Legal technicalities of an accident

[Feasty]

My missus backed our car into a low column of bricks on someones driveway whilst doing a 3 point turn on a narrow road. She was quite cut up about it due to other stuff going on aswell today, she stopped and spoke to the house owners - an old couple - apologising etc and offering to pay for it to be rebuilt. In spite of this they gave her no end of earache and wittering about it having only recently been built, why didn't she turn round somewhere else, why she didn't see it etc, etc. All partially valid points, but not really necessary to shove down a womans throat when she's on her own and you can she she's already on the verge of tears. Plus she didn't have a choice since there was a tractor blocking her way that then drove off shortly after this happened.

I'll be dropping by later to take some pic's and give them a piece of my mind about their unneccesary behaviour. I'm also trying to work out how we stand legally, could they claim the damage off our car insurance?
At the moment we've left it that they'll get a quote and let us know how much it's going to cost and we'll just give them the cash in return for a receipt. However if they come up with a ridiculously high quote, I'm wondering what steps to take thereafter...
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Previous: Aprilia Habana Retro 50cc (beauty), Yamaha SR125 (fell apart), Honda XR125 (nippy little commuter), Honda SLR650 (Geewhizz), Yamaha Diversion 900S (Smoooooth) written off courtesy of a stupid escaped horse.
(7 year gap), BMW F650 (Relaxing ride). Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 (Big and bold). Yamaha FZS600 (got me in trouble too quick!).
Current: Yamaha TDM 900 (Comfy, light but big, power when needed).

[Phoenix]

They're entitled to claim off your car insurance, that's what it's for. Maybe they went over the top to your girlfriend, maybe they didn't and she's exaggerating, people do that. Going round and giving them an earful isn't going to make things go any smoother is it, you'd no doubt have a few things to say if someone doing a u-turn in your road managed to demolish your wall. At the end of the day your girlfriend reversed into a wall, not the wall's fault, so take the blame, pay up via cash or insurance and leave it.

[map]

[arry]

Third Party Property Damage is covered under your motor policy.

Likelihood is they'll claim off their home insurance, who will then in turn want to subrogate their losses from your motor insurers. This will result in a loss of NCD.

To avoid them doing this, I'd go round and be very humble about it all rather than giving them another excuse to go the "no hassle" route for them which is just letting their insurer do all the work - so whilst you're on the back foot, it's a good idea to stay civil

[Feasty]

[Bikeless]

Old people can be like that,to them it's like someone taking a hammer to your bike,they have every right to be peeved,i personally would find a builder myself and pay him to do the work so you don't get ripped off or your NCD lost.A low wall shouldn't cost too much.

[JonB]

[Feasty]

[Bikeless]

I think i would be more worried that you think women don't exaggerate,

[Feasty]

[pa_broon74]

Mmm...

having been in a similar situation, I know how you feel. You've already admitted liability, offered to pay and apologised and still the old gits bang on and on and on. It's like they're not really interested in having it repaired, just in having a bloody good moan about it.

I reversed into an old guys car in heavy snow, I'd stopped because there was a bank of snow about 3 feet high across the road, I checked my mirrors, got out the car for second, sat back down and reversed very slowly and BONK! Some old guy in brand new peugeot had pulled up mere inches from my rear bumper.

Definitely my fault and I said so, (one could've argued that given the conditions it was obvious what needed to be done...)

Still he went on and on about this that and the other, 'oh its a new car,' 'not a scratch on it' (there still wasn't, it was the merest kiss,) 'what am I going to do,' 'why didn't you look,' 'why do my false teeth rattle so,' 'my wifes got piles,' 'so have I...' Endlessly... On and on.

I ended up having to raise my voice asking him if he wanted my insurance details or not. After about ten minutes of incessant whinging; he said no.

For what it's worth, if someone damaged my property, stopped, apologised & offered to pay for the damage. I'd be fine with that, wheres the profit in moaning at them for half an hour? Accidents happen... Se la vie.

I would say that if someone knocked your wall down or damaged your property, your thinking would be completely irrational too rendering your reaction unreasonable.


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Didn't catch anything.

[R6jonny]

You will probably find that if one person has reversed into it then so have others..there is a house on the corner near me that is always having its wall re-done. I imagine that gets slightly annoying maybe causing the moaning?
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Honda NSR125 - Yamaha R6 - Ducati 748 - Suzuki GSXR750K6/GSXR1000K7/GSXR750K8 - Ducati 848 - Honda SP1 - Triumph Daytona 675
"simply because she is a female and is thus her actions largely make no sense whatsoever by default"

[Skudd]

Perhaps the old dears could have offered a cup of tea and a choccy digetsive?

If anyone damaged my wall they would get a right ear bashing, especially if it was basic poor driving. Reversing into a brick pillar IS poor driving.
They should claim from your insurance via their own house insurance, unless you want to protect your no claims, an average stack to be built would cost about £3-400. Anything less will be a bonus.
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Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[MarJay]

Old people are just like that. My neighbours would be worse than that had it happened to them.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F; Cheap project: CBR900RR FireBlade
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[dgo1212]

FFS it was an accident,if she'd been tanking it along the road,lost control and wiped out the wall that way fair enough,id be pissed too,but the critisism here is a little OTT to say the least,the old b4stards should be gratefull she had the decency to stop and offer to pay,plenty of others wouldn't.

Also you might find paying to have the wall repaired may be cheaper(and quicker) than going through the insurance,depending on how much your excess is,and how much of the wall is destroyed

[Robby]

Old people like to moan.

However, I'd be pissed off if some woman was incapable of driving and destroyed my wall attempting to perform a simple maneuver. Owners of said wall now need to find a builder, get said builder to come out and quote, and put up with said builder sucking through his teeth and talking endless bollocks.
Then they'll put the quote to you, you won't pay it, and they'll have to go through your insurance to take the money. This will take far too long and involve large amounts of paperwork. They won't get reimbursed for all this time wasted, if they're lucky they'll end up exactly where they were before your wife drove into the wall.
So they have a right to have a go. If your wife doesn't like it, she shouldn't drive into walls.

[Feasty]

Well I've been down there and taken some pic's, decided not to speak to them in the end unless they came out to see me taking photo's, which they didn't.
I would upload them from my phone but can't seem to connect to this forum on my phone anymore!?

Anyway, my first thought was how she managed to hit it in the first place! And 2nd thought is the pillar must have been put together with chocolate because the car is hardly marked at all yet the pillar just fell apart - obligatory BCF digram to follow...

The pillar in the pic is far bigger than the one I'm talking about but it'll do for the purpose of this post! The pillar she hit is about 2 foot high and a couple of bricks long on each side, it's the middle 1 of 3 and attached between the pillars is a thin chain. The line where the pillar came apart is perfectly flat and it would just need cementing back together again... a 30min job I could do myself with matching cement to make it look like it had never been knocked over!

So it'll just be a case of seeing what price they come back with to get it repaired now!
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Previous: Aprilia Habana Retro 50cc (beauty), Yamaha SR125 (fell apart), Honda XR125 (nippy little commuter), Honda SLR650 (Geewhizz), Yamaha Diversion 900S (Smoooooth) written off courtesy of a stupid escaped horse.
(7 year gap), BMW F650 (Relaxing ride). Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 (Big and bold). Yamaha FZS600 (got me in trouble too quick!).
Current: Yamaha TDM 900 (Comfy, light but big, power when needed).

[Visitor Q]

Yet another nail in the coffin for 'women are better drivers'.

They hit more things, just alot slower bless em.
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China traffic/travel bike vid - When I make a sweeping statement, please add the word 'statistically' in to the sentence before you bitch...
From September 2014 to January/February 2015 I will not be using any English, nor reading any. As such, I won't be on here. PM at will, but I won't be checking/posting unless in emergencies. Certainly not for the first couple of months. Please berate me savagely if I break that rule...

[Finglonga]

[ken]

I want to pick that ball of the wall (that's the one with the face) and bowl it down an alley
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latest bike 03 R1 in zee red and black

[Chriss]

For what it's worth, some people can say "No worries about X. I had my bike reversed into, and knocked over. The lady was really apologetic about it, said she just didn't see it as it was below her window.

I told her not to worry about it, she left her details in case I want to ask her for money for repairs. Hardly any damage done, just scratches, so I phoned her yesturday to tell her not to worry about it.

Was bloody amazed she didn't just drive off, hence why I 'let her off'.
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TheShaggyDA: I've got 3 or 4 pairs that predate my wife, so at least 11.5 years old.

[Skudd]

I had a guy reverse over my bike, he is now deaf in one ear, pulled him out of the car ( while he still had his seat belt on ) . I got all his details, turns out he lived about 25 miles away but just around the corner from an ex, Once I gave him a quote for the work to be done the cheque was in the post faster than a very fast thing.

As for the wall, where it is cracked means taking the whole wall down and rebuilding the full thing.
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Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[Feasty]

[Bikeless]

You'll probably find if you butter up the broken course and drop the unbroken stack on,it will squash all the cement mix out and be crooked.

[Skudd]