What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
Hello all!
I was at a parking lot backing up when the other car backed up and we hit each other's bumpers. It's hard to tell whose fault it is, since our damages are on the corner of our bumper, and his are paint transfer from us above his rear wheel, both on the passenger side. As much as it was hard to tell whose fault it was, my fiance (who was the driver) told me that he looked before he started pulling out and not a single car was pulling out so he felt safely to pull out our car.
I wanted to call the police for witness and exchange insurance policy, but the other driver begged us not to call the police since he had just gotten his license last December (he's 16) and afraid that it was going to be suspended. I didn't know that was true, but since he was pleading for us not to call the police to report, we didn't. And when I asked for his insurance information, he said he didn't know where it was, that it was his sister's car and he wasn't on the insurance. Okay. He said he needed his mom to take care of this but she is out of the state on a trip, and will have her call us. So I took pictures of both car damages, I took down his name, number, mom's number and address and gave him ours and left.
After a couple of hours, his mom contacted me and said she would like to settle this since she didn't want her insurance to go up and all that. I agreed and told her I would go to the auto shop tomorrow and get an estimate. I offered her to do the same. At this point, I thought she would just take care of our repair fees and if she wanted us to pay for their damage we're more than happy to. (But don't they have the disadvantage being her son the driver was driving a car which he was not on the insurance?) Next day, I called her and told her the estimate which was around $770 to fix the bumper basically, however she wanted us to decide how much the damage oh her car will likely cost and said she would pay the difference between that and our repair fees. I was getting a little bit frustrated dealing with this, and decided to just do it the right way and report this to our insurance and let them deal with them. Personally, we are okay with our insurance to go up after this accident, but I just wanted to do it correctly. When I didn't call the police nor let the insurance people to take care of this right away, I thought I was doing them a favor, but turns out it became my headache. Anyway, I reported the claim and let her know about this and told her that I would need their insurance policy number. I left her a message today to remind that we still need their insurance policy number and she called back and started yelling at me for my insurance policy number, I stayed calm and told her yes, we could exchange policy numbers but will she provide me hers? And she said she spoke to her insurance company but she can't give me her information until a couple days later. (but she had already spoke to her insurance company, why wouldn't they have her policy number?) She yelled some more and said she was going to sue me with my policy number, I didn't even know what that means, and at that point I just said I could not talk to her any more if she wasn't going to exchange our insurance information and told her she can wait for our insurance agent to call and hung up. She called again and yelled some more and asking why I had hung up, I told her politely that I didn't need to deal with this anymore, and if she wasn't ready to exchange information then why is she calling me since I already told her I want to let my insurance company handle this. She said we had to exchange insurance information "in person" and I told her that was not true, and she yelled some more and I hung up.
I called my insurance agent to let them know about this, and they said they were sorry and I shouldn't have involve myself again (calling her to let her know that we need their insurance policy #) and they will take care the rest of things. I was relieved that I didn't have to talk to strangers and "negotiate" or let her manipulate me into giving her a deal on the damage fees. If it turns out that it's both of the cars' fault, I am more than happy to pay for their damages and have them pay for mine, whatever the insurance company will work out, but my biggest mistake is not calling the police and filing a report and calling insurance immediately. You really can't have a soft heart with the teenagers! I was foolish to listen to a 16 year old and not myself.
I guess my question here is, how can anyone determine if it was more of our fault or their fault? And are they at a disadvantage because the teenage driver was not on the car's insurance? When it all comes down, what would be the resolution for us from the insurance companies most likely?
Thanks all for reading my long post!!
Hello all!
I was at a parking lot backing up when the other car backed up and we hit each other's bumpers. It's hard to tell whose fault it is, since our damages are on the corner of our bumper, and his are paint transfer from us above his rear wheel, both on the passenger side. As much as it was hard to tell whose fault it was, my fiance (who was the driver) told me that he looked before he started pulling out and not a single car was pulling out so he felt safely to pull out our car.
I wanted to call the police for witness and exchange insurance policy, but the other driver begged us not to call the police since he had just gotten his license last December (he's 16) and afraid that it was going to be suspended. I didn't know that was true, but since he was pleading for us not to call the police to report, we didn't. And when I asked for his insurance information, he said he didn't know where it was, that it was his sister's car and he wasn't on the insurance. Okay. He said he needed his mom to take care of this but she is out of the state on a trip, and will have her call us. So I took pictures of both car damages, I took down his name, number, mom's number and address and gave him ours and left.
After a couple of hours, his mom contacted me and said she would like to settle this since she didn't want her insurance to go up and all that. I agreed and told her I would go to the auto shop tomorrow and get an estimate. I offered her to do the same. At this point, I thought she would just take care of our repair fees and if she wanted us to pay for their damage we're more than happy to. (But don't they have the disadvantage being her son the driver was driving a car which he was not on the insurance?) Next day, I called her and told her the estimate which was around $770 to fix the bumper basically, however she wanted us to decide how much the damage oh her car will likely cost and said she would pay the difference between that and our repair fees. I was getting a little bit frustrated dealing with this, and decided to just do it the right way and report this to our insurance and let them deal with them. Personally, we are okay with our insurance to go up after this accident, but I just wanted to do it correctly. When I didn't call the police nor let the insurance people to take care of this right away, I thought I was doing them a favor, but turns out it became my headache. Anyway, I reported the claim and let her know about this and told her that I would need their insurance policy number. I left her a message today to remind that we still need their insurance policy number and she called back and started yelling at me for my insurance policy number, I stayed calm and told her yes, we could exchange policy numbers but will she provide me hers? And she said she spoke to her insurance company but she can't give me her information until a couple days later. (but she had already spoke to her insurance company, why wouldn't they have her policy number?) She yelled some more and said she was going to sue me with my policy number, I didn't even know what that means, and at that point I just said I could not talk to her any more if she wasn't going to exchange our insurance information and told her she can wait for our insurance agent to call and hung up. She called again and yelled some more and asking why I had hung up, I told her politely that I didn't need to deal with this anymore, and if she wasn't ready to exchange information then why is she calling me since I already told her I want to let my insurance company handle this. She said we had to exchange insurance information "in person" and I told her that was not true, and she yelled some more and I hung up.
I called my insurance agent to let them know about this, and they said they were sorry and I shouldn't have involve myself again (calling her to let her know that we need their insurance policy #) and they will take care the rest of things. I was relieved that I didn't have to talk to strangers and "negotiate" or let her manipulate me into giving her a deal on the damage fees. If it turns out that it's both of the cars' fault, I am more than happy to pay for their damages and have them pay for mine, whatever the insurance company will work out, but my biggest mistake is not calling the police and filing a report and calling insurance immediately. You really can't have a soft heart with the teenagers! I was foolish to listen to a 16 year old and not myself.
I guess my question here is, how can anyone determine if it was more of our fault or their fault? And are they at a disadvantage because the teenage driver was not on the car's insurance? When it all comes down, what would be the resolution for us from the insurance companies most likely?
Thanks all for reading my long post!!