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What's the way to go about it?
Insurance details will be exchanged later.
Can I try and claim directly off the other drivers insurance or do I have to notify my insurance company and start the claim that way?
The other vehicle is only 3 years old and has more damage than mine.
I could repair mine with a second hand door and a couple of other bits I think.
I'd like to think the worst case scenario would be a 50:50 regarding the insurance liability and if I'm lucky, no blame on my side.
I'm just unsure on how to proceed at the mo, any advice?
TIA
you have to notify your insurance company
Start the claim via your insurance co.
Tell the 3rd party to inform their insurance co and that you're starting a claim - otherwise they'll be accused of fraud and not informing their insurance. That's how the sharks work, unfortunately.
You should inform your insurance company; they’ll certainly punish you if you don’t and they then find out, because you’ll be in breach of your contract.
However, it’s certainly not illegal to come to an arrangement without involvement of insurance companies; it can be a lot less stressful for all involved for a minor bump. You need to put some trust in the third party, but financially, it’s in neither parties interests to involve insurance companies for a matter of a few hundred quid.
However, if you’re thinking of claiming from their insurance without telling your company, it’s a massive gamble that they won’t tell your insurance anyway. They sometimes don’t, but their policy is to share that information.
Just tell your insurance company what happened, and who the other party is. They'll decide who (for their purposes) is to blame and will deal with the other insurers as necessary.
Whether you claim or not, you're still obliged to tell them you were involved in a collision.
Cheers folks, thought that might be the case.
I shall look forward to a bumped up premium next year 🙂
You need to inform your insurer but you don't need to persue a claim if you don't want to repair the car or are happy to do so out of your own pocket (e.g. damage is less than your policy excess or your cover is third-party only).
If the other party is liable, and their insurer agrees, you can claim directly. The third parties insurer often prefers this as they can control costs.
If there's a sniff of 50/50, and the other party goes via their insurance, their insurer will seek to recover their losses from your insurer.
Yeah, not sure about the blame thing yet but cheers TP, pretty sure they will try and claim off me but I will call my insurance and take it from there.
You have no relationship with the 3rd party insurers. You just give details of the incident to your insurance company and leave them to it.
Get your car checked out. Even "minor" damage to modern cars can be considerably more extensive than they appear. Your bumper, for instance, might look OK but be designed to bump once and be shattered inside.
Yep cheers, will speak with them in the morning and have a closer look at the damage