I rear ended someone and he wants to settle outside of ICBC.
 

I will start by saying that I know I'm at fault. I made my report to ICBC and am fine with settling through ICBC.

Now, story time. (Haven't been on RS forever, but I would like to hear anyone's opinion)

So last Friday on my way to work at 6 am I'm driving behind this civic (2001-2005 generation). I found his driving to be kind of odd. He would slow down and then speed up constantly for the course of about 10 blocks.

Everything seemed fine, I was behind him on Earles St (Renfrew) and 29th, driving at about 40km and then he stomps on the brake and makes a sudden stop. I tried to stop, too but my bumper did touch his.

We got out of the car and I told him, "Sorry, I didn't expect you to make such a sudden stop." He said that he saw a cat.

Neither of us had passengers.

We exchanged information. He said the car belonged to his "girlfriend." I noticed that it was under pleasure insurance, I don't know if this actually affects anything.

I didn't notice any critical damage on either vehicle. I have a photo and there may have been small scratches if any, nothing really noticable, but I have no way of knowing if its from the collision. I am at fault, so that's fine I am willing to settle through ICBC.

The weekend goes by and this guy tells me he took it to a few body shops and they gave an estimate, not a quote, of $1000-1500. He says he is sore, but is still OK. He wants to settle outside of ICBC, because he would like to resell his car and doesn't want to depreciate it. He also tells me it will be cheaper for me.

Would such a small collision depreciate his car that much? I feel like he's trying to scam me. I don't care what it costs, within reason knowing that if anything it would be just bumper damage, I want to settle through ICBC.

The week goes by and today he messages me again, saying he got a real quote for $800 and recommends settling outside of ICBC. He also recommends this if I want to keep my insurance lower.

And now I am on RS, typing my story to you guys. Thank you so much for reading. I will update I promise.

Any opinions or tidbits of knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

settle through icbc, as icbc gives you an option to pay for the damages. this way your insurance won't get raised.

Definitely do this...

settle through icbc, maybe its not the first time theyve seen a cat.

In most cases its cheaper to settle outside of ICBC, in this case its probably better to let it go through ICBC.

Unless the other driver claims for injuries, then you will not have an option to pay back the damages.

This dude sounds shady as fuck tell him no thanks and pay back icbc so your rates don't go up.

Is this new? I swear I've heard that you could

but why would you???

Why would I pay back icbc so my rates don't go up? Feel like that's pretty obvious

you would pay back for the medical bills? wouldnt underestimate how much those cost

If you don't settle through ICBC you have no protection from him turning around and just making his claim anyways.

I had a buddy that hit a guy in an old 70's pickup. Basically just bent the steel bumper a bit, the guy was like "give me $1500 and we'll call it even".

My buddy went through ICBC, and repair estimate was only like $500.

Go through ICBC:

-if there's no injury claim, pay it out and your premiums don't go up, chalk it up to a bad day
-if he claims injuries, they'll cover you ass cause you'd never want to pay for medical expenses
-your CRS is low enough that the difference in premiums is negligible

Settle privately:

-IF he's being 100% honest, at best, you save a few hundred dollars
-if he's scamming, he can try to sue you for injuries
-if you want to cover your ass, you'll have to get him to sign some sort of document that gets you off the hook from him coming after you in the future


The way I see it, why trust a stranger? You don't owe him anything. The risk/reward isn't worth it.

if you go through ICBC and have to option to pay the deductible to make to repair if it was very costly at the cost of your ICBC Premiums going up.

Or can go through ICBC and just pay it for ICBC like you would have settled out side of icbc without it affecting your premiums IIRC

icbc less headache later on.

Thanks so much for the input.

So, I politely told him that I would like to settle through icbc and he wants me to explain why I wouldn't want to do it outside of icbc. He once again is going on about his depreciation.

All of this has been through text. BTW.

What should I tell him to stop babbling and just go through icbc? I don't want to piss him off too much, since he does have my address from my icbc papers.

To tell you the truth I don't care about his depreciation. While I am legally at fault and obliged to pay for any damages, I feel like he shouldn't have slammed the brakes so hard. In my honest opinion, preventing car accidents should be more important than any cat or squirrel that decides to go on the street. I also never saw any cat.

Just block the guy and deal with ICBC if you don't want to deal with the hassles.
You should have his papers and address as well, so it goes both ways.

Sounds like the guy is scamming imo. Can Matlock tell ICBC this guy won't stop harassing him to settle outside of ICBC? Would it affect their decision on the claim at all? (I've never been in an accident while driving, so I'm legitimately curious)

My bad I read what he said wrong, thought he meant you can't pay back unless they claim injury lol

A repaint of a bumper is going to do fuck all to the car's overall depreciation. The guy is just being a twat.

Worried about depreciation on a '01-05' civic where it's obviously under 2k in damages...yeah right buddy. Sounds like he wants cash and won't use it to fix his car.

So why not also use this to your advantage?

1. Ask to get quote together from an ICBC shop.
2. Offer to pay him 20% off the quote in cash.
3. If he refuses or is reluctant, ask him what the benefit is for you to settle outside of icbc in cash.
4. After some back and forth, negotiate down to 15% off the quote and say the offer is good for 48 hours.
5. If he accepts, video tape him signing a note saying you settled on the damages lol

In my opinion, if he doesn't give a shit about a few scratches and wants cash, he will accept. Good luck

Worried about depreciation of a civic?????? pls.

ignore his ass and just go through icbc.

Sure if you know a way to get it done that will hold up in court so it doesn't bite you in the ass by all means. I'd need to save a lot more than 15% to bother.

Go through ICBC like others have said.

This sounds shady. HE was the one that got hit, and is not at fault, and doesn't want to go through insurance? He could be hiding something.

No point taking the risk.