First time "Fender Bender" what do?

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CrazYmonkeY159

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So a bit of a weird situation a friend of a friend backed into my parked car bending my rear fender and rear wheel arch and scratching it a bit. He was wildly intoxicated when it happened and thus when I suggested to call the cops he was scared he would lose his chances at a law degree ontop of being charged with a DUI, so as a nice guy who weighed the amount of money he has spent at a university law degree versus the cost of fixing my car I agreed

Now I have never been in an accident so I don't know how this works, he sent me a message saying his insurance will cover everything and that he has reported the accident this morning to the cops.

I have witnesses and a "written" confession of him saying he's sorry for backing up into my car.

What sort of admin do I need to do to get my ducks in a row? do I also go get an accident report? do I let my insurance know? what's the deal?

I will preface this with I do not trust him purely because he is a friend of a friend who drives drunk. I actually do not know him that well.
 
You should report the incident to get a case number and then refer your insurance to his.
 
Electric said:
You should report the incident to get a case number and then refer your insurance to his.
Click to expand...

^This^

Get to the police station asap and get the case number. I think there is a certain time period to report an accident but I may be wrong.

Insurance companies usually need the case number in any motor vehicle incident involving another vehicle.

From there it shouldn't be too difficult other than the waiting and waiting and waiting for the insurance to process everything on their side and to get the car fixed, depending which insurance company and which panel beater you use.
 
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I know it sounds pessimistic but from my own experience, ppl in accidents do sill things when the sh*t hits the fan.
I would even go as far as making sure he provided the correct information to the police on the actual accident.
Chances are he may even have blamed you.

This happened to my wife a few years back.
She was smashed from behind by a young guy texting.
He launched her into the car in front of her, she sustained wiplash as well as the old lady in front.
He jumped out the car and apologized to everyone for texting and not paying attention, his dad apologized to everyone for his son.
Later that day we were at the police station with the son and father and they had changed their story and had essentially blamed my wife for stopping behind a car that was stopped at a robot.

We very quickly informed the police they were lying and got into a small fight with the chop of a dad.
Just be warned.
 
WTF? Why would you call the cops to an incident that presumably happened at your house where nobody was injured?

You simply go to the cop shop AFTER the fact in such cases to report it. He does the same and being your mate you assume that he takes full responsibility and therefore tells the truth of what happened to the cop show.

Insurance takes the case number and then fights about it.

Report to your own insurance within 24 hours, even if you don't claim from them. Supply all his details like ID, car, car registration, driver's license number etc.

You can claim directly from his insurance, especially if you have an admittance of guilt on his part...but it's a pain in the ass. You still need to notify your insurance though even if you plan to do that.
 
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Electric said:
I know it sounds pessimistic but from my own experience, ppl in accidents do sill things when the sh*t hits the fan.
I would even go as far as making sure he provided the correct information to the police on the actual accident.
Chances are he may even have blamed you.

This happened to my wife a few years back.
She was smashed from behind by a young guy texting.
He launched her into the car in front of her, she sustained wiplash as well as the old lady in front.
He jumped out the car and apologized to everyone for texting and not paying attention, his dad apologized to everyone for his son.
Later that day we were at the police station with the son and father and they had changed their story and had essentially blamed my wife for stopping behind a car that was stopped at a robot.

We very quickly informed the police they were lying and got into a small fight with the chop of a dad.
Just be warned.
Click to expand...

Sadly I have heard of this kind of thing too often when it comes to people taking responsibility for their screwups when they realize it will cost them money.

Just be careful, OP. Do things via the proper channels.
 
You don't call the cops. You go to the police station and file a report and get a case number. The case number you give to your insurance and they will run with it. You don't need to get into a fight with anyone, nice and civilised, see. It doesn't matter whether or not he actually goes to the police himself (you don't need to go together), you just provide them with his contact details for the report. They won't go after him. It also doesn't matter who blames who really, you just provide insurance with an account of what happened, with pics or diagrams etc, and the insurance companies need to battle it out. It doesn't matter whether he was drunk or not, because it is too late for blood tests etc etc and you will never prove it, may just as well let it be.
 
Accident case no at SAPS
Submit to your insurance with his details.
Just say he reversed into you and it's his fault.
Your insurer will take it from there.
You should report within a reasonable time so asap.
 
bokdrol said:
You don't call the cops. You go to the police station and file a report and get a case number. The case number you give to your insurance and they will run with it. You don't need to get into a fight with anyone, nice and civilised, see. It doesn't matter whether or not he actually goes to the police himself (you don't need to go together), you just provide them with his contact details for the report. They won't go after him. It also doesn't matter who blames who really, you just provide insurance with an account of what happened, with pics or diagrams etc, and the insurance companies need to battle it out. It doesn't matter whether he was drunk or not, because it is too late for blood tests etc etc and you will never prove it, may just as well let it be.
Click to expand...

The hope is that he will inform insurance that he is solely responsible.
 
just be careful that his insurance doesn't back out and refuse to pay since he admitted guilt. there's some clause that the insurers demand that there is no admission of guilt.
 
Don't tell the insurers that you guys are friends. They may think the accident was on purpose for you to get a new bumper.
 
Most importantly - watch that excess. Your insurance will deal with it, but the excess invariably never comes back to you.

Get your mate to pay it.

Its the least he can do, considering he was canned.
 
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