Car scratched from another car while parked
 

I'm just curious how likely would I be able to get this claim to favor me?

My car was parallel parked and a car backed up into it and left about 1-2 feet of minor scratches on my front bumper, it'll buff out but that's not the point. This is a brand new bumper from an earlier hit and run, not even a month old. I came out and noticed this car is parked very close to mine so being paranoid I checked and sure enough there's a bunch of scuffs on my bumper and I looked at their car and there's some scratches on theirs also that is leveled with mine so putting two and two together it's obvious they did it, it's clear the scratches are new also. I immediately went through my dashcam to review the footage and the owner approached me. I told them what had happened and they denied every bit of it even though it's clear the damages matched up. They did everything to avoid the situation and I didn't review the footage closely yet so I didn't want to assume anything. I left a note with a contact number but they never called back. I found clear footage showing my car being bumped and you could also hear it.

I called my insurance and they located theirs and so I'm in contact with their insurance right now and also sent them to the footage to review. I would've liked to avoid involving insurances and had them pay for the work to buff out the scratches but they weren't willing to work with me so I had to take this route instead. It's very minor and isn't too big of a deal but having a brand new bumper that's not even a month old get scratched up because of someone else's carelessness isn't my problem to deal with. It's not necessarily about the money but the principle to respect another person's property. I'm not wanting to pay for someone else's mistake. Has anyone had to deal with a situation like this? If so was it worth the claim?

I'm really glad I got a dashcam after my last incident of my bumper being completely pulled apart. I just hope it pays off with this incident

Sounds like the dashcam saved your butt!! I want one bad. :)

I would absolutely let the insurance do the dirty work. There won't be any points or premium increases I don't think since you were parked and it was obviously not your fault at any time, nor could you avoid it.

Just let it ride out and get that shit fixed!

Yea I'm not getting any points put on my insurance. Just hoping I can hear some success from others so I won't be so anxious and nervous to hear what the conclusion is or anticipate how long it'll take. Get a dashcam! They're not much considering you can get a good one for under $200, a lot cheaper than some car parts. At this point it's not about the scratch anymore but more about teaching them a lesson to respect other people's properties. It's not like they didn't know it happened, they just simply chose to ignore it.

What type of dash cam do you have? Do you have it set to always be recording?

I also want to know, since I am looking for a decent dash cam. There are a few I have bookmarked but want to know more.

I have the Blackvue DR500GW-HD with the Power Magic Pro so it's recording all the time. I really like this besides the sensitivity settings on mine is weird. I put it to be not sensitive at all which is 1 from a range of 1-100 and it still continuously records. Also the camera is very wide so cars may appear further than they actually are so you'll usually only get license plates if they're fairly close. Other than that I still like it very much, there are better ones out there so look around a bit as the dashcam I have is a few years old.

Don't be anxious. Someone damaged your car. You have video evidence of it. Sounds pretty open and shut.

You have a few choices.

You can file a claim with your insurance company. If you do that, you'll have to pay your deductible, and your insurance company will take care of getting the damage fixed. Then your insurance company will file a claim on the other driver's insurance to get reimbursed. If the other insurance company accepts responsibility, they'll reimburse your deductible as well. If they don't, your insurance company may sue on your behalf, or you may end up having to file a separate claim with the other insurance company to get your deductible back.

You can file a claim with the other driver's insurance company. If you do that, your insurance company will want to know about it, but otherwise they'll stay out of it. Then you'll deal directly with the other driver's insurance company. You won't pay a deductible in that situation, because the deductible only applies to your own policy, not the other guy's.

If their insurance company won't honor the claim, you can simply sue them in small claims court. You'll likely win. The insurance companies know this, which is why it probably won't be necessary. They will not want to pay for litigation and also your court costs for something they know they'll lose. You usually have up to a year to file a lawsuit, but that may not be the same in every state. You can get a lawyer to help you if it comes to a lawsuit, but this sounds like such a minor thing that it probably won't be worth it.

As for how long it will take, that could be anywhere from a couple of weeks to a year, depending on how it unfolds. It will probably be on the shorter end of that range. However, if you don't feel you're being treated fairly, you ought to resign yourself to letting it take as long as it's going to take. Insurance companies know people want their cars fixed quickly, and claims reps will use that against you to get you to accept a lower settlement than you really deserve, just to have it over and done with.

But that goes both ways. Claims people also want it done quickly. They are evaluated on the volume of claims they process and how quickly they get them done. The longer you're willing to let it sit out there, the more "helpful" your claims rep is going to be, because a claim that's dragging on looks bad on their performance review.

So just relax, don't worry about it and do what you need to do.

Thanks! This is very helpful and informative, I filed through their insurance and already spoke to the representative and sent her the video so we'll see how it unfolds from here. It's not major so I'll sit on this as long as I have to, I just don't want to pay for someone else's mistake and think they need to learn a lesson to at least have the morals to call me back and fix what was wrong.

What kind of dash cam do you have?

Damn kimda pricy, but is peace mind and good tool for insurrance claims

^^^

Keep an eye out for a used one, I got one + the Power Magic Pro for around $150 which is extremely cheap. eBay, this forum, etc.

1. You may have to file a police report for the other insurance to do anything - your insurance may be able to advise. That would turn it into a hit-and-run if the other party continues to deny wrongdoing. Who knows how it shakes out though.

2. Stories like this make me glad I coughed up for front/rear dashcams. My wife was hit while parked (bumper, fender) to remind me I had been planning on dashcams since we moved into the city, but one deductible covers the cost. She had to file a police report, but we've done nothing so far since it'd be our cash and the car is 9yrs old... we'll see.

We now have a pair of Street Guardian SGZC12RC each - custom mount in both cars, and very very discrete (which is key in Chicago, IMO.) Always-on, battery drain protection, and set pretty sensitive. Fortunately, they've not paid for themselves (though the racing footage is actually quite useful for me too.)

I didn't file a police report but I called my insurance, told them I have footage and what happened. My insurance found out their insurance and their insurance called me asking for footage. Now I'm waiting on the next step. Hopefully it'll go through fine as my insurance told me I didn't need to do anything else and this should be fine with just the footage.