Q. I have a home in the city and there’s space for one car on the driveway. We usually have to park the other car on the kerb. There are no ‘lined’ parking spaces, we and all our neighbours just park on the kerb as needed and have done so for so long as we lived here (30 plus years). Recently, cars have been using our road as a through road as there were roadworks in the vicinity. They go at some speed and, unfortunately, I woke up to substantial scraping to the side of my car parked on the street. There is quite a lot of damage, I cannot open the doors, and I am reluctant to lose my no claims bonus. What can I do?
Dear Reader,
This is a situation that frequently occurs on narrow residential roads. The fact that there were no designated lined parking spots is immaterial, as you say parking on the kerb is commonplace and the driver of the other vehicle has a duty not to cause an incident.
The the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland covers situations whereby a driver is uninsured and/or cannot be located. There is an agreement in place that, subject to certain conditions, you can claim as against your own policy of insurance without any effect on your no claims bonus.
However, this agreement only covers situations in which you have a fully comprehensive policy of insurance, and in situations where the offending vehicle can be identified by way of a registration number. If you do not have a registration number of the offending vehicle, you may be left with no option but to claim off your own policy of insurance.
You might check with your neighbours to ascertain whether they have any CCTV. Video doorbells are becoming more common, it is possible that one of these on your road may have inadvertently recorded the incident. If there is public CCTV, you or your solicitor might try and contact the Gardaà to see if a copy could be released.
Whether or not the registration number can be located, you should contact the GardaÃ. It is possible that the other vehicle has been detected in some or other manner – and there might be a policy of insurance in place.
If you cannot locate the details of the other vehicle and have to claim off your own policy – you should check and see whether you have any ‘roll back protection’. This would protect your premium from increasing for a further period of time.