Rear ended today...

[SupaStu]

So driving home, waiting in a queue of cars, then bam, someone drives into the back of the Glanza.

Its a council van, she said she hit the gas instead of brake, totally her fault, and would need to go through the council insurance.

So I cant open the boot as the bumper and back boot frame is in a bit, some dents on the boot lid, and the bumper is pretty fucked.

I dont think my no claims are protected, so don't want to be out of pocket here, whats the best course of action?

Just call my insurers, tell them someone hit me, and ask them to go through her insurers and sort it out (hoping they dont just write the car off).

Any advise?

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Cheers

 

[Guye]

Is there a chance that they would write the car off?

 

[SupaStu]

Is there a chance that they would write the car off?

Always with these cars, especially rear end damage. Fucking ball ache, its going to cost me money either way.

 

[Guye]

Always with these cars, especially rear end damage. Fucking ball ache, its going to cost me money either way.

Darn bro! I can't advise as it's obviously different with insurance companies in the UK...all I know I'd rather see hell than to have my GT written off over a hit like that. I sincerely hope it works our for the best with you.

 

[dac69er]

Shouldn't cost you. If she was to blame it goes through her/council insurance. Worst case, it gets written off, you buy the car back for salvage and get it repaired with cash in your pocket. Or they pay for the repairs, job done.

you will not lose your ncb

 

[SupaStu]

Shouldn't cost you. If she was to blame it goes through her/council insurance. Worst case, it gets written off, you buy the car back for salvage and get it repaired with cash in your pocket. Or they pay for the repairs, job done.

you will not lose your ncb

Do I just call my insurer, and give them her council details etc and they take it from there?

I may start stripping some parts off and return to stock before then.

 

[AdamB]

Sorry to say mate but you prob will lose NCB and your premium will go up, even if its not your fault. I had the same thing near enough, wasn't my fault, lost NCB and my premium went up because "I'm more likely to have another accident".

Did you get the details of the person?
I would write a letter to the council with the persons name and just say you don't wanna go through insurance, if I get a quote would you be willing to accept away from insurance companies.

 

[Guye]

you will not lose your ncb

That's a big difference with the UK. Over here getting a car that was written off back on the road is a massive headache. According to what dac69er says you should be covered. Over here we are required to notify our insurance company even if not at fault and the two companies work it out for you. Not sure if it's the same there,

 

[SupaStu]

Sorry to say mate but you prob will lose NCB and your premium will go up, even if its not your fault. I had the same thing near enough, wasn't my fault, lost NCB and my premium went up because "I'm more likely to have another accident".

Did you get the details of the person?
I would write a letter to the council with the persons name and just say you don't wanna go through insurance, if I get a quote would you be willing to accept away from insurance companies.

Yep, I have her details etc, business card, her office building is next to mine.

Should I call my insurer tonight to let them know? Its Quinn Direct, I dont want to leave it too long.

I was chatting to a bodywork friend on mine, who said I need to speed to my insurer to get them to sort through the councils insurance, and he said that the option of buying back the car may have changed.

She said their council insurance have a workshop and they get stuff like this fixed all the time.

 

[SupaStu]

I've logged a call with my insurer, explained I wanted to know all the options before proceeding etc, so their claim manager will call me tomorrow and i'll see what he says.

I've checked it over, and it needs the following replaced/repaired:

New back bumper
New boot lid, or dents taken out at the bottom
New PANEL SUB-ASSY, BODY LOWER BACK, or pushed back out

I think I'll get a price for these tomorrow from Toyota as well, so at least I have relevant info for rebuild. Thats if you can still get body panels in stock.

 

[Jay]

That's not good..

I lost a GT to the same sort of impact ages ago so the system has probably changed since. Quinn Direct wrote the car off and recouped the costs from the other parties side. My insurance wasn't affected as it wasn't my fault. I also got first refusal on the car.

That being said the more recent break in of my auto would have messed up my NCB if I hadn't had it protected. That was Quinn Direct also.

 

[Jay]

Just found the parts quote for my GT :

Rear bumper £221.44, bootlid £175.12, rear panel £99.33, rear screen moulding £36.68. All plus VAT of course. With the paint and labour it was around £1800 IIRC.

 

[SupaStu]

Just found the parts quote for my GT :

Rear bumper £221.44, bootlid £175.12, rear panel £99.33, rear screen moulding £36.68. All plus VAT of course. With the paint and labour it was around £1800 IIRC.

Thanks Jay, Yep thats similar to mine, when you say first refusal, do they offer you the car back? How much would they normally let you have it for?

If I could buy it back, can I get it repaired myself, or is it then classed as totally written off, and you cant put it back on the road?

 

[dac69er]

It will only be a cat c. You can stick it back on the road even without repairing it. If its not your fault then you should not loose your ncb, i would dispute it if they try it on.

every case is slightly different, but if it goes through insurance its likely to be written off, but only as the cost of repair is over their percentage threshold of what they value it at. Will always be on its record that it was a write off so it will never be worth as much, even when repaired

 

[AdamB]

Yep, I have her details etc, business card, her office building is next to mine.

Should I call my insurer tonight to let them know? Its Quinn Direct, I dont want to leave it too long.

I was chatting to a bodywork friend on mine, who said I need to speed to my insurer to get them to sort through the councils insurance, and he said that the option of buying back the car may have changed.

She said their council insurance have a workshop and they get stuff like this fixed all the time.

I had done the same thing mate, I had logged it with my insurer, they sent out someone to assess the damage and give me a quote/write the car off. Low and behold they wanted to write the car off, but at the time since it was my only car I couldn't afford for them to write it off, so I didn't bother going through the insurance and yet the next renewal came, lost my NCB and my premium went up. This was just a dent in the rear quarter panel which most of it I managed to push out anyway.

 

[GT-TD04]

Don't know how it works in the UK but in Ireland you would tell your insurance company and they would follow hers for the costs. Your NCB should not be affected,if they did I'd fight it.

 

[Rev]

Another aspect of going it alone a friend had damage first went through his insurer had claim accepted then said he would arrange the repair himself, the insurer agreed as it saved them work but as soon as the other insurance company heard the owner was recovering the cost and arranging work for the car this insurance company said the accident was his fault and refused to pay.
( In the end it worked out ok as he had photos documentation eye witness accounts, he acussed the insurer of fraud and got the repair money )

 

[SupaStu]

Another aspect of going it alone a friend had damage first went through his insurer had claim accepted then said he would arrange the repair himself, the insurer agreed as it saved them work but as soon as the other insurance company heard the owner was recovering the cost and arranging work for the car this insurance company said the accident was his fault and refused to pay.
( In the end it worked out ok as he had photos documentation eye witness accounts, he acussed the insurer of fraud and got the repair money )

I'm waiting on the other insurer to send me an assessor, already spoken to my main mechanic and his bodyshop contacts, he reckons I should ask them for the cash and get it sorted myself. Either way, he said to challenge them on everything, and not to accept anything I dont like, including letting them take the car as they have no authorisation to do this unless I agree.

 

[Jay]

Yeah, take no BS mate, on the last attempted theft damage incident I got a few quotes of £1400 (window, steering lock, door, paint, etc). We agreed not to write the car off if I accepted a payment to get it sorted myself.

At this point they had their assessor look at it and tried hammering me down to £600 cash saying I could sort it for far less than the official repairers. Ended up meeting in the middle.

 

[Rev]

I had a similar rear end my assessor would not give his quote without the approved workshop dismantling to get an accurrate quote. They also look for evidence of previous damage and illegal repairs to try to right the car off or get out of some claim like Jay said it is about the money for them. Good luck with your claim.