Ontario

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QUESTION: My vehicle was hit while parked. What next? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by CocaineShrimp@sh.itjust.works to c/ontario@lemmy.ca

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Hey everyone,

I've got a question about how to deal with an automotive incident in London, Ontario. Any advice would be much appreciated!

I parked my vehicle outside of a shop, and while I was inside, someone backed into my vehicle & drove off. I was able to capture the hit and run on dash cam, including the other drivers license plate. It's very clear who it was. Luckily, the damage basically boils down to a few dents and scratches.

Im obviously planning on fixing the damage; however, from those that I've spoken to, it's not worth trying to get any compensation from the one who hit me. I'd have to file a police report to get their information, to get the police report I'd need to give them my insurance information, and then my insurance finds out and will raise my rates.

Is there anything worth doing, or am I SOL on this one?

Again, any advice would be much appreciated!

EDIT: Thank you to those that replied! I ultimately decided not file a police report, and eat the cost on this one.

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[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I've been through the same process in Quebec and Manitoba, Ontario should be similar, here's the gist:

File a police report, first and foremost. Add details, provide dash cam evidence to the police. They will be the ones proceeding with the investigation. It's free, and it will be the basis for the rest of this process, as you will need a police report to do anything more.

Secondly, file with your insurance. You will only be charged your deductible and the insurance hike if the other party cannot be found, in which case you always have the choice to decline insurance involvement after contacting them, in which case the collision will not be on your file and you will be able to repair the vehicle yourself.

Provide your insurance with the police report, tell them you submitted the video footage to the police department, and your insurance will go from there. As your interests are aligned, insurance is your friend here. They want to find the other party and make their insurance pay so that they don't have to pay out of pocket for your damages.

My advice is, if the plate is perfectly visible in the dash cam evidence, and the plate is either Canadian or from a state who has an agreement with the OPP, get your car fixed with your insurance now, let the insurance put a fire under the police department's ass so they contact the appropriate authorities or figure it out themselves if it was an Ontario plate. The police will provide your insurance company with the insurance policy of the other driver, and it will go smoothly from there.

In my Quebec case, the SPVM managed to track down the driver using their Vermont plates through my dash cam footage, got in touch with them to get their side of the story, and collected the insurance information from the Vermont DMV. In Manitoba, it was two Manitoba-plated vehicles, so MPI basically just dealt with itself.

My rates did not go up, and this occurred twice with my own Quebec plated and insured car. No fault accidents are kept on your record for 7 years in Quebec, and the worst that could happen is a few cents increase on your insurance, and being marked as "unlucky" on the insurer's side if it happens too frequently. I don't know what information you were told, but going to the police with such very clear evidence is the way to go.

TL;DR Your insurer's interests are aligned with yours here, but you need to file a police report, provide the evidence to them, and provide the report number to your insurer so they can extract money from the other party's insurance.