Crash bang wollop!! Advice please

[Stonefish]

Hello,

I was waiting at some traffic lights on my way home when a minibus drove into the back of me. Doesn't look too major from the first inspection, but this my first accident so I don't really know what to I should do. I took some pictures of the accident and have got the details of the driver and the company he works for. I've done some reading on the internet and get conflicting info. As the accident was not my fault.

1) Do I need to contact the police?
2) Do I need to contact my insurance company? I've read even though its not my fault my next premium will go up as I've made a claim even if my insurance company gets the money back from the other insurance company!

If it does affect my premium I wonder if its worth claiming at all as it would be easier to get a secondhand rear bumper and replace it without all the hassle and cr*p

Cheers,

Lee.

 

[t8ups]

Hi Lee.

If its a none fault your premium will not be affected, call yours and make them aware and give them details as you need to go through them to start getting your car sorted, you will need to pay the excess and that will be returned once your insurance has made a claim from the 3rd party.

no need to tell the police as long as no one was injured.

Trups

 

[Zobware]

You should contact your insurance company, the premium might go up a little but you will get a proper job done by the garage. When I recently made a claim that was not my fault (hit in car park) my premium went up by less than £2 for the year I did have protected NCD though.

 

[A4B8Sline]

Sorry to hear of the bump.

100% tell your insurance. You car will be repaired and assessed by your insurer and once settled they will claim off the 3rd party.

 

[skyinsurance]

This is spot on - I wouldn't worry about your own insurance if the incident was clearly the fault of the third party. I'm sure the third party will be thrilled if you fixed privately as they will have the same concerns outlined in your original message but you shouldn't have any concerns contacting your insurer if this would be your preference.

Best Wishes
Chris - Sky

Hi Lee.

If its a none fault your premium will not be affected, call yours and make them aware and give them details as you need to go through them to start getting your car sorted, you will need to pay the excess and that will be returned once your insurance has made a claim from the 3rd party.

no need to tell the police as long as no one was injured.

Trups

 

[A4 Matt]

Do you have the Audi Ensurance scheme!?, If so call them 1st and they'll deal with it all for ya!

As for having to pay excess then that depends on your insurer, mine stated that if liability was admitted by the other guys insurers (which it was ) that the excess would be waved!

Either way deffo tell your insurance and get the car repaired properly, you'll never be happy with a 2nd best repair, you'll want it right!

Other than that, don't worry - he hit you from behind, that's no fault of yours, all the blame lies on him, either he wasn't paying attention or he didn't leave enough room to stop safely, both his fault!

 

[50k]

You do not even need to contact your own insurer mate, get his details and ring them up yourself, and let them do all the donkey work.
They will be more than happy to help as they do not like people going to accident management companies who charge the insurers a hefty amount for hire cars etc..

or

best way for all would be to get an estimate and get him to pay for it! simples...

 

[Mike_B]

Speak to your insurers (or the broker, if you went thro an intermediary). I've had a similar situation recently - as I have un-insured loss recovery cover, I was put in touch with the claims handler company who dealt with the third party insurers, arranged for repairs and of course also arranged a suitable hire-car for the week I was without the Audi. I could of course also have used my own fully-comp cover, but in this instance there was no need to.

 

[Benno 69]

May be worth you insisting it's repaired through the Audi network as any repair to a panel that hasn't been done through the audi network and therefore isn't logged on the system appears to invalidate any future warranty claims on that panel. I've just had a claim turned down because the paint thickness was above factory tolerances and therefore it has had a repair prior to me purchasing through the Approved Used Scheme. If they replace the bumper and then blend in the adjoining panels it will affect them also.

 

[Stonefish]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I decided to go to a good local repairer got a quote and the owner of the minibus company has agreed to pay for the work. Bit of a kop out on my part, but the bumper cover took the brunt of the collision so should be an easy repair.