Insurance and HPI Checks

[Topjacket]

Hi All
After 14 years of accident free driving I reversed out from my house and misjudged just how close my tosser of a neighbour had parked his car to the end of my driveway. I know I still shouldn’t have hit it but it does annoy me the fact that he parks opposite my drive so he can have his double driveway free from cars! I have dented his rear passenger door (09 VW Touran) and put a small mark and slight bend in my bumper.

He started out by saying that he had a quote and that it could be fixed for around £200. This sounded great as my excess is £750!! However, he has since come back and said that he wants a new door and that I should go through my insurance. These quotes are both from the same garage and I am starting to think he may know the owner and be looking to get the £200 job done and then split the winnings from the insurance company.

Rant over, on to my questions………

1. Does anyone know if he can insist on me going through my insurance? To my mind as long as it is fixed by an insurance approved garage, it’s none of his business how it’s paid for.

2. If I go through my insurance will this type of claim show up if someone does an HPI check?

Thanks in advance for any replies (unless its telling me that I should have paid more attention when reversing!! )

Jim

 

[Neily03]

1. Yes

2. No

 

[rossy t]

yes he can insist on insurance. and i expect he is on some backhander deal with his bodyshop. happens all the time. £300 damage is inflated to new door at a cost of £1000 all in. bodyshop guy repairs door, they split the difference. terrible business that.

in short no it won't show up on HPI check. im not sure what exactly you were getting at. HPI in this case for written off/damaged as opposed to stolen recovered only becomes a factor if either yours or his car is indeed written off. on an 09 touran with a value of over 10K they will authorise repairs on the door. on his car it is not a write off so won't show up on his car as such (why would you care anyway if its his car). as your car is exceptionally lightly damaged there is no chance of it going on the register anyway.

in this instance and i have done so in the past. propose to him that you will give him a sum of cash and then to go for the cheaper repair. as your excess is £750 and the initial repair estimate was £200 you could in theory give him £549 and still be quids in. also you have the knock on effect of it removing your no claims (if you had any) and even if they were protected it will be a black mark for a few years so the consequential losses could be quite high.

infact the door bill would be a maximum of £1000 so even if it went that way put all of this to your neighbour and say you would at all costs not get the insurance companies involved. if you have to pay £250 more than the excess you stand to lose considerably more over the next 3-5 years in insurance.

 

[Shaenei]

yes he can insist on insurance. and i expect he is on some backhander deal with his bodyshop. happens all the time. £300 damage is inflated to new door at a cost of £1000 all in. bodyshop guy repairs door, they split the difference. terrible business that.

Part of the reason why insurance is going up honest people get screwed by the crooks of this country

 

[Topjacket]

Cheers for the replies guys.

The reason I asked about the HPI is that I was wondering if I would get screwed twice, once on the excess and then again when I tried to sell my car and it gets flagged up as having insurance work done on it.

I have spoken to him about the cheaper option he originally suggested and he has now said he would now rather have a new door and go through my insurance. So I think someone has told him to do that. The thing that really pi55es me off is that I have called the VW stealers this morning and they would do the job for £1100 and I can't think anyone would charge more than them but "His Garage" have said the cost will be "Well into 4 figures"

I think I might give him 2 options and see what he says.

1. I pay for what needs to be done at a proper rate after getting another quote.

2. Go through my insurance but tell them that I think he's on the fiddle.

Cheers

Jim

 

[rossy t]

good course of action jim.

i understand his side of the argument. on an 09 essentially new car i would be pushing for a new door. i would not want my 18 months old car having filler in the door. it sounds like he has come to that decision either on his own or there is the more dodgy side of the coin. he doesn't care about the car and would rather pocket the difference from "his garage" and get them to do a repair on it pocketing the insurance money.

his garage would be in the s**t if they charged the insurance company for a new door then only did a repair, insurance company would not approve.

i would put it to him this way.

"it is my fault i crashed into your car and you should therefore have it back in the same condition. VW quote £1100 for the door, if it has to be a new one i will be happy to pay for a new one at VW" see what his response is. if he is adament that he is going to use his friends garage/go through insurance you can retort "ok we will go through insurance but i believe you are in cahoots with your garage on a backhander and as such i will inform my insurance company of this" it doesn't matter at this stage that that is a wildly inflammatory statement, it could be that he very much trusts this local bodyshop and it is his perogative where the car is repaired. but if it is going to have to go through the insurance you are screwed so might as well put it out there and see what he says. nothing to lose.

 

[Topjacket]

Thanks Rossy

I agree totally about the filler in the door and even though my car is a 2005 I would still push for the best fix possible it’s just the feeling that he is doing it for the cash that really pi55es me off.

The first night he came round and said about the £200 fix his kids were also there, one of them who looked about 8 asked me who was going to pay for the car to be fixed, when I said ‘me’, the little sh1t started jumping up and down shouting “we’re rich, we’re rich!!” (As I’ve written this I can’t actually believe how bad it sounds but that is honestly what happened). Last night the guy came round on his own and changed to saying he wanted a new door. I can’t think that a small kid would come out with something like that unless he had overheard his parents talking.

I just hope there is such thing as Karma!!

Thanks again

Jim

 

[rossy t]

one option is just give him £500 and tell him to forget all about it. i wonder if that car is on finance and he hasn't got a lot of money, loads of kids and just needs the cash.