Car backed into.....what's next?

[eblend]

Hi Guys,

First time in an accident...if you want to call it that. Lady backed into the side of my car as it was parked at my friends place. I just left and not even 30 seconds later got a call from the friend, the neighbor dropped by to tell them they backed into my car. I didn't even realize, but when I looked, the whole driver door is fked, including the side mirror.

Anyways, I got pictures of all of her insurance slips, drivers license, and even registration, and both her cell and home phone numbers, and know exactly where she lives. She was apologetic and kept saying sorry and all that. So my question is this, I have never had to deal with this before, so what are my next steps?

Do I call her insurance company, or mine...or do I go to the body shop and get an estimate and bring it to her? I need the car daily for work, so I will need a rental car as well. She is GDL, so my bet is she may want to pay cash...Just want to see how is best to deal with this situation. It happened about 2 minutes before I was to leave to go home....talk about bad luck.

[Thaco]

first step is file a report witht he cops, body shop wont touch it without a police damage sticker

next get a couple quotes, then ask her if she wants to deal or go through insurance

if insurance, call your insurance, they'll guide you and they will contact her insurance.

[FraserB]

Get a police report and call your insurance with all her info.

Not worth the hassle and BS to not involve them. The fact she has a GDL license has no bearing on the matter.

[lilmira]

Did you take picture of her?

[max_boost]

FB link?

[ExtraSlow]

Cops for damage sticker, then your own insurance. If it's possible, it's actually helpful to have both parties go to the cop shop at the same time to fill out incident reports.

[eblend]

Originally posted by FraserB
Get a police report and call your insurance with all her info.

Not worth the hassle and BS to not involve them. The fact she has a GDL license has no bearing on the matter.

Would getting into an accident with GDL completely screw her over?

She seems like a nice enough lady, and apologized many time, so I don't want to do her more damage than it's already going to cost her. I just want the matter dealt with and be back on the road (not that i can't drive now, but looks ghetto with the front door all bent in, mirror pointing up..

[Amysicle]

.

[Kloubek]

Her license won't be affected. Her insurance is going to go through the roof. It's probably already high if she is GDL.

So, good on you for not making her life more miserable.

Here's what you do. Yes, report it to the cops. That doesn't involve insurance and she is still a-ok. But this way, you have a registered record.

Then go to her with a document which states a brief but accurate account of what occurred, and that she agrees to be 100% responsible for any and all damages pertaining to this incident, as well as your rental for the duration required. This is all very important. Even the seemingly nicest people can walk away if they think they can get away with this. Get a signature from her, and a witness if you can just to be safe.

Then take it to a couple of body shops. The document basically says she is responsible, so no need to cheap out. Get it fixed right. The document should make mention of how long she has to pay after the fixing. Make it short... no more than a week.

[FraserB]

If it was a scratch or some minor bumper damage, not going through insurance would be fine. This is decent damage and you're going to be in a rental for a bit and no telling if there is damage underneath, offering her the chance to leave insurance out of it will only result in headaches for you.

There is no upside to keeping this out of insurance.

If you do let her pay, get all the money for the initial rental and initial quote upfront and in cash, you choose the body shop and rental, not her. A 48 hour deadline for that payment would be fine, plenty of time to get to a bank. Have hwr sign something that she is responsible for any found damage and if the rental goes longer.

[Kloubek]

Originally posted by FraserB
There is no upside to keeping this out of insurance.

The upside is he helps someone out. Big time.

If you were the one hitting someone, and would pay thousands more per year because of it, wouldn't you be grateful someone went out of their way to do this for you? And really, he's barely going out of his way to begin with. He's just doing someone a solid. I hope she's cute.

I'm totally all for protecting himself. You never know what idiots might take advantage of someone's kindness. But to just close it off due to a *potential* headache is a little selfish, imo.

[SportEL]

Do you have collision coverage? If not, your insurance won't help you. You'll have to do the legwork yourself and call her insurance company.

[CompletelyNumb]

Originally posted by Thaco
first step is file a report witht he cops, body shop wont touch it without a police damage sticker

next get a couple quotes, then ask her if she wants to deal or go through insurance

if insurance, call your insurance, they'll guide you and they will contact her insurance.

Just do this, in this order.

[J-hop]

I would probably contact insurance before taking it for quotes. If it ends up she wants to go through insurance your insurance company is going to wonder why you didn't contact them right away to inform them. I had to do this for a not at fault accident that did not go through insurance. They took the police report number and a brief statement in case they needed to go after the other persons insurance company.

Not sure if it's a law in Alberta but supposedly you are required to report any accident that requires a police report (total of $2000 or more combined damage and/or involves injury) to your insurance company.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by J-hop
I would probably contact insurance before taking it for quotes. If it ends up she wants to go through insurance your insurance company is going to wonder why you didn't contact them right away to inform them. I had to do this for a not at fault accident that did not go through insurance. They took the police report number and a brief statement in case they needed to go after the other persons insurance company.

Not sure if it's a law in Alberta but supposedly you are required to report any accident that requires a police report (total of $2000 or more combined damage and/or involves injury) to your insurance company.

insurance knows people deal without them, not like they're gonna blackball you for it...i am sure they encourage it, they keep collecting your free money, you do all the work.... (they do want to know about it, but they dont care if you use insurance for it)

[schurchill39]

I know you want to do this lady a solid, and I commend you for it, but I think you're in for a headache. I've dealt with similar situations in the past and things turn ugly real quick once you present them with the costs associated with their mistake (damage repair + rental). She is going to start questioning the quote saying its way to high etc.

Unless she has cash she is willing to hand over the second you give her a quote, save yourselves the hassle and just go through insurance.

[NoPulp]

I'm assuming this person is younger? To me that looks like more damage than they're going to be able to pay out of pocket. If they are young going through insurance will really screw things up for them, so if you want to be nice get the quote and give them the opportunity to not got through insurance. Just make sure to protect yourself as suggested by other members.

I had a friend in high-school that backed into a person. All they had was a broken taillight, my friend told them he'd pay cash for it. The jerks went through insurance with some crazy ass quote and really fucked his insurance.

[OPGForce]

Originally posted by schurchill39
I know you want to do this lady a solid, and I commend you for it, but I think you're in for a headache. I've dealt with similar situations in the past and things turn ugly real quick once you present them with the costs associated with their mistake (damage repair + rental). She is going to start questioning the quote saying its way to high etc.

Unless she has cash she is willing to hand over the second you give her a quote, save yourselves the hassle and just go through insurance.

+ 1

This is a wise piece of advice. People always freak out when they see the quote.

[eblend]

Thanks for all the information guys. I got a police appointment (you can make those...who knew!) today at 3:30, gonna get that taken care of and go from there. Thanks for all the heads up, very valuable info.

The lady is in her 40s, so not like I am trying to hook up or anything, just trying to be a nice guy, but if they cross me, then f them. If I was in this situation I would like to have the opportunity to correct it.

[Calgaryscot]

Don't even consider not going through insurance, you can get her to sign documents all day long and all that does is turns this into a civil agreement between you both. If she she then disagrees with anything, it's on you to head off to court to start a painful process.