Expert: Richard Hixenbaugh - 10/20/2009

Question
My wife had parking lot scratches issues today. My wife had parked the van to pickup my son from school. There was very little space between her van and other car.

While coming back from school, other person started yelling that she is waiting for 15 mins and you did not park the van properly. Before my wife says anything other lady was saying let me take the pictures and will call the police etc..., my wife said do what ever you want to do but I am leaving and by mistake she pressed the side door button. There was not enough space between her van and other car which lead into scratches on both van and car.

Now other lady called the police and police said is not a legal issue so they asked them to share the phone number and took both driver license number and asked my wife to pay the damage cost. Other person car got few scratches on the back side and our van on the side door.

Does it make sense to inform insurance company. How long shall we wait for other party to provide damage estimates.

Will it have any impact to our insurance. If we involve insurance company then who would provide the info, is it police or we have to provide. Police said it's my wife fault since there was not much space for other person to drive out and now you pressed the button which damaged other person car.

Sanjay


Answer
Hi Sanjay,

Yes it would be considered to be your wifes fault. You should ask the other driver to privide you with an estimate. If you think it is something you can pay out of pocket you should do so but only in exchange for a signed release form. If the estimate is to high for you to pay, you should file a claim with your insurance company. If so it may have an affect on your premiums.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh