minor rear-end bump

[shopping01]

I was rear-ended by a driver a few weeks ago. The damage came up to $225 according to the lowest quote. The driver had difficulties paying so I agreed to give him a couple weeks to pay. He is now ignoring all voice mail messages and hasn't returned the calls. He provided his name, cell phone number and license plate at the time of the collision. Because the damage was only $225 it wasn't reported to the CRC. Is it worth chasing him through insurance? or is it too late?

[mau108]

too late, you get 48 hours to report an accident.

If you claim now, insurance will say its 100% sure fault and you will be hit with the premium hikes.

Good one btw, not to make you feel bad or anything, but its pretty stupid not to get the money right away (im pretty sure he could have gotten a loan somewhere) you have no relations to the person so you should not have to wait for your money and should have threatened to go and report it right away.

[k3nv]

What should one do in situations like this for future reference? Immediately tell your insurance company? Cause I'd prefer to settle it outside of the insurance company so our premiums dont' go up but when you meet *******'s who just skip out, what can you do?

[ah802]

I was rear-ended by a driver a few weeks ago. The damage came up to $225 according to the lowest quote. The driver had difficulties paying so I agreed to give him a couple weeks to pay. He is now ignoring all voice mail messages and hasn't returned the calls. He provided his name, cell phone number and license plate at the time of the collision. Because the damage was only $225 it wasn't reported to the CRC. Is it worth chasing him through insurance? or is it too late?This is the most common issue after exchanging information. You should still have his insurance information? Make the claim now... this should give his insurance company the excuse to raise his rate a lot... consider that he has to let his insured know within 24 hrs. Explain to his insurance company that you had an agreement, that he has welched on. The insurance company may not honour your claim... but there is hope.

Small claims court is not an insurance company and judges understand the publics reluctance to claim... and a verbal contract at the time would seem reasonable. I suspect a judgment in your favour would be worthwit.

[ES_Revenge]

too late, you get 48 hours to report an accident.

If you claim now, insurance will say its 100% sure fault and you will be hit with the premium hikes.

It's not too late... 48 hours is the legal requirement IIRC, not the requirement to report an accident to insurance. Furthermore the 48 hour thing is just there so accidents get reported in a timely fashion. If you go and report it at like 60 hours later, they aren't going to kill you for it, LOL.

However if it wasn't reported within 48 hours you may have trouble proving that the other party caused the damage because they may turn around and say that they hit you but didn't cause that damage, that it happened afterwards in another way and now you're trying to blame them. Or something like that.

Evenso, I'm pretty sure the timeframe to file a small claims suit against them is far far longer than 48 hours. (It's probably more like a year, lol.) So that's probably what you're going to have to do--pay for the repair and take them to small claims court for it...