Thread: I got rear ended while teaching my son to drive

I didn't read all the responses but I had a friend who was rear ended earlier this year. His car (a 'bomb' he had bought two weeks earlier for $300 with the view of fixing it up) was not insured. The other party was fully insured. Because he was not at fault the other party's insurance paid the full market value for the car which was around 2k.
We asked the police at the time about proving it was his fault (road rage involved and "you braked so I hit you") and they said it is the responsibility of the driver behind to ensure there is room to brake. Unless there is proof the driver of the car in front was driving wrecklessly the driver behind has no excuse.

Originally Posted by Milton477

Thanks for all of the replies people. I am particularly interested in the above quoted post & would like to know if this is the kind of law/rules that the insurance companies choose to keep out of the public domain thereby saving them stacks.
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Yes it is in their interests that the public is unaware of their rights. When it comes to comprehensive insurance the public do have a contract with their own insurance company that the insurance company has a right of ownership. But that is not the case with third party property damage policies.

I have a friend that had a long dispute over the value*of a car with an insurance company over the repair costs, which the company eventually paid out the value of the car. The company then sent a tow truck to pick up the car, he refused the to release the car which caused more discussions and even civil claims court who ruled in my friend's favour.

The things to take away, deal direct, provide the quotes from your preferred repairer (not theirs unless you know them and their quality of repair), don't be bluffed by legal sounding threats, be prepared for the possibility of a long dispute and don't release your car - ever.


* The car had just been restored, so he had the restoration receipts.

I was worried when I read the topic heading that you got rear ended in your Land Rover.

Jeff

A couple of years ago a friend of mine had his car written off by an old lady who failed to give way at the bottom off Bulli Pass. My friend only had bomb insurance, the old lady had no insurance, no rego and had been driving 40 odd years with out a licence.

Anyway when he went to cancel his insurance the NRMA asked why, he told them the story and they said not to worry that they would pay him the market value of the car and would then take the old lady to court to recover costs.

There reasoning was that he did not cause the accident and that it was unfair that he should have to take legal action to recoup his money because she was unregistered and uninsured. He received his cheque in the mail a week later.

Originally Posted by Jeff

I was worried when I read the topic heading that you got rear ended in your Land Rover.

Jeff

Wish it was, would have been ok with the towbar sticking out.

Originally Posted by chunk

A couple of years ago a friend of mine had his car written off by an old lady who failed to give way at the bottom off Bulli Pass. My friend only had bomb insurance, the old lady had no insurance, no rego and had been driving 40 odd years with out a licence.

Anyway when he went to cancel his insurance the NRMA asked why, he told them the story and they said not to worry that they would pay him the market value of the car and would then take the old lady to court to recover costs.

There reasoning was that he did not cause the accident and that it was unfair that he should have to take legal action to recoup his money because she was unregistered and uninsured. He received his cheque in the mail a week later.

I suppose that sometimes they do have a heart. Look at the good press NRMA are getting in this post.

I think you can still claim through your own 3rd party insurance if the other driver is at fault, but as you say they would write off the car and therefore are paying you to buy the wreck.

If your son has only had the car for a short time it will be a little easier to start over.

If plan to claim through your own insurance I would remove whatever accessories you can for the next vehicle.

James

A similar thing happened to me with my crappy old barina recently. A guy tried to pass me to get into a turn lane, misjudged the width or position of his vehicle and scraped my rear bumper, knocked off the wheelarch flare and scuffed the paint on the rear door. I was only 3rd party fire and theft, he was comprehensive. But he was a P plater so his excess was huge, from memory he had a standard $500 excess and a $300 age excess. The damage was only minor cosmetic and totally his fault. However when I got 3 quotes they all came in at over $1100 (the car was only worth a grand or so, was a hunk of junk and painted matt black with spraypack so wasn't rocket science to fix). If I had gone through his insurance he would have lost his no claim rating and had to fork out $800 excess, so instead I asked him to settle for cash, he agreed and paid $700 which was less than his excess so he was happy, I fixed the car with a $15 wheelarch flare from the wrecker so I was happy.

With your car, remember it goes by market value of the car, not what you paid for it - I wrote off a Saab once that cost me $1950 and it was paid out for $7000 by insurance as it was going to cost $10k plus to fix. You have a lot of power when someone else is at fault, get 3 quotes for the repair then approach his insurance for this money, if they want to write it off then ask to keep the wreck but, as has already been mentioned, if it is structurally damaged it may be either unsafe or illegal to drive without being properly repaired.

As for the question of the ownership of the car, all insurance companies will sell the wreck to recover some of their costs, generally they will have a set rate given the car and the damage, mostly they go for a couple of hundred dollars up to $1000 depending on how good they are. If they insist on writing it off you can generally negotiate to keep it, but be warned that it will usually be listed as either a repairable or statutory write off (in Qld at least) and then there is a special inspection it needs to be able to register it again, so if it is worth $2000 written off, they sell it back to you for $500, it costs you $500 for an inspection, plus the repair costs it may not be worth the trouble. Canpick up plenty of learner suitable cars fr under a couple of grand these days.