Rear ended, but no visible damage. Advice please.

[Don Barzini]

Car in question is a Rav4, brand new in December 2022. I have it on a three year monthly payment deal. Balloon payment at the end, or hand it back.

Wife was driving it yesterday. Sat at a roundabout, car goes into the back of her. Low speed. Woman of other car very apologetic, holds her hand up and says it's her fault, she thought my wife was pulling away and followed.

They have a look at both cars. Other woman's is dented by the collision but there's absolutely no visible damage to mine. Wife makes a note of her registration and gets her name and mobile number.

I've looked at my car and I can see no visible damage. Maybe a tiny dint/scrape here and there which may well have been there anyway from stones flicking up or whatever. I am by no means an expert on cars, but from my limited knowledge bumpers can be funny things and while there's no visible damage, there could possibly be damage that I can't see......?

So how to approach this? I don't just want to assume there's no damage as from what I know of car dealerships at the end of my three years they'll go over it with a fine tooth comb and use any excuse to devalue it. So if there's something I miss it could affect me further down the line.

So - do I just contact my insurance company and let them take charge of the situation? I assume they'd have to take the car away and assess it and would obviously get the other woman's insurance involved. I have no particular worries that the other woman would put up a fight. She held up her hands and admitted fault and I also have a dash cam which although front facing would show my wife didn't do anything wrong.

Or - do I take my own time and effort in taking it down to a garage myself to get assessed? And only then if I'm told there's damage should I call my insurance?

I've been in bumps and accidents before, but never something like this where there's no obvious damage.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rooter]

Go and get it checked ASAP, crumple zones and flexible bumpers with decent paint, mean the bumper will flex and not crack, but behind that it could have done some damage. If its new ish and not owned outright by you, i would have it checked by a reputable bodyshop asap.

I would do the above privately first and then assess the situation from there. Even if it costs you a few quid to get someone to look over it,

 

[Neilds]

I agree with Rooter, get it checked yourself first before you go to the insurance company. You may find the insurance company logs the inquiry as a 'claim' even if they don't find anything and it can affect you down the line. We found this with a leaky roof which wasn't covered as it was a flat roof but the company still put a marker on our account even though there was no claim or payout.

 

[jim8flog]

I agree with Rooter, get it checked yourself first before you go to the insurance company. You may find the insurance company logs the inquiry as a 'claim' even if they don't find anything and it can affect you down the line. We found this with a leaky roof which wasn't covered as it was a flat roof but the company still put a marker on our account even though there was no claim or payout.

This is because within the small print there is a requirement to notify the insurance company of anything that might change their assessment of the risk of insuring you.

It is up to you to decide if you want to follow that requirement.

It is worth remembering that insurance companies talk to each other these days and if the other driver has damage they may well be putting in a claim on their own insurance and your details will be logged and your insurer notified.

Remember that if if there is no damage you can claim the cost of the assessment off the driver driver as an uninsured loss.

 

[RichA]

Get it checked. Dad had a knock that caused no visible damage as the bumper did its job. A quick look underneath though and most of the plastic pins that secure it in place had sheared. It was one pothole from the bumper dropping off.

 

[rulefan]

Contact your insurance company first. They should arrange for all inspection work etc. The other driver's insurers will contact yours so get your retaliation in first .

Unfortunately you can't control what the other driver says. I had someone reverse into me when I was just sitting in a carpark waiting for my wife. The other driver apologised and admitted it was their fault. But then told their insurer we had backed into each other. However my insurer backed me and it cost me nothing and no effect on my policy.
But with hindsight I should have taken photos as my car was still well within the box and the other car was actually overlapping 'my' box

 

[Bdill93]

Yeah in my experience when I tried to get my car checked privately first I had a phone call from my insurer before I could.

They were not happy I didn't report the incident to them right away!

Id always let your insurer know before doing anything - its not your wifes fault so shouldn't affect her NCB?

 

[Piece]

Agree with above, noting it is up to you where to you take your car for any eventual repair.

 

[Billysboots]

I’d be a little wary of involving your insurance just yet. The reason I say that is that, in the event there is NO damage to your vehicle and your wife sustained no injury, the incident you describe is not legally classified as a reportable road traffic collision. Any damage or injury has to be sustained by someone other than the offending driver or their vehicle.

If you contact your insurance company now and report the fact that your car has been involved in an RTC, even if no fault is attributable to you or your wife as policy holders, there is the potential for you to be opening yourself to a world of policy premium pain in the years to come.

Certainly get your vehicle checked over if you think it necessary, but I would err on the side of caution regarding involving insurance companies at this stage.

 

[rulefan]

I’d be a little wary of involving your insurance just yet. The reason I say that is that, in the event there is NO damage to your vehicle and your wife sustained no injury, the incident you describe is not legally classified as a reportable road traffic collision. Any damage or injury has to be sustained by someone other than the offending driver or their vehicle.

If you contact your insurance company now and report the fact that your car has been involved in an RTC, even if no fault is attributable to you or your wife as policy holders, there is the potential for you to be opening yourself to a world of policy premium pain in the years to come.

Certainly get your vehicle checked over if you think it necessary, but I would err on the side of caution regarding involving insurance companies at this stage.

​

When I reported the incident above to my insurers they said I had done the right thing by pre-empting any potential claim by the other party. Any reputable insurer would not make any changes to your policy in the situation described.

www.gov.uk › vehicle-insurance › if-youre-in-an-accident
If you have an accident causing damage or injury you must give the following to anyone with ‘reasonable grounds for requiring them’, for example an insurance company:

• your name and address
• the vehicle registration number

You also need to give the owner’s name and address if the vehicle is not yours.
You must report the accident to the police within 24 hours if you do not give your details at the time of the accident.
You must also report the accident to your insurance company, even if you’re not planning to make a claim.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

If very low speed, which it sounds like it would have been, the bumper will likely have done it's job and absorbed the impact. Presumably you have parking sensors on the back and they're all working fine?

Given it's a Rav 4, there's also the possibility that, depending on the size of the car that's hit it, that any scrapes and what not might be slightly underneath, rather than square on.

I wouldn't involve the insurers, sounds very very minor. It takes very little to scuff paint work, if it were anything other than very minor, there would likely be more obvious damage to the paint work or the parking sensors. Worth having a look underneath to see if anything looks out of place or if any clips are snapped.

If you're still at all concerned, do you have a local independent mechanic (someone you know probably, given the nature of the request) you could ask to inspect it?

If you did decide to go via insurance, claim directly with the other parties insurance company. Let yours know, of course, but you can speak directly to the other insurance co. I did this a few years ago when someone drove into my wife's 1 series convertible - the other side's insurance fell over themselves to get it sorted, including giving us a 435 convertible as a courtesy car and letting us get it fixed with our local main dealer. Funnily enough, we decided to book a short notice long weekend in the lake district.....

 

[Canary_Yellow]

​

When I reported the incident above to my insurers they said I had done the right thing by pre-empting any potential claim by the other party. Any reputable insurer would not make any changes to your policy in the situation described.

www.gov.uk › vehicle-insurance › if-youre-in-an-accident
If you have an accident causing damage or injury you must give the following to anyone with ‘reasonable grounds for requiring them’, for example an insurance company:

• your name and address
• the vehicle registration number

You also need to give the owner’s name and address if the vehicle is not yours.
You must report the accident to the police within 24 hours if you do not give your details at the time of the accident.
You must also report the accident to your insurance company, even if you’re not planning to make a claim.

Any accident (at fault or otherwise), whether it impacts NCB or not, will result in your premium going up when it comes to renewal time.

 

[Billysboots]

​

When I reported the incident above to my insurers they said I had done the right thing by pre-empting any potential claim by the other party. Any reputable insurer would not make any changes to your policy in the situation described.

www.gov.uk › vehicle-insurance › if-youre-in-an-accident
If you have an accident causing damage or injury you must give the following to anyone with ‘reasonable grounds for requiring them’, for example an insurance company:

• your name and address
• the vehicle registration number

You also need to give the owner’s name and address if the vehicle is not yours.
You must report the accident to the police within 24 hours if you do not give your details at the time of the accident.
You must also report the accident to your insurance company, even if you’re not planning to make a claim.

Ultimately it depends on clauses in individual policies because I suspect many insurers will require all incidents to be reported regardless of damage or fault.

But my point was that, legally, the incident described by the OP is not a reportable collision. There being no injury, for the collision to be classed as reportable damage had to be sustained by the OP’s car.

After consideration I suppose reporting the incident is perhaps wise.

 

[Hobbit]

Bear in mind, if you hand it back and they find damage it will be you who gets the bill. Get it checked…

 

[rulefan]

Any accident (at fault or otherwise), whether it impacts NCB or not, will result in your premium going up when it comes to renewal time.

My insurer has guaranteed that will not happen. Renewal will be the same next time as last (unless further incidents occur).

 

[SocketRocket]

The other person may put in a claim against you and if you've not reported it your insurance may say you have not carried out your responsibility to do so.

Report it.

 

[upsidedown]

Any accident (at fault or otherwise), whether it impacts NCB or not, will result in your premium going up when it comes to renewal time.

I was ran in to and reported it to Volvo as my first port of call as I had a tow bar underneath so needed it to be checked out and they supply a courtesy car ( actually they hire one and claim off the other parties insurance, was over £600 a day as needed one with tow bar . Due to length of time getting parts bill would have been over £10K for hire car !!!!)
Insurance renewal time and premium went down by £40

There was very superficial damage but tow bars are replaced as ,matter of course

 

[jim8flog]

Any accident (at fault or otherwise), whether it impacts NCB or not, will result in your premium going up when it comes to renewal time.

Not in my experience after a major claim last year with the other driver at fault and not with a major one a few years ago where my insurance company accepted the claim (despite the police saying it was the other drivers fault).

It just gets recorded as a no fault incident.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

Not in my experience after a major claim last year with the other driver at fault and not with a major one a few years ago where my insurance company accepted the claim (despite the police saying it was the other drivers fault).

It just gets recorded as a no fault incident.

It’s all in the insurance risk algorithms

https://www.comparethemarket.com/car-insurance/content/do-non-fault-claims-need-to-be-declared/#:~:text=Does%20declaring%20a%20non%2Dfault,it%20wasn't%20your%20fault.

 

[Don Barzini]

Thanks for everyone’s replies on this.

Update. I spoke to the dealership that I bought the car from and they said they’d check the car over but they charge £90 to do this.

So I spoke to the other woman and explained I’d be happy to keep insurance out of it if there genuinely is no damage but I would need it checking properly. She was happy to pay the £90 and has bank transferred it to me. So I’ll get it checked properly and hopefully all is ok.

Thanks again.