<p>If they find the other girl at fault, her insurance will pay the deductible and a rental car allowance while your daughter’s car is in the shop.</p>
<p>Z mom
File the police report today!!!</p>
<p>I had a similar experience in a parking lot. The person said that they would pay it.
Then they “vaporized” on me and became difficult to find.</p>
<p>I filed a police report, and the officer at the station was very nice and told me that the person that hit me, and admitted fault at the scene (I had two witnesses in the car) had filed a report
that day, right before me. She stated that I had hit her.</p>
<p>Well, I took in my witnesses and they filed a statment. The person that hit me
put in her report that I was alone in the car. (Although she asked all of us if we were ok.)</p>
<p>Oh, and this person lied to her insurance agent.</p>
<p>Zoosermom, I applaud you and your D for trying to cut someone a break, but since they have made their bad faith apparent already and since today is the deadline for filing a report/claim, FILE WITHOUT DELAY! Make sure the report/claim is filed well before 5PM!</p>
<p>And your H should at this point simply refuse to talk to the father. He has used up his grace period. Too bad.</p>
<p>Agreed not to handle this privately. Let the insurance company handle it. I wouldn’t anyone but reputable car repair to fix a brand new car. Don’t meet with the father.</p>
<p>I can understand some one wanting to make this repair happen without having an insurance claim, but the only way i could see that option working is if the other family had paid for the repair to be COMPLETED by a dealership (since it is a new car) BEFORE the end of the 10 day to file a claim period; otherwise it would appear that they are merely trying to delay your filing time period so you lose your rights.</p>
<p>Had your car been repaired by today, you would not need to make a claim., so your claim is THEIR fault as they did not address the issue in a timely fashion.</p>
<p>If the family has insurance then the kid should be covered, even if they had not yet called as you usually have 30 days to make that kind of change. Many insurance companies have the permit info already on the system. I would imagine the fear is not the lack of insurance but the cost of future insurance.</p>
<p>Your DD can tell the girl, it was not repaired in time to protect our rights so we filed a claim. It is now out of my hands and I have nothing to do with it. Then work together as they always have because your DD will no longer have any control over the situation.</p>
<p>Zm, at this point your D have exausted all “nice gal” options, and she should go straight to her insurance company!</p>
<p>It is possible that the girl’s dad thought that the damage could be minor and they could pay out of pocket. It happened to my D - her car was sideswiped in the HS parking lot by a young lady driving a huge vehicle (ugh, a novice driver in a tank!). D took pictures of the cars, and there were witnesses. We had a similar talk with the girl’s dad (“I’ll pay for the repairs, after all, there were only a couple of scratches, right?”) Turns out, the “couple of scratches” needed a bumper replacement to the tune of $1500 just for my D’s car! The “tank” needed body work, too. The dad sighed and called his insurance company since they did not have that kind of money.</p>
<p>BTW, usually dealerships do not do body work themselves - they contract it out and not always to the best body shops. Beware.</p>
<p>We just called the insurance company and filled out the paperwork. Our insurance company said that they will take care of everything and will let us know what’s going on. Thanks for the good advice everyone!</p>
<p>^
You know that massive check you send them each month?
This is why - 
Good Luck!</p>
<p>Zmom,
Hope everything works out for you and your daughter. What a pain!</p>
<p>We have learned with car accidents it is not smart to be the nice guy. Go through your insurance company and let them go after the girl. My son had an accident where at first glance it did not look bad. Another student backing out of the parking space hit my son on the side. The other student was a brand new driver and had panicked when he realized he was going to hit my son and pressed the gas versus the brake. It looked like just damage to the side of the car and the paint. But once the body shop began looking at it the damage was more extensive and much more costly. Also the car has never driven the same. The other problem we had with that accident was the other driver was never available to give his account of the accident and it was delaying getting the car worked on. The other student was the brother of my younger D’s best friend. The Mom was insisting that her son handle the whole affair on his own as a educational experience. It was a real pain.</p>
<p>A guy hit me - when I was on the way to some good surf- grrrrrrrrrrr - and wanted to keep it out of the insurance system. </p>
<p>I said OK, and told him I’d let him know what my body shop guy would charge. He countered with wanting to get some other quotes and so on. I calmly told him that I trusted by body shop guy to do the work at a reasonable cost, that I needed to get this done quickly before the time period ran out for filing with the insurance companies, and that if he didn’t want to take me up on my offer that was OK with me. He saw the light and said OK. It all qworked out.</p>
<p>The key to that interaction was feeling secure in the knowledge that this was NOT a business negotiation; it was a favor I was doing him. And if he didn’t appreciate the favor, that was OK, I’d just go through insurance.</p>
<p>Sounds like 1) the other party of the Original Poster was trying to change the situation into a negotiation and 2) the OP forgot that she did not have to negiotiate anything.</p>
<p>Hope this all turns out OK for you; and kudos for trying to treat others well !!!</p>
<p>And I was on the opposite end of this situation. DD in he HS parking lot, was pulling into her spot and because the car had a long nose sticking out, she scratched one of her best friends’ cars (we measured - it was 1 1/2 inches long). Since she was a new driver, I offered to pay for the repair - after all, it was just a little scratch, right? Well, to make a long story short, she and her father demanded over $1200 for a rental car, the whole panel replaced, especially since there were 2 dings on either side of the gas tank. Apparently my D’s car (the nose sits VERY low) not only scratched the bumper, but bounced over 2 feet, jumped up into the air 2 feet, dented one side of the gas cap, then jumped over it and dented it again on the other side. All this at 5 mph! I think D must have been brilliant to defy the laws of physics in that way! After hearing the unfounded demands, I turned it over to my insurance, who after they inspected the car, gave her just under $200 (including rental car), and told her the dents around the gas cap were because she had a cheap plastic car, and not the result of D’s scratch. She was heard to complain about the cheap car she had, and wanted a new one. She also complained about D, saying that if she had been in the car, she could have been seriously injured! This so-called “friend” now an ex-friend because of this, went on to get rear-ended a couple months later (never having fixed the car, BTW) and this time, she was in the car and was hurt (the kids who knew her doubted it and still do, to this day) the next set of parents not only bought her a new car, but they paid her a bunch of money (kid from school hit her and we knew them). It helped her pay for college. It pays to turn things over to the insurance company. And it doesn’t matter what side of the issue you are on. Even if you are at fault, the other party can try to take advantage of you, as well.</p>
<p>zmom - we had a similar thing happen a few years ago. D2 was at a friend’s house, and when the friend left to run a quick errand (to pick up her sister from school), she side-swiped D2’s car, in the driveway. </p>
<p>Because we knew this family, I knew they had a history of not owning up to their financial obligations. Just two days earlier, our daughters had begun a school camp prior to the start of the school year, which required that all their fees be paid before they could attend. The kids knew this well in advance (this was a new policy as several kids - including this girl and her sisiter - had failed to pay all their fees from years previous and the director was adamant about it). He asked several parents to set up a table to register the kids and collect last minute payments as they arrived; if they didn’t have the money, they were to be turned away (kids with free lunch were exempt). This girl and her sister showed up and obviously were miffed when another parent and I told her they could not participate in camp until they paid all their fees. Then they insisted their mom told them she had paid it, but they couldn’t contact her because she was out of town. They finally decided they wanted to participate, so they went to their bank and took money out of their own accounts (obviously, if their mom had truly paid, they wouldn’t need to do this, so that was a lie) and returned with the cash, but obviously miffed at the messengers.</p>
<p>So when this accident happened two days later, I didn’t hesitate for a second to contact our insurance. The girls did not contact the police when it happened as it was on private property, and like zmom’s daughter, I think my daughter wanted to play nice guy since she knew this girl’s sad home situation. (The day after the accident, my husband called the police to our house, and called this friend and told her she’d better show up at our house because we were filing a police report. When she showed up, the policeman knew her by name and somehow insinuated our local police has made multiple visits to their house).</p>
<p>We learned an unbelievable lesson in all of this. Evidently, if the insurance policy holders will not speak with their own insurance company after a claim is made, their insurance company cannot pay out the claim. I’m sure this mom knew this, as, for months, she avoided all calls/certified letters, etc. from her insurance company (they told us this everytime we called for an update). So all we could do is go through our own insurance company, and have them subrogate. We maybe had to pay a $250 deductible, but the rental and repairs were taken care of. About a month after the repairs were completed, we heard the girl’s mom had finally returned calls to their insurance company, and completed the claim forms, so even that money was reimbursed to us by their insurance company. I’m guessing it was the threat of a lawsuit from State Farm that finally motivated her. </p>
<p>Obviously this mom had taught her girls that being financially responsible was not a priority (you’d think when the girl heard the message from their insurance company, over and over again, at least she’d call them, but she didn’t), and it was a major hassle for us. Our car was older, but we’ve always, always taken very good care o. it, and always repaired any minor damage (luckily it’s never been our fault). The girl drove her mom’s old van, which obviously had been in many minor skirmishes, of which they had not repaired. It irked me to no end that they somehow thought we should have the same priorities and values of our possessions as they do. D2 is still driving that car, eleven years old, with 130,000 miles on it, and we still take very good care of it. </p>
<p>I actually ran into this girl a couple of weeks ago while she was home for the summer, and she actually came up and gave me a sort of hug. I have run into her mom a couple of times (although, not for a couple of years now, since the girls graduated), and she never indicated any sort of acknowledgement of the accident in any way, much less apologized. </p>
<p>It’s difficult when you’re faced with this kind of situation with someone you’re likely to run into in the future; people will take advantage of your naivete and willingness to give them the benefit of the doubt. It’s a yucky lesson to have to learn at such a young age (I never learned it at that age), but will likely be valuable down the road.</p>
<p>zm:</p>
<p>That story of “don’t contact the police or insurance and we’ll pay for it so our rates don’t go up” followed by “your quotes are too high - take it to this friend of mine” followed by anger at you for some reason for even involving them in paying anything and sometimes followed with them saying they weren’t actually at fault or even with them lying and saying they weren’t even involved in the accident seems to happen all the time. I’ve know several people who tried to be nice but they end up with the short end of the stick every time. People have tried that with me also including the last time someone backed out of a parking space into the car my W was driving who was stopped. But I don’t play that game - I just contact our insurance company and let them deal with it. That’s what we pay them for. If the other party never bothered to get insurance or allowed that kid to drive illegally, then they need to be stopped from continuing and I wouldn’t feel the least bit sorry for them.</p>
<p>I didn’t read all the posts but I hope your D took pictures of the scene and damage of both cars including the license plate number of the other car. That can make it very easy to nail who was at fault. </p>
<p>I also suggest immediately writing down exactly what happened and ideally having the other party sign that (but they won’t always do that). If enough time goes by the at-fault party usually eventually convinces themselves they weren’t really at fault and shouldn’t pay anything.</p>
<p>If I were your H I wouldn’t meet with the other girl’s dad. There’s no need to and these things can sometimes end up in fights or worse. You should just report it to the insurance company and be done with it. If you’re stuck with the deductible because of lack of insurance on her part, you can take them to small claims court if you want.</p>
<p>Not everyone is bad. DD hit a friends car in their driveway. The car was three weeks old. We said we would pay for the repairs and we did…no issue. They chose the body shop and we had an estimate within two days. Wrote a check…and that was that.</p>
<p>OP - make sure your insurance company goes after the other insurance company for a “diminished value” claim to reimburse you for loss of value to your car. Your trade-in value just dropped by about 50%.</p>
<p>this reminds me of an accident i got in. the kid had just received his license two weeks ago and as he was pulling off a curb he smashed into my rear passenger’s door. i had to call the cops to get a report (because there was extensive damage) and the kid wanted me to wait and lie to the cops to say it was his brother driving (cause he didnt have insurance AND it wasnt his car). i refused cause i was beyond ****ed off at that point. we tried to be accomodating and not go through insurance because he didnt want to. when they kept being difficult we just gave up and went through insurance.</p>
<p>If there is no coverage, then the claim may be against your policy’s uninsured motorist coverage. This is an example that shows it’s wise to review the limits on that coverage. A lot of people carry the minimum - not a good idea. It won’t matter here since there is just a property damage claim, but had there been serious injuries, the amount of uninsured motorist coverage can be meaningful.</p>
<p>Being it’s a new car I’m sure you have “comprehensive coverage.”. Just call your insurance company and they’ll take care of everything. Your insurance company will pay you, and then go after the person who hit you and their insurance company. Your car should be fixed long before the issues is settled. That’s what you pay insurance for. NO NOT under any circumstance take any money from the girl or her family. Once you do take money your insurance claim becomes null and your insurance company will not give you a dime.</p>
<p>Comprehensive coverage applies to things not relating to a collision - tree falling, animals, etc. This would not be a claim under the comprehensive coverage.</p>