Joined Mar 2014
L7: Teacher
Forum Thread
Responsible party pays for accident...
April 12, 2018 at
09:44 AM
in
Autos
Involved in a fender-bender where my parked car was hit by another person's work truck. They want to pay all the costs (i.e. bypass insurance) and the preliminary estimate is 3K. Probably will be more. Other party has yet to balk. I am arranging for a rental car on my own which they say they'll reimburse, but I'm trying to think what can possibly go wrong here and my anxiety is mounting with the $ involved.
My brain says:
- They stiff me on the repair work or refuse to repair with OEM parts.
- They stiff me on the rental car
- Body shop cuts corners with repair based on pressure from responsible party.
Anything else I haven't thought of? I can't afford to pay this out of pocket and get "paid back" later, which would be ideal since I'm paying the body shop. If it's someone else that is paying, there is less incentive for them to deal directly with me although I own the car.
My brain says:
- They stiff me on the repair work or refuse to repair with OEM parts.
- They stiff me on the rental car
- Body shop cuts corners with repair based on pressure from responsible party.
Anything else I haven't thought of? I can't afford to pay this out of pocket and get "paid back" later, which would be ideal since I'm paying the body shop. If it's someone else that is paying, there is less incentive for them to deal directly with me although I own the car.
21 Comments
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Those tiny particles of dust could stick on some California peplekind to cause skin cancer.
List the date, time and location of the accident and vehicles involved. Have the owner sign the agreement and you sign it to.
The plus side if the damage is all cosmetic is that it will not show up on a Carfax and so you car will not take a hit when it comes time to be traded/sold. The big thing now is to use a minor accident as leverage to claim the car has diminished value.
Don't sweat it the guy probably has several vehicles covered under his insurance and knows they will raise his rates for several years and he is saving $$ by not going thru insurance. Did the accident take place on private property?
The only time it's worth it is if it's a major accident (the OP said the damage is only a few thousand), or the car is new or the car is a high end car. Otherwise you're looking at $7.32 in DV, after a week of yelling at the insurance company.