Nicholas0781
New Member
- 1
I have a situation, and would appreciate any and all advice on potentially what to do.
To start, I was in a parking lot fender bender where I was following a driver down a feeder lane. They started to turn left, from my point of view I assumed to park into a spot on the left hand side. I came to a full stop with maybe 1-2 feet of space between us when I noticed that the car was stopping as well (I intended to continue straight after they finished parking). They began to back up into a spot on the right hand side of the feeder lane after giving no indication of doing so prior, and backed into me.
The damage to my car was extremely minor (just a couple scratches), and is really nothing that I would intend to file a claim over as I do not want my rate to increase. However, we traded insurance info and took pictures since the other party is intending to file a claim as they had paint scratched off of their vehicle's rear bumper. I found out we both have the same insurance company, progressive, but I am unsure if the other person intends to file a claim against his own policy, or against my policy in order to try and pin the fault on me. The damage to their car is almost definitely under $500, potentially even $300. There didn't seem to be any witnesses at the time of the incident either.
Does it make sense for me to file a claim just to protect myself from liability, and is it possible that my rates will go up or that I would have to pay a deductible from the other person filing a claim even though the other person reversed into my car? I realize that I can potentially be seen as being partially to blame for not keeping a safe enough distance, but my vehicle was also stopped when the incident occurred, and the other driver did not signal that they were going to back into a spot. And I realize it's also a dicey situation since it could look a lot like a rear-end collision if he decides to report it that way and not claim fault.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
To start, I was in a parking lot fender bender where I was following a driver down a feeder lane. They started to turn left, from my point of view I assumed to park into a spot on the left hand side. I came to a full stop with maybe 1-2 feet of space between us when I noticed that the car was stopping as well (I intended to continue straight after they finished parking). They began to back up into a spot on the right hand side of the feeder lane after giving no indication of doing so prior, and backed into me.
The damage to my car was extremely minor (just a couple scratches), and is really nothing that I would intend to file a claim over as I do not want my rate to increase. However, we traded insurance info and took pictures since the other party is intending to file a claim as they had paint scratched off of their vehicle's rear bumper. I found out we both have the same insurance company, progressive, but I am unsure if the other person intends to file a claim against his own policy, or against my policy in order to try and pin the fault on me. The damage to their car is almost definitely under $500, potentially even $300. There didn't seem to be any witnesses at the time of the incident either.
Does it make sense for me to file a claim just to protect myself from liability, and is it possible that my rates will go up or that I would have to pay a deductible from the other person filing a claim even though the other person reversed into my car? I realize that I can potentially be seen as being partially to blame for not keeping a safe enough distance, but my vehicle was also stopped when the incident occurred, and the other driver did not signal that they were going to back into a spot. And I realize it's also a dicey situation since it could look a lot like a rear-end collision if he decides to report it that way and not claim fault.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
