I was involved in an accident this morning.  Driving along the road and a young guy in a big fast car swerved turned into a petrol station and broadsided my car.  Totally his fault.

 He's desperate to pay for the repairs to the car without going through insurance and says his mate works for a body shop and will make sure everythign is perfect.  I reckon car needs new bumper, new wing and at least 1 new door.  He already led me to Kwik Fit and paid for a replacement tyre then and there.  He says he will get car fixed whatever it costs and pay for a hire car whilst mine is being fixed.

 I am shaky on the legal position this would put me in.  As I see it, the options open to me are

1) Agree to his offer.  I would insist on all paperwork from garage and do my own check for references.  I would also tell my insurers about said incident and explain that he offered to pay.

2) Agree to let him pay for work but at a garage of MY choice, such as a main dealer's bodyshop and make him leave his credit card number with them rather than me pay and claim back.  They'd probably provide a courtesy car anyway.

3) Tell him to get lost and just phone my insurers and let them deal with it.  I have hire car cover and as it is other party at fault wouldn't have to worry about being made to cram a family of four into a Micra.

I don't think he's dodgy by the way, just young and driving an expensive car on his parent's policy and knows that a claim will send his premium through the roof.

My contribution from experience. The adrenilin is up at the time. A few days later 'cash' is not looking so attractive from either side.

THE REAL reason I have butted in here is PLEASE PLEASE think very carefully and get good advice before you do anything more. Members should be able to contribute to your fund of knowledge.

I don't think he's dodgy by the way, just young and driving an expensive car on his parent's policy and knows that a claim will send his premium through the roof.

Are you certain he is even insured at all ?

If you believe he possibly may not be, or come to think of it, if you are sure he is ? .... then I would go for your option 2 on condition that he admits full liability on paper and agrees to re-imburse you in full.

If he refuses your reasonable request to put it in writing, ....I would tell him that you are going for option 3, after all it's you who is doing him a favour. !!!

I've logged the incident with my insurers but informed them I am not immedately going to make aclaim as the 3rd party has offered to pay.  It was worthwhile experience because I was able to glean from the insurers that the car was insured and that the insurancepolicy was registered with them!  This confirms what the other driver told me, so it has put my mind at rest.

 I am going to let his friend inspect the car and give me a proper quote.  I will then get a second opinion from a well regarded local bodyshop to see how it compares.

although it might only look like cosmetic damage i.e. a new bumper there could be structural damage to the car and the chassis which his friend might just gloss over. I personally would never let it be done like this. If he is prepared to pay take it to an independant garage to tell you what needs dun first then get him to pay for it!

Hmas what's happening?

Just a word of warning, Although it's entirely your call, you have the "gut feeling" of whether the chap will pay up etc.

But if you just "inform" your insurance company of someone hitting you, and you don't claim on your or his insurance, you have still in the mind of the insurance company "hand an accident" and they will load your policy up next renewal!!

It is bloody wrong but they do!! I myself was sitting in my car stationary waiting for someone to come out of a car park once, and the lady hit me, admitted it as her fault.

After various conversations with her "rude" and damn right obnoxious husband trying to worm out of it with statements and rants down the phone at me ranging from it being my fault to her not even being there and made it up, to me hitting a wall in said car park etc they evenutally agreed to pay a resonable price after me getting several quotes.

I resorted to contacting my insurance company to get them to contact the person to "scare" them into proceeding with claim before they aggreed on paying and later informed the insurance company that "no claim will be made".

They now apparently class me in the "higher risk" and I am more prone to accidents thus higer premiums ??? even though I was just sitting in my car in a private car park stationary and some lousy driver who couldn't drive one of those 4x4 things and misjudged her vehicle size!.

Beware, you have now been classed as having had an accident in insurance terms!!

i don't know if all of them do this but the one I was with was a certain grey mammal with a trunk ;-)