Insurance advice please

BlueyXR6 · 07-09-2011, 12:20 AM

Hello all,

On the weekend my wife was doing some last minute fathers day shopping only to come out to the car and find that some half wit scum sucking ( add lots of sware words ) has swiped the side of our car and you guessed it no details left!!! The damage is quite considerable rear door rear quater and the wheel, it looks as if they have not judged the turn correctly and just kept scraping along until the were out. My wife checked the car next to her but there was no damage to it so it obviously wasn't from that car.

Now for the twist, my wife was on her way home tonite from our daughters singging concert and a car has changed lanes and ran into the same side of our car as mentioned above!!! Everyone is ok and the damage isn't really that bad compared to the car park incident. The driver of the other car has admitted liability and they exchanged details.

So my question is would it be wrong of me to claim this as the one incident? Do they do checks on both cars to see if damage matches up? Both sets of damage are the same height and seem to be consistent to the damage you would expect when someone changes lanes into you. I have never had to claim on insurance before so I'm not sure of the checks they do, if any and what questions may arise if they dispute what damage has been done.

I'm not a dodgey person but I figure she will have to pay the same excess weather it's a small dent and scratch or damage all down the side of the car. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Cheers

hawker · 07-09-2011, 12:26 AM

It really comes down to morals. Yes, the idiot that drove off and didn't leave any details has no morals, but do you? Do you think it's fair for the person that hit you to pay for something they didn't really do. Even if they did make a mistake.

Of course it's wrong. I'd come clean. Because if you lie, it could come back to bite you in the **** - an Insurance company will do anything to get out of paying. Anything!

XR6Runner · 07-09-2011, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueyXR6

So my question is would it be wrong of me to claim this as the one incident?
Cheers

It would not be wrong, in my opinion. How much do you spend on insurance

If the aircon doesn't work, claim that as well, "Oh, my aircon stopped working after the accident too". Claim anything you can mate!

XR6Runner · 07-09-2011, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hawker

Do you think it's fair for the person that hit you to pay for something they didn't really do.

Unless he has no insurance, the bloke that hit him aint paying any extra for extra damage. All he does is pay his excess fee and that's it, insurance does the rest.

Yellow_Festiva · 07-09-2011, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR6Runner

Unless he has no insurance, the bloke that hit him aint paying any extra for extra damage. All he does is pay his excess fee and that's it, insurance does the rest.

Exactly. If the damage is in the same area, and the same work needs to roughly be done to repair the work then don't say anything IMO.

If you say anything, you may find your self in trouble at your end, as one of the questions asked during your quote is if the car has any unrepaired damage. (That is, if they have no insurance and you need to claim on yours only).

Either way, how would you honestly split who did what?

aussie muscle · 07-09-2011, 09:23 AM

kind of hard for them to repair 'some' of the damage. they'll have to fix it all anyway. you'll never get any money out of the mysterious stranger.

pottery beige · 07-09-2011, 09:44 AM

just beware this is a public forum and in a round about way you are possibly owning up to fraud....

mac_man_luke · 07-09-2011, 10:15 AM

with your number plate in your avatar...

JC · 07-09-2011, 12:01 PM

Ring your insurance company, and explain what is in your first post - they will then assess it knowing that 2 incidents contributed to the damage, and a good assessor may be able to split the damage, so at worst, they may split it into 2 claims - one for the identified driver's insurance to fix, and one for yours. But in reality, they probably won't be able to, so because you can identify one at fault party, their insurance will pay it.

Be honest, and the worst that can happen is that ypou have pay the excess you would have been up for anyway, at best, you won't.

xisled · 07-09-2011, 12:35 PM

You should make 2 claims. One for the first claim and then the 2nd for the accident. If you do lodge it as 1 claim and the insurance assesor can tell that there is old damage, they will make you lodge a second claim. The difference's in damages could be a fair bit also. If the other person does not have insurance they will be paying for more damage than they have caused.

BadMax · 07-09-2011, 08:31 PM

Chances are if you lodge a claim for the car park damage and then one for the lane change. Your insurance company will recover all the costs from the other party but still take your excess to reduce the total bill.
If the damage is in exactly the same spot it's pretty difficult to determine who did what.
BTW, you can try and claim all sorts of stuff as has been mentioned...but expect it all to be thrown out, not all assessors are stupid.

LTDHO · 08-09-2011, 08:22 AM

Amazing how people people put money infront of morels. That's the world we live in I suppose.
As BadMax said, the assessor will confirm if the damage is consistant with the accident you are claiming, should he note there to be two, you will be asked to lodge a second claim.
IMO, people like this should be charged with fraud!