Need some urgent advice following car park incident please

[drbru]

So I returned to my car to see that a child getting into the car parked next to me opened his door and caused damage as per the pic on my rear passenger side door

The female driver of the car was very apologetic and advised that her husband owned a body shop and I could take my car there for a repair..At the time i got her to write something down that acknowledged she was at fault, she allowed me to take a pic of her driving license and her number plate, gave me the number of her husband but refused to give me her insurance details.

I spoke to the husband who initially seemed like he wanted to help but I did say to him that if the car is to be repaired it will be through BMW and only BMW. I also said to him I was happy to accept going through insurance or sorting out with cash but he did say he did not want to go through insurance because of the hike it would place on his trade insurance

I then sent him a picture of the damage to which he then called me back and his tone completely changed. He basically accused me of sending through a different picture of the damage and accused me of harrassing him and his wife and said he would call the police if I continued??! He also said he would deny everything

Obviously my tone changed completely at this point and I am now not interested in making his life any easier. At this point in time he has still not sent through his insurance details and whilst I have informed the police that they have not provided their insurance details, i have still not filed a formal report.

So the question is what do I do?....

Im conscious that I may need a full respray on the door which wont be cheap.

1) If I call up my insurance company and simply inform them of the incident, my premium could well go up even if no claim is made.

2)ALternatively, I give my insurance company all of the details and let them fight it out assuming that the piece of paper with the drivers original acknowledgement of fault is enough to secure a full recoverable claim (no doubt that even in this scanerio my premium will still go up).

3) Third option is to literally do nothing and take it on the chin.

So what do you all think?/

Thanks

[RichDM5]

Call BMW Emergency Services
https://www.bmw.co.uk/bmw-ownership/...gency-services

They claim off the other person insurance, your insurance company is not involved, they manage the case and do the body work.

I believe you still have to declare as a no fault on your next insurance quote.

[OneExtra]

I would log it with the police so you are at least covered if he calls up and makes up a load of lies.

[drbru]

The one thing that I am worried about above all is if I tell my insurance company of this incident....If they cant recover the full costs i wont bother getting this repaired through insurance as its only minor damage however the question is how much they will up my premium by just because I reported this thing...

Knowing what insurance companies are like, probably a lot

[euklid]

a) Telling your insurance about it would cause a massive hike and it will be so for the next five years. So that's a non-starter. You might as well totally forget about going down that route for such little damage.

b) He has warned you not to contact him again which means that he has the upper hand now as he can indeed report you for harassment if you carry on.

c) To get back the upper hand and to make them talk to you again is to send them a legal letter demanding their insurance details. The letter/email should be sent by someone other than you. This letter will force them back into the negotiating table and they will either offer to pay BMW to repair your car or repair it in their own body shop or whatever.

d) You should have accepted his offer to repair your car. BMW rarely does body work on their cars most of the times they send them to local bodyshops and even when they do they are definitely worse that seasoned professionals on the trade. BMW services are not only stupidly overpriced but also below par. The only proper reason to ever go to them is to get the service book stamp.