manofstrad Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I got caught out in the snow last Friday and had to abandon my car in the Bents Green (NB safely/legally parked at the side of the road) area and walked home. Due to sheer laziness I didn't go to retrieve my car until yesterday. I found my car in a sorry state, the front end was bashed in and the rear offside wheel arch had a remarkable crease in it. Under the wiper blade was a hand written note: "Sorry, I hit your car as I slipped on the ice and as I tried to reverse I also skidded into the front". The person left their name and number for me to contact. I rang the number and they agreed to pay for the repairs rather than go through the insurance. Half of me felt good about someone being so honest, that I considered letting them off. The other half of me thought that they might have been eyeballed by someone, so they went for the honesty/sympathy trick. In the end it cost them a few hundred notes. What would you have done in their shoes, or indeed, in mine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygardener Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Yes it is, good on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam4037 Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Possibly split the costs 50/50. Real good neighbour to own up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 They have a way around the problem here. No garage can work on a car without having seen the registration document and checked the details of the vehicle against a central file. So when you first take a car into a garage, they set up a file on the vehicle. If you take a vehicle with apparent acident damage into a garage, the garage may not work on it until they have seen your copy of the accident report you provided to the police. If there is no accident report (and you can't provide a convincing explanation of the damage), they will report the damage to your vhicle to the police. The police will require you to provide an explanation of the damage. What that means is if you bang into somebody's car in a Supermarket car park (and the StVO [Road Traffic Act] applies in car parks as well as on the road) you'd better leave a note for the owner of the car and report the damage to the police. They will check your insurance, confirm that the owner knows about the damage and then give you a copy of the report so you can get your car fixed. If you don't do that and you try to get your car fixed, life will become tedious. if the police catch you driving around in a car which has been damaged and you can't provide a copy of the accident report, life will become very tedious indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manofstrad Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 Possibly split the costs 50/50. Real good neighbour to own up. That's interesting Sam as that was my first reaction. My second reaction was why should I pay half to the damages caused by someone twarting my car. I have restled with my conscience over my final decission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manofstrad Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 They have a way around the problem here. No garage can work on a car without having seen the registration document and checked the details of the vehicle against a central file. So when you first take a car into a garage, they set up a file on the vehicle. If you take a vehicle with apparent acident damage into a garage, the garage may not work on it until they have seen your copy of the accident report you provided to the police. If there is no accident report (and you can't provide a convincing explanation of the damage), they will report the damage to your vhicle to the police. The police will require you to provide an explanation of the damage. What that means is if you bang into somebody's car in a Supermarket car park (and the StVO [Road Traffic Act] applies in car parks as well as on the road) you'd better leave a note for the owner of the car and report the damage to the police. They will check your insurance, confirm that the owner knows about the damage and then give you a copy of the report so you can get your car fixed. If you don't do that and you try to get your car fixed, life will become tedious. if the police catch you driving around in a car which has been damaged and you can't provide a copy of the accident report, life will become very tedious indeed. I hear you. So I did the right thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andygardener Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 They have a way around the problem here. No garage can work on a car without having seen the registration document and checked the details of the vehicle against a central file. So when you first take a car into a garage, they set up a file on the vehicle. If you take a vehicle with apparent acident damage into a garage, the garage may not work on it until they have seen your copy of the accident report you provided to the police. If there is no accident report (and you can't provide a convincing explanation of the damage), they will report the damage to your vhicle to the police. The police will require you to provide an explanation of the damage. What that means is if you bang into somebody's car in a Supermarket car park (and the StVO [Road Traffic Act] applies in car parks as well as on the road) you'd better leave a note for the owner of the car and report the damage to the police. They will check your insurance, confirm that the owner knows about the damage and then give you a copy of the report so you can get your car fixed. If you don't do that and you try to get your car fixed, life will become tedious. if the police catch you driving around in a car which has been damaged and you can't provide a copy of the accident report, life will become very tedious indeed. I likey! Why haven't we got that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manofstrad Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 Possibly split the costs 50/50. Real good neighbour to own up. They wern't my neighbours. They were just strangers who lost control of their vehicle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I hear you. So I did the right thing? I thought you were on the receiving end? If you were here and you'd caused the damage, then leaving a note with your contact details (and informing the police) would've been the only viable thing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mart Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 They were probably decent, and you are probably decent too, otherwise you would probably feel no guilt. What would i do in your situation? If it was a newish car i would want it put right really, but probably try to keep the the repair cost down for the other person. If it was quite an old car i would probably let the person off totally for being honest. Maybe a compromise would be to some how show respect in some way for the person`s honesty-not sure how though. Maybe the person is driving without insurance (and was seen as as been said). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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