you're already giving, then **** him as everyone has said.
 
Thanks guys! He's been a good neighbor and I was trying to save him money in the long run with his rate increase and to keep things amicable, but it just hasnt turned out!

Jenn
 
OpenGambit said:
This is entirely a convenience decision, there is nothing "wrong" with any of those options.
Click to expand...

Nothing "wrong", but choice 1 and 2 just plain suck. What if his body shop does shoddy work? Then who pays for the further repair?

I would tell him that you bring it to the shop of YOUR choice, not HIS, otherwise............

Number 3 is the correct answer.
 
fastar1 said:
The guy should pay everything you ask plus buy you roses every month out of gratitude. If he's trying to squeeze you for even more than you're already giving, then **** him as everyone has said.
Click to expand...

Actually I was too harsh, nd OpenGambit is right. If avoiding a premium increase isn't worth more than $500 to him, then it wouldn't make sense for him to offer more. It also wouldn't make sense for him to make the decision on behalf of KawiGal. The fact that it's kind of a no-brainer lowball offer shouldn't be seen as offensive, it's just business.

Same outcome either way, take it to your insurance.
 
He offered an insurance settlement, if the other options dont add up to the value of using insurance for you, take option #3. It will probably be less painful in the long run.
 
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