Insurance claim for vandalism?

[Grant]

Hey everyone... I'm looking for opinions on my current situation.

My car was recently vandalised: 3 panels were kicked in. There's one huge dent in the passenger side C-pillar, some surface scratches on the boot lid, and some smaller although noticable dents in the drivers side rear wheel arch. It looks like the bastards through some kicks at those 3 panels.

Now here's my problem - I don't now where/when exactly it happened. The car was dirty at the time and the since i don't venture to the passenger side of the car often I can't pin down where it happened. Although my suspicions are that it happened in the RSL carpark.

What gave it away as vandalism was the big shoe shaped mark in the dust on the boot lid.. I initially wrote that off as just somewhere where my armed brushed. Once I noticed the other dents I put it all together. Plus the C-pillar dent is way to high to be caused my anything else.

- Will I have to pay young-age excess? (I don't turn 25 till June)
- How do you think I should go about making a claim since I don't now where it happened?

Thanks for any advice guys.

[brimway]

In all circumstances dealing with your insurance company, be honest and tell it exactly how it is. Insurance companies are not stupid and whilst being honest may impact on you negatively, being dishonest could turn out worse for you.

[kamold]

I don't think it really matters where it happened. You are paying the excess (including any age excess as specified on your policy) so all you need to tell your insurer is that it happened whilst you were parked at a carpark, and no they don't have any cameras that caught the offender. Or you can just say you don't know when it happened, it doesn't make any difference.

Unless your insurer can put the blame on an individual after being convicted of causing the damage, they just pay for the repairs, minus your excess. Thats the benefit of comprehensive insurance.

[Grant]

I want to be honest.. just don't want it to come back and bite me in the backside if they start poking holes in my explanation since I can't say where it definitely happened.

Would it be better to say it happened at a certain carpark? (eg. manufacture a certain date/time/place)

I have no claim for life, $500 excess plus $400 age excess (not sure if I will have to pay this as I wasn't driving?) If I have to pay $900 just to have it fixed I might as well wait until I'm 25 in 6 months time.

[blutopless2]

If you are honest about it and tell them you are unsure of where/when it happened then it cant come back on you later. Dont fabricate the circumstances coz it could backfire on you. Tell them up front you dont know where/when it happened but noticed it on (insert date here)....
If you make a claim you are going to pay the excess. If they dont have someone to claim against to recover the repair costs you will pay the excess and not get it back.
Up to you how you proceed from here...

[wai]

As you say it is vandalism, it would help if you filed a police report. It is not that the police can do anything without any other evidence, just that to make a police report, you are effectively swearing a statement under oath. If you are later found to have made a false report, then it becomes a police matter (not that you are making a false report D) ).

Following from this, don't try and make anything up. Just tell it like you discovered it.

It might also pay to get a quote to fix it as you will most probably lose any no-claim bonus. Just do the sums on what you will be paying for the next few years.

[Grant]

thanks for the advice guys.

Do you think I will have to pay the extra age excess even though I wasn't technically driving? If I do I will wait until I'm 25 since I don't have a spare $1000 just laying around.

Losing no-claim isn't an issue as I have 65% for life already.

[frozze]

thanks for the advice guys.

Do you think I will have to pay the extra age excess even though I wasn't technically driving? If I do I will wait until I'm 25 since I don't have a spare $1000 just laying around.

Losing no-claim isn't an issue as I have 65% for life already.

The age excess applies if you're under 25 when making a claim, period. Doesn't matter if you were driving or not. As long as you make a claim (without providing them details of the offender), you have to pay the basic excess and any another excess that may apply to you. In your case, that includes the age excess.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II using Tapatalk

[woofy]

thanks for the advice guys.

Do you think I will have to pay the extra age excess even though I wasn't technically driving? If I do I will wait until I'm 25 since I don't have a spare $1000 just laying around.

Losing no-claim isn't an issue as I have 65% for life already.

Not so true if you ever change insurers.....and the NCB has slightly different specs for insurers, we never claimed, or were at fault, and then a friend reversedinto out parked car, claimed all fault, and their insurer paid everything. We then told our insurer and next premium had a nice hike in it due to a claim being made......apaprently rating one didn't mean that.

[Grant]

thanks guys... guess i wont be making a claim then since $1000 excess is a bit much for some dents. might get some claims to see how much it will cost or just wait 6 months when i'm 25.

[VW Convert]

thanks guys... guess i wont be making a claim then since $1000 excess is a bit much for some dents. might get some claims to see how much it will cost or just wait 6 months when i'm 25.

You need to be a little careful with regards to waiting. The excess that will apply will be the excess that existed at the time the damage occurred. Even though you may not know exactly when the damage occurred, you may be asked by your insurer for an approximate date, if the damage is such that an assessor could identify that the damage was old you could run into trouble there. Also, does your policy require you to notify the insurer within a specified/reasonable time of any occurrence likely to give rise to a claim?

I would caution against supplying any false or misleading information on a claim, the consequences of getting caught will far outweigh the saving of a few hundred dollars.

Cheers

George

[dylan8]

If you were not driving the car at the time of the incident why would you have to pay the under 25yo excess?

[nightphotographer]

You could get a dent guy to get all the damage out for you for less than that as long as they haven't taken any paint out. I'm training to be a part time dent tech at the moment and once I've built my tool kit up in the next couple of weeks I could take a look at it all for you.

[Grant]

there's no paint damage apart from some surface scratches which are only visible up close (would most likely polish up)... i'll snap some pics for you to have a guess at a rough cost.

---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:41 PM ----------

this is the biggest dent.. hard to see in a pic but its about the diameter of a soccer ball. the panel is pushed in, no paint damage.... theres about 3 on the drivers side but they are tennis ball sized and are located near the rear wheel arch.

[Smead]

I can sorta see it.

Why are you hiding your wheels?