Good morning.
When we bought our car, which is about 6 years old, it was immaculate but during the time we have had it we have had two minor knocks (no other vehicle was involved and no damage was caused to anything but our car) which we have not had repaired as we didn't want to claim on our insurance (we have big no claims bonus and the damage was slight). The accidents caused
- dent and scratching of wheel arch
- small dents in both offside doors
Recently someone reversed into the rear of our car when it was parked. We saw it happen, they accepted liability etc. We sent two quotes to their insurers and one was accepted. So far so good...
Our car was in the garage for 5 days having the work done to the rear (courtesy of the 3rd party's insurers) and while it was there we paid to get the wheel arch fixed. Unfortunately we couldn't afford to have the dents on the doors mended too but as they are barely noticeable we decided they were not so important. I have photos of the car showing those dents (barely visible).
Yesterday, when we were approaching the garage to collect the car we saw "our" bodyshop repair man talking to his neighbour (also a garage repair). They were both having a long hard look at the off side of our car.
The long and the short of it is the car has been damaged again on the two offside doors, but this time deep dents and a scratch right through to the paintwork. We pointed this out to the bodyshop man but he denied responsibility, saying the car had come in with this dent/scratch. This simply is not true; it genuinely did not have this damage when we left it and the damage is so new that it hasn't rusted (which it will do pretty fast in this weather). We have also raised the matter wtih his neighbour who said "I don't know anything about it mate" - rather odd as we saw them discussing it...
Should we go to the 3rd party's insurers and tell them that the car has been damaged? Should we "have it out" with the garage? What can we do? Any thoughts anyone?
When we bought our car, which is about 6 years old, it was immaculate but during the time we have had it we have had two minor knocks (no other vehicle was involved and no damage was caused to anything but our car) which we have not had repaired as we didn't want to claim on our insurance (we have big no claims bonus and the damage was slight). The accidents caused
- dent and scratching of wheel arch
- small dents in both offside doors
Recently someone reversed into the rear of our car when it was parked. We saw it happen, they accepted liability etc. We sent two quotes to their insurers and one was accepted. So far so good...
Our car was in the garage for 5 days having the work done to the rear (courtesy of the 3rd party's insurers) and while it was there we paid to get the wheel arch fixed. Unfortunately we couldn't afford to have the dents on the doors mended too but as they are barely noticeable we decided they were not so important. I have photos of the car showing those dents (barely visible).
Yesterday, when we were approaching the garage to collect the car we saw "our" bodyshop repair man talking to his neighbour (also a garage repair). They were both having a long hard look at the off side of our car.
The long and the short of it is the car has been damaged again on the two offside doors, but this time deep dents and a scratch right through to the paintwork. We pointed this out to the bodyshop man but he denied responsibility, saying the car had come in with this dent/scratch. This simply is not true; it genuinely did not have this damage when we left it and the damage is so new that it hasn't rusted (which it will do pretty fast in this weather). We have also raised the matter wtih his neighbour who said "I don't know anything about it mate" - rather odd as we saw them discussing it...
Should we go to the 3rd party's insurers and tell them that the car has been damaged? Should we "have it out" with the garage? What can we do? Any thoughts anyone?
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