Settle Privately or Through ICBC?
 

Last week, I was parked with the engine off and just sitting in my car when someone trying to parallel park behind me hit my rear left bumper with his front right bumper.

The damage is fairly minimal - a few scratches that go through the clear coat, but not through the paint.

The other guy has rightfully claimed full responsibility.

I took it to a shop and they said that it the rear bumper would need to be repainted and the cost would be $600 plus tax.

My vehicle is an old 2004 Lexus RX330. The other guy has a late model Porsche Macan S.

The other guy has said he's okay with not getting the scratches on his car fixed.

As the innocent party, what are the potential pros and cons of settling this privately instead of through ICBC? The scratches are minor enough that they aren't very noticeable unless you look closely. Given that my vehicle is 15 years old and that there are other minor blemishes like door dings and other scuffs and scratches, I doubt the potential resale value is affected very much.

Basically I don't even really want to go through the hassle of bringing the car to the shop and leaving it for two days to be fixed, even though we can get it done at no cost to us.

With this being the case, would it make sense to just ask for X amount of money to settle this privately?

What might be a reasonable amount for X, given that the repair cost would be about $675?

Any other considerations that I have neglected?

I’d probably take double the repair cost in cash otherwise I’d just go through ICBC

Either way if there’s no injuries the other party can pay off the claim in full without effecting his insurance no?

You can also cash settle with Icbc

ICBC, if there are any issues with the repairs you have it on paper. If you get it done privately and things go south. You're SOL.

$1k+ for your time and doing him a favour + no dec's on your car

For under a grand, if the guy is being cool about it, I wouldn't sweat doing him a favor. What ruined being nice for me was when buddy guy backed into my truck in front of me, and immediately took responsibility. I told him $500 cash, and I'd get my buddy to scuff and spray it. He agreed that the price was fair, and headed off to the bank machine.

Fast forward 30 minutes later and my phone rings. He says "Fuck you, I am not paying you anything. I didn't hit your truck, you prove it". I laughed and told him he was on not one, but three security cameras, plus a high res dash cam. He instantly apologizes but I was done at that point.

Final tally for the repair from a reputable body shop?

$2600, plus 5 days of car rentals. All paid for by the fine folks at ICBC.
Which brings me to my next point, is that the repair shops are raping the system at an alarming rate. Seriously, I could have had the repair done in an afternoon for $500.

'Memba the Tundra incident?
Get a quote from the body shop for $1500, cash out for $700.

Just take the cash settlement from ICBC. It's 60% of repair costs or something like that.

Go through ICBC. The other party can settle on their end by paying ICBC for your repair costs if they don't want their insurance affected.

No. :pokerface:

I bought it from the original owner, a 70yr old ex Toyota exec, that only had it dealer serviced and drove it to his cabin in the summer. No claims, no smoking, no kids, no pets. Back seat has never been used. All services were done based on time because the mileage was so low (18,888KM)
:awwyeah:


BTW your "friend" is an idiot. His principles are worth less than $500. Sad.

Seeing that you don't want to go through the hassle, if the guy was willing to pay, I'd have no problem settling.

Perfect reply, as this works with what I was going to say.
It's actually closer to 43% of the repair costs. See below for more info.



You got a nice truck!
:D

But hypothetically if you knew someone who's truck was randomly hit in the parking lot by another RS member, chances are that the repair costs would be in the $1600 range for that minor inconvenience.

Unfortunately, hypothetically, that person would probably only be paid around $678. Even if they complained, and bitched and moaned to ICBC, that would be their final offer.

It's been a year now since getting my 2018 and I'm happy with it.
How is your Tundra running these days?

There don't seem to be any risks for undetected or underlying damage. If it's an older car with existing damage, i would just ask for $1-1.3K and keep it.

If you report the accident, he should be more worried about a report on his car. I believe it will still show up on his report, but just as a $0 claim if he doesn't do anything (although i could be wrong here..)

It's great. Just did the wheel bearings and U-joints (which was expected) and regular maintenance. Spent most on getting it to suit my needs - tri-fold, airbags, brake controller, etc. Hasn't skipped a beat.

Unfortunately, I'm driving a lot for work, so I got something else for that and just drive the truck for family/hauling.

Simple, you report to ICBC, he reports to ICBC and gets assigned 100% fault, you get your car fixed and he pays ICBC instead of claiming it and it doesn't affect his insurance and he's under no obligation to fix his own car if he doesn't want to. You are protected this way and never have to shell any money out or you can choose to take a cash % payout instead.

If you don't care about the damage, why try to fuck the guy for extra money? Either do it properly or don't do it at all.

If I were him and you came to me and asked for extra money to cover it + your 'troubles' I'd be like "Okay just report it to ICBC then" cuz that's a dick move.

Exactly this. Report to ICBC. You get protection, he can buy out his claim. No down side at all.

I think on his side it’s beneficial to pay whatever, 120-150% of the repair cost in cash rather than spend a month going through the ICBC BS.. that’s the positive on his side

I tried this once before and I regret not just getting the guys info but he was such a fucking clown I just said fuck it. I was merging in my wife’s old Elantra going southbound at willingdon at the head office McDonald’s there. This old fuck bumped into the back of my car without me even moving for a good 15-20 seconds. I instantly got out and was like fuck really man?

I looked and there was a small dent and the paint was pushed in. I looked at it and was like hmmm..ok give me $300 and I’ll get it repaired myself. He hesitated and then was tripping out about the situation so I’m like k fuck it give me your info. He’s then like uhhhh...ok man you give me yours!

My wallet was in the car, took a second look at the bumper, and just got in and drove away lol.. in hindsight I won’t ecer do that again and I will always claim ICBC for ducking idiots like that because eventually the paint chipped away and I had no recourse and no money to fix it :/

You chose to just drive away without getting info OR money, then the conclusion is to go through ICBC every single time? Seems a little extreme to me.

If you had gotten either info or money, your outcome would have been totally different.
The OP can fall back on ICBC with the info, but if someone will pay 2x the repair quote and you don't intend to fix it and it has no impact on resale, money might not be a bad option.

ICBC is always the answer.

Not my fault, and I'm not bending backwards for anyone.
If I wasn't there to witness it on the spot, 9/10 times, the idiot will drive off. And that's where I'm glad I have a dashcam.

Just wasn’t feeling the time or hassle but it taught me the valuable lesson to not do it again lol

Get 2 more quotes and give have him pay the highest one. Done it before, all quotes were within $100. I'm sure the guy will be please to pay $675-775 to settle this, if you ask for more he might take his chances with you going through icbc and paying out your repair cost. Any old damage on your bumper? If so, icbc estimate may not go well.

Wouldn't you rather have the cash then fix the scuff on your 15 yo car?

Go through ICBC, if he wants he can pay it back so his premiums don't go up...

I had a guy drive into my old car when my car was parked and he didn't even say anything until I confronted him (I was walking back to my car). He offered me a 10 dollar bill dismissively for "touch up paint". Which meant I had to buy the paint, paint the bumper, make it look like shit, all the hassle for being the victim.

So he reluctantly gave me his info and the damage was a few hundred since his license plate bolts dug into my bumper.