So I was pulling into a tight parking spot yesterday and I could hear/feel my car lightly push up against the car to my right (their left). I pulled out and parked somewhere else, then came back to the person’s car to leave a note with my name/phone number and to assess the damage. I did see a small-ish dent on the left side of the car (the correct side). It seemed like a larger dent than what I would’ve expected from the small impact, but there was no way for me to verify if it’s new or old besides the person reaching out to my number and being honest.
I then took pictures of the car from several different angles. I noticed there was quite extensive damage to the car on the opposite side door as well as the opposite bumper — both impossible for me to have impacted. Dents, scratched paint, etc. all over the car. I figured the person would be decent enough to acknowledge what damage existed already and what damage I could have feasibly caused, but I guess I was wrong.
The person called me today with a quote and it’s thousands of dollars (I wanted to avoid going through my insurance bc I didn’t want my rates to rise and figured the damage would cost <$500 as it was quite minor and the car’s make/model is inexpensive). I asked for clarification on what damage was being repaired and they showed pictures from all different angles of the car, including all the dents and scratches on the opposite side I did not impact.
I don’t really know what to do in this situation. Am I forced to involve insurance now? The police? I took notes on my notes app at the time of the impact, as well, in which I detailed the pre-existing damage on the car so idk if that would help my case. The parking garage didn’t appear to have any cameras unfortunately. My car has zero damage from the impact, as well.
Thanks for any advice!
original posted by Conscious_Shoe_756 to r/personalfinance on Thu, 29 Feb 2024 23:05:08 GMT.