Car Accident....

[wizard]

On sunday (14th) I was driving through a village near where I live and there was a car parked on my side of the road... I was doing the 30mph limit and another car was coming in the opposite direction, I braked and because the road was wet my brakes locke up and I ran into the other car. I looked at their damage and there was literally nothing wrong with it, only a scratch about as big as my thumbnail. This morning I got an invoice of �160 the repair this. This is disgraceful, anyone know what rights I have to surely get something that must be worth about �15 to get repaired?

[Pinotage]

Car repairs are expensive. I'm assuming you're dealing dircetly with this, rather than using your insurance company. I think your rights are to pay, to negotiate with the unfortunate whose car you hit or to leave it with your insurer. That last option will cost you much more.

.

You were driving too fast for the conditions and you hit a parked car. Things could have been a lot worse.

[woofgang]

sorry to be snotty but I agree with pinotage, take the lesson, pay up and be more careful next time

[Mortartube]

OTOH, if you could show that the parked car was left in such as a position as to cause restricted vision, or it was parked where it shouldn't be (double yellow lines etc), you could claim the driver of the parked vehicle was negligent and causing an obstruction.

[cupra]

And to add to pinotages reply, if you aren't going through your insurer you MUST still notify them that you have had an accident. If you don't, it may invalidate your cover.

[classy]

You could try offering to get it repaired for them if you know someone who would do a good job cheaper.

[Starsky]

Someone hit me from the rear in a queue of traffic. He probably only hit my car at 5mph and caused a smallish scratch. However, because it went through the paint into the plastic the repairer said it couldn't be filled and a new bumper (+ respray of course) was required. Total cost = �400. I think it's a rip-off but then, it wasn't my fault and why should I lose out when I come to sell the car? The point being - things aren't always what they seem. Also, as soon as someone knows you aren't going through the insurer they will try to rip you off.

[BenDToy]

You hit a parked car and it is only going to cost you �160 - consider yourself lucky and pay up. The other driver would have been perfectly within their rights to insist that you involve your insurance comapny and see what that would have cost you. BTW it is highly likley that the entire panel which is damaged will need repainting.

[5029]

The tiniest scratch can be expensive, a friend of mine was charged �140 to repair a bump that was invisible to the naked eye, and could only be felt. It was literally a centimetre long. I'm afraid that if you run into another car you have to pay the damage.

Good luck with it