Course of action in a small incident...

T

TwoWheels

Registered User
Messages
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My friend had a small incident recently,
She bumped into the back of a car that had stopped unexpectedly at a green light.
The female driver got out and after a brief look, said not to worry as there seemed to be no damage, and she was sorry for stopping so suddenly.
They exchanged phone numbers, no insurance details were swopped & the guards were not notified.
Later in the evening she got a call from the husband to say that she was not to worry, there may be about €100 costs in order to buff the rear bumper, & a quote would be sent, so my friend gave him her address to post the quote to.
A few days later she recieved a quote for a full replacement bumper costing €1,300 inc labour.
The car is an 8 year old car.

What way would you guy's handle this?
 
if you don't believe this person that this work was actually done,
then even paying you could be leaving yourself open to a claim against your insurance anyway, like a personal injury claim...

you could leave it go and see if they follow up on it or are chancing their arm with a mate in a garage.

if they follow it up:
I'd demand three comparable quotes from dealers on company paper, it is doubtful they have this. I'd expect each to give a breakdown of costs, parts, labour, vat etc.
I'd also want to see the repaired car and the old removed/damaged bumper to inspect level of damage and to see if there wasn't some preexisting damage you're not responsible for (know you're point of collision).
Check their invoice to see who did it, and if they're vat registered, and that it's a paid, ie an invoice and not a quote.

at some point you just have to be sick of this kind of thing.
obviously you have some duty to an injured party, but I don't see any problem with making things crystal clear when you're footing the bill. Getting a repair done without quotes, or without inspection to see preexisting damage is just not on.
After all this, for 1300E, you may want to put it through your insurance, as they might anyway, re a personal claim in a couple of years.
 
This work has not been done yet, She has recieved the quote for the work the other party is now saying needs to be done.

What if my friend was to refuse this quote & offer the original €100 as a gesture of goodwill & in no way admits liabiality...
 
if the work hasn't been done, I'd ask for three quotes, and an inspection of the damage, to see is there a need for replacement and was the need for replacement caused just by your friend. For cosmetic damage I'd suggest a repair, where there's multiple cosmetic damage offer a percentage, on proof of payment

if the quote is realistic, then I'd agree to pay it on completion of work.
ie: they don't take your 1300 and not do the work, becuase it was only a cosmetic scratch.

at this point I'd still consider going through the insurance, as 1300E damage and a few pains may equal a personal injury...
sad but often true.
 
i'd let my insurance company look into it for me if they operate a fast track system for claims - a little 'tip' costing €1300 is VERY steep. Most insurance co.s would give you the option of repaying them to protect yr NCB if the payout was small and they would get the vehicle assessed to protect your and their interests. The days of 3 quotes are long gone, damaged parties are entitled to get their vehicle repaired where they like, unfortunately.
 
I'm not trying to sound callous here but given that the gardai were not notified (and I presume no other witnesses were present or gave contact details) what is the obligation to pay anything? Could she not just refuse to pay? I'm pretty sure the insurance company wouldn't want to know about this if the gardai weren't involved?
 

At this point, these people have her address and phone number, it doesn't sound like they will "just go away" She could make out that she reported it and see what the response is. Or as suggested in my previous post, get her ins co in to sort it out. As advised by another postee, don't just pay these people, they could come back once a week looking for money!!
 
We had a similar incident a couple of years ago, car in front(BMW)broke suddenly, we bounced off his left hand side bumper and we ended up at an angle in a ditch. Fortunately we were going fairly slow for the road as it was busy.We called the emergency services and Guardai, neither of which turned up ( we waited an hour) The man in the car we clipped even helped drag our car out of the ditch along with several people who stopped. Phone numbers and Insurance were exchanged and the man even rang us that night to check we were ok and confirm there was no damage to his car that a bottle of T-cut would couldn't fix and he did not wish to claim. About a month later we got a questionaire from our insurance company advising he was seeking an unspecified amount. We rang them, explained what had happened and told them we had enough witnesses who could back us up. We have heard nothing since.

I agree that a person is entitled to have genuine damage paid for but this sounds a bit fishy to me, I would definitely inform the insurance company of exactly what happened and ask them to obtain a couple of quotes before paying out.
 
You have to inform your insurance company when you have an accident whether there is liability or not.
I would contact them as soon as possible in case this tunrs out to be a situation where their claim just gets bigger and bigger.
When a car reversed into us two years ago he offered to pay for the damage and we informed our insurance company what had happened and that he was going to pay.
When we went to our usualy garage he said it would cost 1000 euro, we told him the other person was paying for it and he was going through his insurance.
We informed him and he sent us a cheque.
We were ready to proceed with the job when my Brother in law thought the job did not merit a cost of 1000 euro so we went to the garage he uses instead and it cost 500 euro. We sent the guy who did the damage a cheque for 500. He was shocked to say the least.
Anyway my point it that if a garage finds out that an insurance company is paying for a job they may up the price so the people themselves may be getting a raw deal from their garage.
I would ask them to take their car to another garage, one specified by you, to get a quote to see if this is the case.
 
Ring you insurance company asap
tell them what you told us

Let them deal with the chancer
 
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