UKH

My wife clips a car that pulled out from a stationary lane on a roundabout into her path. From her point it's his fault, from his it's hers for not seeing him do this.

Her damage is a small scuff on the plastic bumper about the size of a pound coin.
His is a small indent with a scuff but nearly knew car.

She let her insurer know as he will be claiming on his. But now she has a dilmena:

1. Get her car repaired on insurance, pay £250 excess and hopefully get it back, but if they settle knock-for-knock she'll lose her no claims and have paid £250 for a repair that won't really cost that.
2. Not get it repaired through insurance, hope they uphold it as his fault and she keeps no claims - probably costs ~£75 for smart repair.
3. Not get it repaired, but loses dispute and therefore loses no claims and has to pay for her repair.

I'm assuming the insurance's choice of repair garage will make the repair cost more than the cost of a smart repair.

I've not experience to give her advice, I'd tend to not claiming as the worst payout will only be a quick repair and whether she loses no claims is out of her hands.

Her insurance provider - Quote Me Happy - have not been in touch, and seem to be impossible to talk to.

I'd agree with her, for what it's worth - if you are going to cross a dashed line into another lane, you have to give way to anyone already in that lane.

Not sure to be honest, each has upsides and downsides.  Re 3 I think "knock for knock" technically means "each insurer pays 50% of the overall claim" rather than "each pays for their own" which means the no claims may be lost either way (only way to know is to ask).

I think there's two lessons here.

1. Don't go with the cheapest insurer, also research how good they are when it comes to a claim.

2. Always go protected no claims.  You'll still see a small premium increase for an accident due to the risk calculation, but the effect is much smaller and the fee for this is also small.

I've never done neither, I've always gone with cheapest possible quote and accept the fact that I'll have to pay the £250 excess and lose my no claims in the unlikely event I have an accident, worked for me up till now and saved a packet. It depends on your attitude to risk, where you live and the likelihood of having to make a claim.

You've missed a scenario:

4) Get it fixed cheaply 'off insurance', Other driver also realises that risk of everyone losing NCB is great so doesn't claim either. Neither of you loses anything (apart from increased premium after notifying insurer of incident). 

Actually I checked this earlier. knock-for-knock is each deals with their own, that's when both sides accept equal blame for the accident.

If neither accept then it could go to 50:50 or some other ratio.

I guess the advice I was after was in the event of two small claims, where both parties are more concerned in the loss of no claims I expect, what's likely to happen. Will her not claiming, and reducing the overall cost make it less likely her insurance company will put up a fight.

This. I had a minor bump on a minor road. I was as far onto the verge as possible, the other driver wasn't going to get their tyres dirty. Very minor damage on mine, more damage to the other vehicle.

Other driver insisted my fault, I just said no it wasn't and we'll leave it to insurance and exchange details. I just notified my insurer, told them I wasn't claiming on my insurance, sent the dashcam footage and sorted my repair (cost much less than the excess) myself.

When it came to renewal I had a small increase in premium. I queried it and they said it was because they had to keep the claim open for a set period in case the other drivers insurance got in touch, and knocked the additional premium for the year down to about £30. I'm still in a better position than getting the repair done on insurance.

I once had a similar situation. I was driving the fast lane in a 30 mph dual carriageway. I don't spend much time watching my speedo, so I can only assume I was doing roughly the speed limit.

He pulled out of stationary traffic into my lane, giving me no room to manoeuvre. I jumped on the brakes but it was wet and winter, so I slid into the back of him. He tried to (and the insurance initially agreed) that it was my fault, as that's kind of the "standard" in a rear-end smash.

I argued that his driving meant I had absolutely no "room for avoiding action" so therefore it was his fault. After a fair bit of a too and fro, some photos and some good diagrams they all gave up and awarded me the claim.

Can't help with the options - my car was a write off so I had none. But it sounds to me like you have a good case for winning the "their fault" line of attack.

I suspect the insurance company will do what is the least risky and cheapest option for them, they have no interest in getting the best result on behalf of their customer. Unless it's a huge claim it's probably cheaper for them to split 50:50 with the other insurer rather than try determine levels of blame.

Would make most sense but the other driver was apparently irate and unpleasant.

Look on the bright side, your wife can get her car fixed but the other driver will always be an ar**hole, he can’t get that fixed.

Did you think of letting the polis know at the time, I’d think of that as standard procedure where errant driver was disputing the event.

And there is option 5) of course, notify your insurer, say you are not claiming and simply don’t get your car repaired….after all that’s what bumpers are for 😀

I wouldn't do anything right now.

Leave the damage as is.

By all means let the insurance company assess the car, and get the quote for repair, but don't go ahead with the repair until you find out was the result of the third party claim is.

Might not be the best advice but I would type up a statement, save the photos, do a drawing of the road and positions etc then save the lot and see what happened.

In the heat of the moment the other guy was blaming your wife but once he calmed down he might realise its not worth going through the insurance and get it fixed privately. If you don't hear anything then get yours fixed or don't and forget about it.

Word of caution though, I damaged a car in a carpark when the wind caught my door. I found the owner and exchanged details. It was about 2 years later when their insurance contacted me. It was a leased company car and um guessing the lease was up and they were dealing with everything before handing it back.