Parking lot fender bender question
 

I put a small dent in a person's car in the parking lot last week I have liability only coverage. The estimate the people told me came out to 740. Would I be better off paying it out of pocket or going through insurance? This would be the first accident I ever had if that matters.

In my experience it never ends well handling it out of pocket. Are you also going to pay for a rental car for them why their car is in the shop? What if it gets into the shop and they discover more damage and needs more work? How do you know the estimate isn't inflated and the person has no intention of repairing?

I would contact your insurance company and ask them how/ if it would affect your rates ( they likely can't answer that question but cant hurt to try), but TBH thats a pretty small dollar amount to hurt to much, especially if you are a long time customer. Also by going through insurance it protects you from any personal liability.

You pay for insurance for this type of thing, my advice is use it.

I got into a small fender bender in Los Angeles (very light damage to her tail-light and no damage to my car) but the lady blind-sided me weeks later by suing me for $65,000 in a personal injury and lost wages law-suit. Pretty glad I had an insurance company to help me out. (They sent me a lawyer and we pretty much demolished that lady's case at an arbitration hearing.)

I wonder if by paying out of pocket and without the knowledge of your insurance company if something like a civil law-suit later on would still allow your insurance company to participate in your defense?

This kind of thing really varies state by state but it could. At the very least it could hamper your defense. If the vehicle is repaired and the damages not properly documented you have no way to prove the severity and likelihood on injury.

There was no injury it was a parked car. That it happened a week ago and wasn't reported to Insurance will that matter? I left my info and they got back to me tonight.

Doesn't matter. You can report it whenever.

Alright thanks guys! First time I've been in a situation like this!

Don't try to negotiate it yourself or admit anything or offer to pay anything. Dutch's concern is VERY well-founded. Report it to the insurance company and let them handle it and don't worry about it. It's what you've been paying them for all this time.

A couple of year's back I was pulling into a parking space, and the guy in the stall next to me backed and turned into me. I had actually stopped, trying to get onto the horn but he still hit me. He totally apologized and gave me all of his info.

Then when I called his insurance company they said he reported that I hit his parked car. At this point I'm fairly certain that the report was filed that way at the insurance company's suggestion. There was no damage to his car, so they absolutely avoided a claim.

I'm guessing since you left a note, there isn't much chance they'd buy that he ran into you.;)

I am going to come off as an apologist but this is utter hogwash.

No insurance company is going to steer their customer into lying or changing their story to get out of paying a claim. All those statements are recorded and if it was ever discovered someone was doing that sort of thing the fallout would be immense. It is amazingly unethical.

The guy changed his story plain and simple, and with no witness or camera footage, and I am guessing no police report since it was a parking lot, there is no reason not to believe his story. Unless there is evidence suggesting otherwise they have a duty to believe him.

When you work in insurance you see just how shitty people really are.

I was t boned in a grocery store parking lot. Dude was obviously at fault but didn't provide information at first. Then his story changed 2 or 3 times. Use your insurance... You never know what people will come up with. Hope you took ample amount of photos!!

Just to add another reason why it's worth it to protect yourself...what's stopping him from claiming he was sitting in the car waiting for someone, and his neck hurts?

Him and 3 of his friends. It's called a jump in, happens all the time.

Yep. Or his friends may influence him into changing his story. The lady in my case...there was suspicion that her friend was the driving force of the lawsuit.

I had someone give me an inflated quote once. Ended up reporting to insurance. Turns out the other person was at my insurance company at the same time. The adjuster looked at his car and determined damage to only be around $70. I was interviewed. Other driver was interviewed. Determined to be his fault. Obviously that doesn't seem to be the case here, but you also want to protect yourself from an inflated claim.

I turned it in to insurance, best to play it safe. Their tone changed a bit when they found it out and they said they were going to look into a more expensive estimate they had for a brand new bumper rather than repairing the small dent. So whatever it's better the insurance can hash that out.

When you say inflated claim do you mean estimate?

Aka they aren't fixing it probably

I think thats best. Let me know if you have any questions.

Their reaction makes me LOL, if anything the final amount will likely come out less, not including a rental car.

From my experience the 2nd accident is the one you don't want to have In relation to your rates.