urgent Help need in dispute with Driver

[amansour]

Hello Everyone and happy new year. need some advice please!
My 10 yrs daughter scratched someone's car accidently in the taxi stand vivo city by our fairprice shopping cart, i was just 2 meters away , he shouted on her and she ran to me. the guy said to me "your daughter scratched my car and you have to pay for that" i asked my family to take the taxi including my daughter and i stay with him to sort this out but the guy insisted i keep my daughter and she should not leave!
when she told me that he shouted on her i told him i will not pay anything for such a behavior with a kid and you can call the police and he did , the police came and advised that we should sort this friendly or it goes to the court!! the police asked him to apologize to her and he did, we exchanged the numbers and the police said that it is up to me to pay him or not
now the diver is asking for the repair cost [that we don't know yet as he didn't go the the workshop he said after the holiday] + 25$ for every idle hour [he is a grab driver]
My question : what is the right closure of this ? i assume that insurance should pay for that, right ? is there any legal liability on me , can he go again to the police ?
picture attached

[abbby]

I am not an expert in this but i think it's only fair to pay to repaint for that panel of the car...lets say in the range of $200 or so...(you can check with spray paint shop) and perhaps make an offer to him based on that price.

But to pay for his loss of income..just sounds like an opportunist to me.

There was once someone drove in the carpark and the person accidentally bumped my front..she waited for me to arrive and told me to go to her mechanic to have it fixed at no charge..i took up the offer and that was it.

[malcontent]

Did you witness it? Did she admit to it?

Is it his word against yours/your daughters?

Honestly, I wouldn’t bother with it, whether I were you or him. It’s pretty hard for the person to go after you or your daughter legally - it would definitely cost more than the cost to repair the scratch itself. If you decide to give them anything, it is purely out of goodwill on your part.

This is probably a new driver that has never owned a car before. Small dings and scratches are an inevitable part of car ownership, most of the time you will never know how they got there. Even within one year, you might see multiple. For us we try and accumulate them over several years and get them all touched up in one shot, together with some other major servicing. After that it’s like new again, but they we know they will be back. This is something you just have to accept if you want to own a car. Believing otherwise is sure going to cause a great deal of disappointment and distress in your life — it’s not worth it.

[amansour]

Many thanks for the replies - with the police office asking my daughter about the details it ended up that yes she did that. and i said am fine to pay a fair amount , but as you can see in the pic , the scratch is too small and he wants to take advantage of it , Should i ask why the insurance will not cover this ?

[malcontent]

Many thanks for the replies - with the police office asking my daughter about the details it ended up that yes she did that. and i said am fine to pay a fair amount , but as you can see in the pic , the scratch is too small and he wants to take advantage of it , Should i ask why the insurance will not cover this ?

As far as I know, it is the insurance of the person who damaged the property of another that pays in this situation. As for the victim, if even if their insurance covers it, and they had a $0 deductible policy, almost nobody is going to make a claim because that will prompt the insurance company to raise their rates much more than what it costs to repair it.

You can dictate terms. Typically an insurance company is not going to pay unless you go and get 3 quotes and they will only pay the lowest one. But let’s be honest here… this person is likely to pocket the cash and not make the repair. You can just offer an amount you are comfortable with (I believe repair shops can easily fix such things for between $100-200) and be firm — tell them that is the most you are willing to pay… so they can either take the money or take you to court, it is their choice.

[abbby]

I believe driver doesn't want to make an insurance claim because it will affect his NCD (No claim discount) when he renews his insurance. Which means he will get lesser discount for his car insurance renewal. So offering him $100-200 is a fair offer..which like malcontent said, driver will likely just pocket and not do anything with it. If he accepts your offer, remember to pen it down with him acknowledging the offer.

[x9200]

Hello Everyone and happy new year. need some advice please!
My 10 yrs daughter scratched someone's car accidently in the taxi stand vivo city by our fairprice shopping cart, i was just 2 meters away , he shouted on her and she ran to me. the guy said to me "your daughter scratched my car and you have to pay for that" i asked my family to take the taxi including my daughter and i stay with him to sort this out but the guy insisted i keep my daughter and she should not leave!
when she told me that he shouted on her i told him i will not pay anything for such a behavior with a kid and you can call the police and he did , the police came and advised that we should sort this friendly or it goes to the court!! the police asked him to apologize to her and he did, we exchanged the numbers and the police said that it is up to me to pay him or not
now the diver is asking for the repair cost [that we don't know yet as he didn't go the the workshop he said after the holiday] + 25$ for every idle hour [he is a grab driver]
My question : what is the right closure of this ? i assume that insurance should pay for that, right ? is there any legal liability on me , can he go again to the police ?
picture attached

The right closure is to agree for some amount of money you pay to him. This money should only include the actual damage. Paying for "idle hours" has in my opinion no or has very week justification for the reason the car is still in the condition to provide the services and surely the repair can be arrange such way to minimize or completely avoid the idle time.
Just offer some reasonable amount - I would reckon SGD300-500 and explain, he is free to take it to the court but very likely will lose money in the process for his time and layers fees. If the courts finds the said amount reasonable I don't think he will be granted any reimbursement of the layers' fees and such fees and other related expenses surely will be much higher than this.

As of the insurance, this would need to be your insurance (do you have one? Personal liability type?). If you have, then check if eligible and inform them about the problem - normally there is some time withing which it needs to be reported.

[PNGMK]

I would engage a solicitor and refuse to engage in direct correspondence. My unfortunate experience with Sinkies and the SPF is that this will continue to be blown out of proportion. The Singapore law association can make a referral.

My "go to" these days has become a solicitor because this country is full of litigious arseholes and you have to fight fire with fire. I have three on speed dial.

[amansour]

Many Thanks - my concern is that the legal path is very costly compare to the damage , in other countries those kind of scratch is not something we look at
in all cases , i will take with the common advice here to pay for the repair that should be 100 - 200$ , i have sent the picture to a workshop that said it costs 100-150 if he will spray the whole door !
to bee honest i don't see paying the idle time is fare
what he does not know is i spent the whole night trying to calm dawn my daughter who talked to a police in the first time of her life and kept crying thinking she will go to jail!!!! because he insisted that she should be investigated

[PNGMK]

You're being bullied.

Can you explain how your daughter actually scratched the car?

[amansour]

You're being bullied.

Can you explain how your daughter actually scratched the car?

we were standing at the sidewalk at Fairprice gate, the place was very crowded of people and cars, i was the one handling the shopping cart till i saw my grab car , i just moved 2 meters to wave for him and she took over the cart from me for 1 min , due to the crowds she just moved unintentionally and letterly touched the car and he shouted on her "what the hell are you doing you gonna pay for that"

my question is : since the police came and driver agreed to sort this out friendly , and the officer told me in words " it is up to you to pay or not the case is closed now"

now my question is " if i decided to pay the repair cost , what evidence should i take from him" noting that he works for a company and this is not his car ?

and if he insisted on " idle time compensation" that i refuse , can he suite me ?

[malcontent]

If the guy is not the car owner, I would cut all communications with the person and not offer them anything. Are you sure that is the case though? It sounds like you should request a copy of the title before agreeing to anything. If he isn’t the owner, he can’t negotiate anything and it would be purely taking advantage of the situation. It also sounds like you have doubts that your daughter really made the dent. Is it possible it was an existing dent and he just pretended she did it?

[PNGMK]

It really sounds as though you are being take advantage of.

[amansour]

Thanks to all of you , that was really helpful, have a great year ahead