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Settling a Damage Claim After Hitting a Parked Vehicle

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  • 04-19-2016, 01:32 PM
    gonzodude
    Settling a Damage Claim After Hitting a Parked Vehicle
    My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: CA

    Background:
    In November, 2015, approx. 3 days before Thanksgiving, I was leaving my work during my lunch hour and accidentally backed into an old, beat-up '95 Chevy Tahoe that was parked in the lot by my work. I left a message on the vehicle and someone who did not own the vehicle, but was a friend of theirs said they'd pass on the message to the owner of the vehicle. He gave me their phone number, which I called that day and left a message with my contact info. I waited until after Thanksgiving, and still no call from the owner of the vehicle. So, I called the friend back, and he said that the owner was out of town and that they'd be getting back to me when they returned. Well, now it's 4 months later and they finally decide to call me and now, all the sudden, they want their truck fixed and are demanding money from me for the damages I caused back in November.

    Originally, I was going to go through my insurance. But, from my understanding, the incident would have had to be reported to my insurance within 24 hours. I figured that it I would wait to hear from them before filing a claim with my insurance. My thoughts on this are such that, why report something and open a claim and then wind up not ever hearing from them again? (btw, this has happened to me twice in the last 5 years). Who knows - maybe, they will junk the vehicle, etc, or .... who knows? :confused:

    So, obviously, it's been much longer than 24 hours, and I told the owner of the vehicle that we'd have to settle this privately for cash.

    Before I hit the vehicle, almost all the paint was peeling off of it, and it tons of other dents and damage that was there previously before I hit it, which were all over the vehicle. It looked like something that belonged in a junk yard. In fact, from what I gathered, the vehicle was purchased from a wrecking yard and has a "salvage" title.

    Fast Forward to the repairs:
    I have recently enlisted the help of a friend, who owns a used car business, as well as a fully-licensed body shop and collision repair center. I have paid him to repair the driver's door, front fender, mirror, and tire on that side - all of which I damaged. He is also going to paint everything the original OEM matching color that he specially ordered so it would be an exact match to the original factory paint.

    Problems:
    I was thinking that everyone was happy, and her and my friend worked out a deal to have the whole thing painted and fixed. But, her boyfriend got involved and that's when things started getting ugly. First of all, he is one of those young "body-builder types" who started trying to take advantage of me and my friend at his body shop. The boyfriend became so demanding and ridiculous about the whole thing that my friend decided to put their truck back together and he refuses to do any more work on their truck, outside of the work needed to repair the damage that I did.

    Now, they want to take it somewhere else, to their friend's body shop, have the WHOLE truck painted and all the minor dents fixed all over it, all on my dime. In addition, because a small chunk was taken out of the LF front driver's side tire, they are claiming that the truck now needs a bunch of front-end work as well as a complete 4-wheel alignment. This is BS, because me and my friend have driven the truck after the damage occurred and it drives perfectly and has no issues.

    Bottom Line:
    It's quite obvious that the "boyfriend" is basically trying to get over on me and trying to get the whole truck fixed on my dime.

    Questions:

    Note: I have taken lots of pics of the truck and the damage I did, when it occurred back in Nov. 2015, and I also have several eyewitnesses that seen the damage at that time, and they will vouch for me and say that I only did the damage on the LF fender and door area only, not the rest of the truck as the boyfriend is claiming.

    1) What do I do now? If they come back to me after they get more work done somewhere else and want more money from me, what do I do?
    2) Is there a way that I can protect myself from from these people and any further future claims against me on this incident? ... some sort of waiver or contract from this point forward perhaps?

    I just want to resolve this thing and put it behind me, and for it to be just a done deal. I don't want any more issues or repercussions from this point forward.

    If anyone can shed some light on this situation, I'd appreciate it,

    Thanks,
    -gonzodude
  • 04-19-2016, 02:24 PM
    adjusterjack
    Re: I Hit a Parked Vehicle, Settling Without Going Through Insurance . Need Advice
    Quote:

    Quoting gonzodude
    View Post

    1) What do I do now? If they come back to me after they get more work done somewhere else and want more money from me, what do I do?

    You have the option of saying "no." Then wait and see if you get sued.

    You can still report it to your insurance company and explain why you made such a bloody mess of the affair.

    Quote:

    Quoting gonzodude
    View Post

    2) Is there a way that I can protect myself from from these people and any further future claims against me on this incident? ... some sort of waiver or contract from this point forward perhaps?

    Yes, you can easily find a "damage claim release" form on the internet.

    To bad you didn't think to get one at the time you arranged for the first set of repairs. You can bet they won't sign anything now.

    Bottom line: You f----d up big time. You kept your insurance company out of the loop and now you pay the consequences.

    In the future, when you have an accident, report it to your insurance immediately. Don't wait for the other people to get back to you. Your insurance company would have made short work of the claimant and defended you against any outrageous claims.

    Expensive life lesson from the school of hard knocks.
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