Words

I accidentally bumped into some ladies car in a parking lot the other day. No police were called as the damage was only dealt to her novelty license plate on the front bumper as well as the housing for said license plate. I gave her 20 buck to replace these items, as well as my name and telephone number, and left.

The next day some dude called me (her husband?) and said that below the plate, there was a 3 inch crack in the paint, not the bumper itself, just the paint. He said he would take it by a body shop, get an estimate, and let me handle however I wanted. This meaning, I could just give him cash, or get insurance involved.

His estimate was for 372 dollars claiming he needed to repaint the whole bumper. I have only the basic liability insurance. I don't know if this sort of thing would even have a chance to be covered because of the fact that it was in a parking lot and there were no police involved in the "accident." Do you all have any advice on how I should handle this? It seems like painting the whole bumper because of a crack in the paint beneath the license plate cover is a bit excessive. I would really appreciate any advice you all could offer. Thanks.

10/13/2008 5:33:11 PM

Your insurance will cover his/her damage if you call your insurance and let them know about it which you should if you want your insurance to pay for it.

10/13/2008 5:39:43 PM

Is it likely that my insurance rates will go through the fucking roof? I pay $55 a month now. I'm 19 with no tickets or accidents on my record.

[Edited on October 13, 2008 at 5:47 PM. Reason : .]

10/13/2008 5:47:43 PM

yes/no.

they have certain $ limits and your age is a factor.

he's taking you for a ride anyway, cause it doesn't cost $372 + $20 to repaint a bumper.

did you notice previous damage?

taking pictures is what you need to protect yourself in these instances,.

10/13/2008 5:51:41 PM

The problem was that I had no camera and it was at night. I thought everything was squared away with the lady(his wife) that night. I think I'm going to talk to legal services on campus too. I have a feeling the repair he wants to make is not reasonable and he is simply getting all he can out of me.

10/13/2008 6:00:55 PM

Doing the right thing is honorable.

Doing the right thing doesn't mean being taken advantage of, and it really sounds to me like that's what he's doing.

10/13/2008 6:14:51 PM

A good shop can charge upwards of $450 to paint a bumper. This also depends on the car. What type of car did you hit. If it was a POS, you are being taken for a ride. If it was a nice car, $400 isn't too far fetched. You need to tell him to get at least one more estimate, and that you want a copy of both of the estimates.

Legally, if you squared it away with his wife, then you are no longer responsible. Money changed hands, unless you told them to call you if there were any problems.

As far as insurance goes, most likely your rates will go up if you claim this. This varies a great deal on your carrier and if they feel the damage amount is too great.

10/13/2008 6:23:17 PM

It was a silver hybrid Camry, not sure what year.

10/13/2008 6:28:33 PM

Call your insurance agent and see what the amount of damage triggers a rate increase. Since no one was hurt I think if it's under 1500 or something it won't trigger a rate increase.

Also, if someone just rolls up to a body shop and says write me an estimate, it's probably going to he higher than if they were working with an insurance company. That sounds shady but thats just the way it is.

Also, getting your insurance company involved will mean someone will probably see the car and have your interest in mind. Right now thats not the case. Sometimes they can tell if it was prior damage or doesn't jive with the impact.

10/13/2008 7:47:44 PM

Thanks, I'm gonna call my insurance tomorrow.

10/13/2008 8:25:26 PM

I dont think you should pay.....he can't do anything because the cops were not called....just say you will pay half (better than nothing). The worse they can do is take you to small claims court which it will be stuck in for years. How the hell did he see a three inch crack and how the hell does he know it came from you? He doesn't and can't prove it.

10/13/2008 8:51:26 PM

do not claim it on your insurance.

find the nicest way you can to tell her you are not paying anything else. the matter was settled when you gave her the $20, if there was no police report then you are not legally bound to pay her anything more.

at least that's what I've been told.

10/13/2008 9:22:02 PM

yeah... fuck that guy. go take a look at it yourself before you give him anything.

10/13/2008 10:19:48 PM

Well I did say that she should contact me if she needed anything else. Quite frankly, I don't want to fuck them over, but more so, I don't want to be fucked over. I am going to go by campus legal services tomorrow and see what they advise. I would love to fix whatever little paint scratch they have on the bumper, provided I caused it, but I don't see that as a justification for me to pay $400 to have their entire bumper repainted.

10/13/2008 10:37:23 PM

You can't paint just a small section on a car and expect it to not be noticeable. It's fairly standard practice to blend the painted section by at least painting the whole panel (up to 1/4-1/2 the car).

Call the husband back and just talk to him. Explain that you're just a college student and can't afford to spend $400 on repairing a small crack. You'd be surprised how people will be willing to work with you when you're just honest and trying to do the right thing. He may be willing to split the cost with you, especially if it's somewhere that's covered or otherwise not very noticeable.

Regardless, fucking him over definitely isn't the right answer. Maybe if everyone would be a fucking adult and actually be responsible for their actions, insurance wouldn't be so high anyway. I'm surprised at the number of people here who think it's fine to blow the people off. I guess it's too much to expect for a bunch of adults to actually act like adults.

10/13/2008 10:58:58 PM

Quote :

"You need to tell him to get at least one more estimate, and that you want a copy of both of the estimates."

10/13/2008 11:27:24 PM

^^she probably already told her husband that a kid hit her.....he will say ask mom and dad...the husband probably went outside with a flashlight and discovered the 3 inch crack in the paint, I doubt he will settle....give them $100 and be done with it....$100 more than what they have now.




[Edited on October 13, 2008 at 11:34 PM. Reason : w]

10/13/2008 11:30:11 PM

did you jump out of the car and say "oh jeez, i'm sorry, it's all my fault"?

if not, you can do whatever you want.

if you did, but there are no witnesses, do what you want.

if there was a witness. depends. do what you want anyway, let the ins. company handle it.

pretty much if you didn't admit guilt AND it happened on private property, there is really nothing to be done by either party.

she fucked herself by not following the rules. money changed hands, but you said contact me. bad choice.

[Edited on October 14, 2008 at 12:41 AM. Reason : eh]

10/14/2008 12:41:06 AM

Well its not that I'm out to fuck these people over. After all, I did hit their car. I just don't want them to go overboard about some shit that isn't necessary.

10/14/2008 12:52:42 AM

then you are either going to have to settle (for equal or lesser) value. minus $20.

how bout you offer to pay them half. tell them you are a broke college student.

make sure you point out that his dumbass wife accepted payment, which fulfills an obligation.

[Edited on October 14, 2008 at 1:03 AM. Reason : gh]

10/14/2008 1:02:12 AM

Quote :

"he's taking you for a ride anyway, cause it doesn't cost $372 + $20 to repaint a bumper. "

that doesn't sound too bad to me if it's a car in good shape (which justifies taking it to a good body shop).

if it's some beater, then you're right.


your insurance should cover it, but you'd be crazy to file a claim over $372, in my opinion. Even though it would probably be a waivable offense (i.e., if you have no other tickets or claims, you prob wouldn't have a rate increase unless you have a claim/ticket in the future, in which case you'll be charged for both).

It's $372, though. Even a college student should have that much on hand. If not, you need to fix your finances.

You being a broke college student has nothing to do with whether or not you should pay to fix it. If you fucked it up, you need to get their car fixed. If the crack was already there and he's trying to get bodywork done on your dime, then fuck 'em. My opinion is that if you hit that area with your car, there's a good chance that you're the one who caused the damage. Sucks, but it's time to be a big girl and ante up.

10/14/2008 7:47:33 AM

Quote :

" if it's some beater, then you're right."

i was wrong, it's a hybrid camry. the price is right.

10/14/2008 8:22:03 AM

You settled it. They want to fight it, small claims court. And defiantly call your insurance and let them look at it. Tell them the full story. They may or may not waive it if you do end up fileing. Ive had 2 waived now.

Were there any witnesses to this? Can you make up any friends that "were in the back seat"? As you settled it fair and square. Paint is cheep. He could have keyd it and then called you for all you know.

10/14/2008 8:48:47 AM

Or you could handle things like a fucking adult with some measure of integrity and not see what you can get away with just because you can.

10/14/2008 12:01:13 PM

^

10/14/2008 12:04:12 PM

personal responsibility seems unamerican.

10/14/2008 12:34:59 PM

when i lived in a complex, i hit some bitch's volkswagen when she parked parallel with the curb directly behind a line of perpendicular park spaces...she was parked right up next a "no parking" sign...backed into her driver-side door and left a decent dent and some bad paint

she didn't live there, she was visiting a friend (she visited this friend every fucking night and parked in the same "no parking" space every time because she was too lazy to walk)

i told her to go fuck herself and call a lawyer if she wanted to argue the legality of parking against posted signage on private property...she played some "this is going to cost me $800 you should at least pay half or i'm going to call a lawyer" game

in the end, nothing happened...this has nothing to do with your situation, except that it makes me laugh to this day

you should ALWAYS take pictures if you're in ANY accident, so they can't come back later and pretend like you did damage you didn't do (though you can't help anything pre-existing)

in this case, talk to them about it...$372 isn't too bad, and, depending on your deductible, might be what you end up paying out of pocket, anyway with a note on your insurance...tell them you want a second estimate and a copy of both

10/14/2008 12:40:38 PM

Quote :

"I gave her 20 buck to replace these items, as well as my name and telephone number, and left."

Quote :

"I thought everything was squared away with the lady(his wife) that night."

If you felt that the $20 absolved you for the damage done, then why did you give her your name and number?

10/14/2008 12:59:29 PM

I always knew a large portion of the population were unscrupulous, but I'm actually a little surprised at how many people on TWW are recommending that he screw this chick over. I'm glad you're willing to step up and take care of your mistake.

Quote :

" Doing the right thing is honorable. Doing the right thing doesn't mean being taken advantage of"

Go check out the damage for yourself. You have a right to see what they want you to pay for. Don't pay them a dime if you can avoid it...Pay the body shop directly. Make sure the body shop knows you're paying out of pocket and you have to rake a lot of leaves to get the cash. Ask them if they can cut you any kind of break and let them know that you'll refer business to them and do anything else you can to help out if they do. You might be surprised that they'll knock off some cash.

The couple is probably trying to just get the money and put it in the bank, which is their prerogative. If that's their plan then I would want three to five estimates from reputable shops. Toss out any ridiculously high or ridiculously low estimates and pay them the average of the others.

I'm glad you are willing to man up and take care of this. It's a shame we have so many weasels on here.

[Edited on October 14, 2008 at 1:07 PM. Reason : s]

10/14/2008 1:05:34 PM

Quote :

"You being a broke college student has nothing to do with whether or not you should pay to fix it. If you fucked it up, you need to get their car fixed. If the crack was already there and he's trying to get bodywork done on your dime, then fuck 'em. My opinion is that if you hit that area with your car, there's a good chance that you're the one who caused the damage. Sucks, but it's time to be a big girl and ante up. "

Agreed. However, if they're asking you to pay, I think you do have the right to a)inspect the damage yourself and b) ask them to get another estimate. If they do both of those things, then you need to take responsibility and pay the costs for the repair.

Don't get your insurance involved over $372. Even if your rates don't go up, the less the insurance company knows about your vehicular transgressions, the better.

10/14/2008 2:45:37 PM

the woman accepted your payment and the debt was settled.
she could very well have driven into something else on her way home.
i'm just sayin.

10/14/2008 3:06:55 PM

^^ agreed

^ sure, but which do you think is the far more plausible scenario?

10/14/2008 3:44:53 PM

^^wrong. The debt was settled barring finding any further damage. There is no other reason for him to have given the driver a name & phone number. You don't say "This should take care of it but here's my number in case you & your husband want to hang out sometime". Had it truly been settled without question of further damage, there would have been no exchanging of contact info.

Seriously, a lot of you need to grow the fuck up and learn to accept responsibility for your actions. It's no wonder we have so many losers sitting on their asses ripping off welfare & unemployment, filing bullshit lawsuits, & complaining about how they got fucked over by society/their job/the cops/insurance/etc.

10/14/2008 9:56:57 PM

Quote :

"Had it truly been settled without question of further damage, there would have been no exchanging of contact info. "

true.

i mean the kid came on here and admitted he fucked up, so hopefully he'll do the right thing and isn't getting scammed in the process.

10/14/2008 11:01:42 PM

^^You have to think of it this way. Legally, once money exchanged hands, and because no one else was involved, the transaction in its entirety had been completed.
Not being a douche, he gave his contact info.

I believe a lot of people are just stating fact: You can be an ass and not pay a dime, because legally you don't have to; or you can man up and pay to have the car fixed because you are a decent human being.

10/15/2008 10:16:37 AM

Quote :

"Or you could handle things like a fucking adult with some measure of integrity and not see what you can get away with just because you can"

10/15/2008 10:29:00 AM

^
that's just unncessary. the OP seems more than willing to take care of it. they haven't posted anything saying that they wouldn't.

10/15/2008 10:45:42 AM

I believe duke was responding to someone else's advice of letting it go and I was agreeing with him. that wasnt directed at the original poster.

10/15/2008 10:50:14 AM

ah i see. my bad.

10/15/2008 12:08:40 PM

Quote :

"i told her to go fuck herself and call a lawyer if she wanted to argue the legality of parking against posted signage on private property...she played some "this is going to cost me $800 you should at least pay half or i'm going to call a lawyer" game"

her illegal parking job has nothing to do with the fact that you drove into a stationary object. count yourself lucky she didn't call the police to file a report & let her insurance pay for it.

10/15/2008 12:34:59 PM

if a person is illegally parked I dont think they have any case against the moving vehicle.

I watch enough Judge Judy to know that.

10/15/2008 1:07:47 PM

I went to campus legal services and she told me that I should offer to have the spot fixed, rather than paint the entire bumper and be done with it. This should cost in the neighborhood of 100 bucks and should be more than sufficient to correct the problem. Maybe I missing some major component of how to paint shit, but one small scratch does not seem to be justification for repainting an entire bumper. As long as you aren't painting the entire car, matching issues are still prevalent so painting the whole bumper versus one part seems silly. After all, if they refuse, they can turn it into my insurance company who already said they weren't going to pay for the whole thing. This seems like a fair compromise for both parties. Plus, it wouldn't kill them to cut a poor college kid who made a mistake some slack.

Comments?

10/15/2008 3:15:16 PM

since when does campus legal services know anything about body work on a new vehicle? when you paint a car you generally have to paint the entire section...quarter panel, bumper, hood, etc...



I thought you would be talking with them more along the lines of liability issues.

10/15/2008 3:31:21 PM

my experiences from a couple different sides:

1: When I was an early undergrad, I accidentally rolled forward into a car's rear bumper when turning out of a parking lot. I cracked the bumper slightly and borrowed the money from my grandmother to pay to replace it. He told me the bumper was $___ which seemed really high, so I looked it up online and regular bumpers were less than that. He told me he had a custom bumper (one of those ricer pieces of shit) and I went to look at his car before I paid to replace it. It was, in fact, the kind of bumper he told me he had, and i just didn't recall because I was too freaked out that I actually hit someone.

2: My wife hit a car in a parking lot at her college and left a note... nothing major, just a dented/scratched corner of a bumper. The girl's dad called and ended up getting an estimate, somethign in the range of $300 for a new bumper. My wife paid them the money, and as of a year or two later, the car still hadn't been fixed.

3: Someone ran into my wife's new (by about 6 months) car at a very slow speed. The only thing that really hit were the two screws that held on the front license plate. My wife said that it wasn't a big deal, DIDN'T get any of their insurance information. I was mad at her, because now she has two small dings in her bumper with the paint nicked off, and I'm concerned that, over time, the paint will start chipping away more and more.


Now, what this all leads to is this. Don't pay THEM the money, pay the money to the shop. There is nothing more infuriating than you trying to do the right thing and repair someones car only to fid that they banked the money. Getting your car hit /= winning the lottery. It's fair to ask for a second estimate then go talk to the shop yourself, taking in the estimate and explaining the situation. They should know you don't have to go with them to repair the bumper and they might knock some off. You should also understand that it is very much reasonable to expect to have to repaint the entire bumper to fix a spot, however if the spot is UNDER the license plate, then calling around and talking to different paint shops may yield someone willing to do a local repaint. Hopefully everything works out. You seem to have good character for wanting to help these people, but you're right. Make sure you're not getting taken advantage of and make sure the money goes to the shop. Treat it as if it were your own car, go talk to them, find the best deal (at least, that's what I would do with my car).

10/15/2008 3:47:19 PM

^If they want to bank the money and not get the car fixed, then so what? If you do $x amount of damage to somebody's property, you should feel the need to repay them, regardless what they use the money for.

Anyways, I'd probably take the advice of student legal services and offer them $100 or whatever to try and fix the area. If they don't like it, then let them file a claim. It shouldn't hurt you too much since they already told you they wouldn't pay the full amount.

EDIT: It is SOP to repaint the whole area to blend the paint job. From what I understand, it's almost impossible to match colors perfectly. Still though, it usually is the person trying to do the right thing that gets screwed over in these situations.

[Edited on October 15, 2008 at 4:20 PM. Reason : ]

10/15/2008 4:18:08 PM

^ I understand what you're saying, but its just my viewpoint that if I messed someones property up, then its my responsibility to fix it, not pay them to get it fixed. Generally, it's easiest for everyone to just give people the money, but that's not your responsibility. It's your responsibility to make it as if the accident didn't happen, which is fixing the car, not putting $300 in their pocket. I can see both sides of the argument, it's just how I feel.

10/15/2008 5:07:00 PM

yeah, but the point is that if you do, say, $500 of damage to a car, you've still cost that person $500, whether he pays $500 to a body shop to repair it, or takes a $500 hit on resale. Your obligation is to eat that $500 if you were the one at at fault.

it doesn't matter if you're broke. it doesn't matter if you think that it shouldn't cost so much to fix something so seemingly minor. it only matters that you were the one who screwed up and now is responsible for making things right.

10/15/2008 5:24:03 PM

Quote :

"it doesn't matter if you think that it shouldn't cost so much to fix something so seemingly minor."

Yeah, it kind of does, insofar as you should exhaust every resource to make sure you aren't getting hosed.

10/15/2008 5:52:29 PM

yeah, that's not what i'm talking about, though.

10/15/2008 5:56:53 PM

I don't look at it as monetary damage.. you're not hurting his money, or taking money from him. I look at it as "Oh, I scratched this guys paint", which is what happened. If you do that, it's your responsibility to fix that guys paint job, not give him money to fix his paint job. If the guy goes and gets an estimate that its going to cost $500 to fix the paint job, and I go and talk to them and they say they'll do it for $350, then I'm going to pay them $350 to fix the paint job, not give the guy $500 because that's the "monetary value" of my damage. You could make 10 different arguments and get ten different estimates for what the "monetary value" of the damage is worth.

10/15/2008 6:01:12 PM