Car Park Smash in Carcassonne

[HoneySuckleDreams]

My wife has just landed in Carcassonne after leaving the car for a week in the car park. Some knob has driven into the side of the car. Of course there is no note or CCTV for that matter. She thinks it's drivable but not a pleasant welcome home message

Does anyone know of the protocol? Police?  insurance etc.

 

[NormanH]

Very sorry to hear about that.

Others are more expert in this, but I think she needs to report it to he Police as the Insurance will probably ask for a copy of the Police report. I also think it needs to be reported immediately to your Insurance probably with teh 'constat' form.

As a thought there is usually 'assistance' included to get you home. Can she call them out to get a professional opinion on whether the drive it or have it brought back by them 

[Jay]

Our car was dented in a UK car park, no problem driving it. We returned home and claimed under our fully comp. insurance without any problem. I don't think the police would be the slightest bit interested.

I suspect calling out the recovery people would not get the car home. As far as I am aware they take it to the nearest main agent.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

She is enroute home now, so the car is drivable...it just looks a mess. She will call in at the insurance people on her way home and see what they have to say. She had someone at the airport sign an incident form (they were very helpful and concerned, but ultimately it's not their problem) but as we have fully comp ins on this car then it will be just us and the insurance company.

Oh well...moving on

[NormanH]

[quote user="Jay"]Our car was dented in a UK car park, no problem driving it. We returned home and claimed under our fully comp. insurance without any problem. I don't think the police would be the slightest bit interested.

I suspect calling out the recovery people would not get the car home. As far as I am aware they take it to the nearest main agent.

[/quote]

Neither do I, but the Insurance company might want some verification and in any case it is a 'délit de fuite'. There might be consequences for the no-claim bonus.

http://www.assurland.com/assurance-blog/accident-de-voiture-un-delit-de-fuite-et-ensuite.html

Pas de responsable identifié : quelle procédure pour l’assurance ? 

 

Si le responsable d’un délit de fuite n’est pas identifié, la victime qui est seule et non

blessée risque de n'avoir aucune indemnisation de la part du Fonds de garantie pour les assurances dommages obligatoires, le FGAO.

 

Ce dispositif n'intervient qu'en cas de dommage corporel ou d'un décès d'une personne suite à l'accident.

 

Pour bénéficier des services du FGAO, il faut répondre à un certain nombre de critères :

 

   • L’accident doit avoir lieu en France ou dans l’espace économique européen (EEE)

   • L’accident doit impliquer un véhicule terrestre à moteur, une personne ou un animal (domestique ou sauvage)

   • Selon le type de dommage : les dommages corporels sont

entièrement pris en charge en cas de responsable non identifié ou sans assurance voiture

; les dommages matériels sont pris en charge en cas de non

identification du responsable ou de non assurance et si la victime a

subi des dommages corporels. 

 

Sophie appelle tout de suite sa compagnie d’assurance pour

l’informer de son accident mais également de la situation dont elle est

victime : le délit de fuite de l’autre automobiliste.

 

[Pickles]

As NH says, the police may not actually do anything to investigate the incident, (and that might be the case whether in the UK or France), but you are in France and it is best to make an official complaint "contre X" (?) for the damage and "delit de fuite". They probably will not want to take the complaint but you ought to insist. Your insurance company would expect you to do so.

[dave21478]

 I love Carcassonne airport carpark.

[img]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc297/dave21478/short/DSC00328.jpg[/img]

[Pickles]

[quote user="dave21478"] I love Carcassonne airport carpark.

[/quote]

I'm sure that that one has been posted before, but I saw that one in the flesh, so to speak - and a couple of others that had been vandalised - a couple of years (?) ago.  There were also the usual collection of cars that were UK regd, no tax disc, with and without French insurance certs.

[idun]

When we first moved to France our car was hit twice when parked and no  note.

I didn't know France before I moved there, and then when I saw the way people drove, we decided to buy our very first new car, so it was that brand new car that was hit and within weeks of buying it.

We had to contact our insurer and we had it repaired via the insurance on both occasions.

[Jay]

[quote user="Pickles"]As NH says, the police may not actually do anything to investigate the incident, (and that might be the case whether in the UK or France), but you are in France and it is best to make an official complaint "contre X" (?) for the damage and "delit de fuite". They probably will not want to take the complaint but you ought to insist. Your insurance company would expect you to do so.

[/quote]

I did ask my broker if I was supposed to report it and he said it was not necessary and would have been a waste of time unless it was an accident, vandalism or theft. The forms were completed in the agents office and I did not lose my NCB. The paint shop advised the insurance of the repair cost and they didn't even bother inspecting. Next time I get a scratch on the car in Super U car park I must remember to inform the police!

[Pickles]

[quote user="Jay"][quote user="Pickles"]As NH says, the police may not actually do anything to investigate the incident, (and that might be the case whether in the UK or France), but you are in France and it is best to make an official complaint "contre X" (?) for the damage and "delit de fuite". They probably will not want to take the complaint but you ought to insist. Your insurance company would expect you to do so.

[/quote]

I did ask my broker if I was supposed to report it and he said it was not necessary and would have been a waste of time unless it was an accident, vandalism or theft. The forms were completed in the agents office and I did not lose my NCB. The paint shop advised the insurance of the repair cost and they didn't even bother inspecting. Next time I get a scratch on the car in Super U car park I must remember to inform the police!

[/quote]

I think that the point I would make is that it's about horses for courses . It sounds like the damage on the OP's car is rather more than "a scratch". If it falls into the "accident" or "vandalism" categories (and it could easily be the latter) then why not report it? If no-one reports such acts then as far as the authorities are concerned, they never happened, and yet your premiums still rise.

[NormanH]

Les assureurs prévoient une couverture complémentaire pour les dégâts

causés aux véhicules garés. Cette couverture s’applique aux dommages

causés par des tiers inconnus. Les sinistres de ce genre peuvent être

limités en nombre de cas par année d’assurance et/ou en somme

d’assurance par sinistre, conformément aux conditions d’assurance ; cela

varie d’une compagnie d’assurance à l’autre. Une police d’assurance

casco complète vous protégerait également, sous déduction de la

franchise prévue dans votre contrat et peut-être avec une perte de bonus

à votre charge. Il est important d’annoncer immédiatement le sinistre à

votre assureur pour que celui-ci puisse éventuellement ordonner

l’inspection de votre véhicule. Vérifiez si les CGA (conditions

générales d’assurance) annexées à votre contrat d’assurance vous

obligent à annoncer les dégâts de parking à la Police locale.

That is to say check to see if the small print says that you have to report it to the Police.

As I said at the beginning I am certainly less experienced in car insurance than other posters here, but I do know the weaselly  ways of French insurers and they are quite capable of asking for something like a copy of a report later down the line.

It would be a pity not to have one if needed, but I accept that if nothing is said in the CGV then it is unlikely to be required.

[Jay]

Maybe it is more than a scratch,  as you say. It will be interesting to see what HoneySD reports after speaking to the insurance. I don't think it could in any way be construed as hit and run ( 'délit de fuite'). In my opinion it will be treat as simple car park damage and as such will be covered by fully comp insurance.

I have to say I have not had any reason for complaint from my experience with insurance companies here in France. I presume you are speaking from experience Norman when you speak of the "weaselly  ways of French insurers"? I know that the two claims we have made for car damage have been dealt with professionally and speedily to my complete satisfaction. I also know of two friends who have made claims under their house insurance and also report no problems.

[idun]

 Well I was but a young thing when this happened and the insurance company was OK about it then.

 I got to know quite a few of the conseilleres at our local MAIF office, and they would have kept me straight.

[NormanH]

Yes I have had problems with house insurance, Mutuelle, car insurance and emergency plumbing insurance, but then I have been here a long time, and have never been able to afford things like fully comprehensive insurance, not least because the French company adamantly refused to take into account my many years no-claim bonus from the UK.

This was in 1995, and I believe others have been more successful since as more and more British motorists have been giving them business, but that was my experience back than.

I posted  before about the frankly misleading offer of my then Mutuelle, which made it seem that a single room would be reimbursed for the whole of a stay in Hospital, but who decided that the after-care no longer counted as being in a surgical ward, and my house insurance who decided that the damage done to the roof by a storm was to be put down to lack of maintenance and only offered to pay for the repainting of the ceiling which cost less than the franchise.

I could go on with sudden late demands for more and more papers, intended to let them wriggle out if ever I hadn't got a specific one. (3 years water bills signed to show they had been paid, a signed statement from the plumber giving details of the work done, with the exact reading of the metre on that day, and a letter from Lyonnaise des Eaux saying how much they had let me off the bill , even though they hadn't)

When my card was stolen I obviously had to give the police reference before I was reimbursed, but that was pretty standard.

On the delit de fuite, I would say that as often the French an English perspectives are a bit different.

"Hit and run" suggests to me that someone has been 'hit' and injured, where as in a delit de fuite   Le délit est constitué même si l'accident est minime, ayant occasionné des infimes dommages matériels.

[Jay]

Norman, reading your posts I get the impression you seem to think that you are the only one who has lived here for a considerable time. I sympathise with all the problems you have had, you have been so unlucky it is hard to believe. Perhaps you have just made some bad choices?

Both my wife and I have been in hospital without any hassle from our mutuelle, in fact the biggest bill we had was 9€ for phone calls. We both have had a claim paid by our car insurance without a hitch, had protracted dealings with EDF and water authorities (who doesn’t?) all of which worked out fine in the end.

We also had stupid quotes for car insurance when we first arrived but travelled around several companies and eventually had our NC Discount accepted. For third party insurance car park damage may well not be covered, I have never found fully comp. Insurance much more expensive.

This is all off topic and I would be more interested in hearing what the outcome is from the OP when they have seen the insurance broker.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

My wife is going to the insurance people tomorrow.

It is a little more than a scratch though, the wing is deformed enough for the inner wing to have dropped onto the wheel, and the drivers door won't open.

She says, that she thinks it was more likely to have been a van or truck due to the height of the impact. Even one of the big 4x4's with a tow bar would not have made that sort of damage.

There is a lot of building work being done (to be more precise, a lot of builders standing around smoking) at Carcassonne at the moment, but I would be suprised if the builders would be using a pay car park to park their trucks.

You realise how good some other airports are with security and such (toulouse especially). Carcassonne airport really is a hole

[NormanH]

If that is the case (bad enough all the same, and very irritating) and you have fully comprehensive Insurance Jay is probably right that all will be settled easily.

I replied in the first few minutes and saw the word "SMASH" which suggested a lot worse

Thank goodness it wasn't.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

yes, sorry for misleading you Norman :

Daily Wail headline "Car park SMASH at Carcassonne"

   ... english wife returning to her 225,000€ house in FRANCE found her car SMASHED by FRENCH Builders

[NormanH]

Correction:

"French builders target Englishwoman   for being British in Carcassonne Car park SMASH"

[:D] [:D] [:D]

[HoneySuckleDreams]

an update...

 

The Insurance will pick up the tab for repairs (minus the excess).. Huzzah!

 

We've been back to Carcassonne airport and my cynical finger pointed pointedly at the builders trucks parked exactly where our car was. I even had a sniff at all the bumpers to check for paint  [Www]... CSI has nothing on me

[Jay]

Nice to get an update, I'm glad it worked out the way it should.