Hit & Run, found the guy! | GTAMotorcycle.com

Hit & Run, found the guy!

Cowmooflage

Cowmooflage

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A year ago today, my ninja 250 got backed into at my work parking lot. He was a regular at my cafe and stopped showing up after he had hit my bike. My bike had a lot of cosmetic parts damaged, but I only replaced what was necessary at the time because I didn't have expendable cash to make full repairs ...

I replaced the left fairing panel, the left tail fairing, the gear shifter, the left mirror, and the front fender ...

- The left fairing panel, tail, and gear shifter came to 397$ in OEM parts.
- I was lucky to get away with the mirror (aftermarket on eBay) for 47$, a friend of mine sold me her front fender for 50$, another buddy of mine was able to give me an extra left turn signal (free) that was also smashed.

What I didn't fix was the front fairing (slightly scratched), where the headlights are, OEM costs 226.26$. As well as the shift lever, OEM is 28.22$.

My questions are ...
1) I am not able to provide an official invoice for the front fender since it was a cash transaction between my friend and I, would an email suffice?
2) Could I make him pay for the things I didn't yet replace because I didn't have the money to (but have a quote for the parts)?
 
What we have:

Police report was filed last year.
Footage of guy backing into the bike
Guy admitting (with a bunch of witnesses) that he hit the bike.

What we don't have:
Invoice for repairs
Pictures of damage (lost).

If the guy refuses to pay, would she be SOL?
 
油井緋色;2089751 said:
What we have:

Police report was filed last year.
Footage of guy backing into the bike
Guy admitting (with a bunch of witnesses) that he hit the bike.

What we don't have:
Invoice for repairs
Pictures of damage (lost).

If the guy refuses to pay, would she be SOL?
Click to expand...
As long as you have a police report and footage of the guy backing into the bike... It's pertty much a open shut civil suit case.
He will basically have to pay up or else you can take him to court and get the money forced. Bottom line is how you approach him about the matter,
I would go ahead and try to get a little more than whatever it cost to fix the bike. Say if damages are 1k, I would start at 2k. Just because you know you
will have to talk em down and cut em breaks along the way..
 
ahernandez74 said:
As long as you have a police report and footage of the guy backing into the bike... It's pertty much a open shut civil suit case.
He will basically have to pay up or else you can take him to court and get the money forced. Bottom line is how you approach him about the matter,
I would go ahead and try to get a little more than whatever it cost to fix the bike. Say if damages are 1k, I would start at 2k. Just because you know you
will have to talk em down and cut em breaks along the way..
Click to expand...

I was only able to repair what I could afford at the time, and haven't put anymore money into repairing the bike now because my cash flow has been going towards school. Now that I have the opportunity to fix it with his willingness to pay for the damages, the bill will come up to about 1k which is not cheap, I told him each cosmetic part is roughly 300$ after tax. I'm afraid he is not going to want to write me a cheque if it is going to be this costly.

Keep in mind that he is not paying for the labour, because I have been personally working on it myself. Nor is he paying for the decals that were originally on the fairings (which I could careless about).
 
Cowmooflage said:
I was only able to repair what I could afford at the time, and haven't put anymore money into repairing the bike now because my cash flow has been going towards school. Now that I have the opportunity to fix it with his willingness to pay for the damages, the bill will come up to about 1k which is not cheap, I told him each cosmetic part is roughly 300$ after tax. I'm afraid he is not going to want to write me a cheque if it is going to be this costly.

Keep in mind that he is not paying for the labour, because I have been personally working on it myself. Nor is he paying for the decals that were originally on the fairings (which I could careless about).
Click to expand...

if he doesn't pay for labour, at least go get oem parts from the dealer. You can work out something say a fairing would cost $500 off the dealer, but you can get it cheaper somewhere else. Work out $400 to close the deal. If he disapproves, then go get it from the dealer. At least it's fresh and oem ;)
 
you have no obligation to provide him with receipts

it was entirely his fault, make him pay full MSRP on OEM parts for ALL parts that were damaged and factor in how much labor it would cost to replace these items

don't cut that ******* any breaks
 
if he is a good sport this might go well, for all the folks talking tough go read up on parking lot collisions and legal obligation. Its been well documented around this site.
 
Why did it take a year to find him? Did the cops find him and charge him? Did you find him? Is this going through insurance?
This story lacks all the info...
 
One bit of leverage you'll have is that if he plays hardball, he'll still wind up paying the costs in civil court, because he'll lose for sure. It'll be a lot cheaper for him to not try and bull**** you on an invoice.

Alternately, get a simple invoice form online, print it out, get your friend to fill it out and sign it. There you go, instant invoice. If he bit***s about that, you can always get it notarized for like $25.
 
Paul1000RR said:
Why did it take a year to find him? Did the cops find him and charge him? Did you find him? Is this going through insurance?
This story lacks all the info...
Click to expand...

This story lacks info for your curiosity m'dear ... However, the story ....

The guy backed into my bike last October, and apparently left his business card and a note on my gas tank after he had hit it. But I came out to the bike, damaged, with no note and no business card. I ended up filing a police report that day just to have a record, and the police claims that he can't charge him with anything since it is on private property (some of my research begs to differ as it could be a criminal charge for leaving the scene of an accident, and not an HTA, not sure how true this is?). I was able to get a security feed/video from the property management of when he hit my bike, and that has been forwarded to the police since last year, however it wasn't able to pick up his license plate, and only his face and make of the car. Because he is a regular at where I work, I recognized who he was and he had stopped frequenting my workplace and the cafe down the street after the accident (or maybe I just didn't get the shifts when he visited, but my coworkers knew who he was and what his regular order is, so he really hasn't shown up ...).

A year later, he ended up having coffee here at the cafe today, probably thinking it's safe to come back since it's been a year. When I spoke to him, he claims that he frequented the cafe and places nearby even after he had hit my bike in hopes that he would find the person he hit. He also said that he had approached many people the day of the accident to find out who it belonged too but didn't suspect that it would've been a woman :rolleyes: He passed me his business card today, and apologized, and was quite sincere about it, unless it's all an act, but I'll know when it comes to writing the cheque for my repairs.

I haven't forwarded any of his information to the cops just yet, and I hope him and I can resolve this in a civil manner. If not, this will go through insurance with the police record and many witnesses today that heard him admit to the accident last year.
 
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Mongrel said:
One bit of leverage you'll have is that if he plays hardball, he'll still wind up paying the costs in civil court, because he'll lose for sure. It'll be a lot cheaper for him to not try and bull**** you on an invoice.

Alternately, get a simple invoice form online, print it out, get your friend to fill it out and sign it. There you go, instant invoice. If he bit***s about that, you can always get it notarized for like $25.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, my friend left the country today and may or may not come back, so I've sent her an email to have her confirm she did, plus we have a picture on IG showing us transferring the front fender from her bike to mine :D

I do have all the invoices from the eBay vendor for my mirror, and the parts I had to order from SnowCity. I'm also going to call SnowCity tomorrow for a quote on the parts I haven't had the money to repair yet and have them fax it to me.
 
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Just itemize everything in a list, be as detailed as possible. If you give him a bill and make it clear you'll go through insurance if he doesn't cooperate, it should be enough for him to see that he has to pay up. If he questions anything you can get the backup documents later. Just get this to the guy as soon as you can, i.e. hand it to him or use registered mail.

I would add some items at the end, like "labour to install parts - $150", "time lost from work - $250"...these can be reduced or withdrawn later as part of whatever settlement deal you reach.
 
For those items you don't have a receipt, provide a link to the item/price if you can find one on line.

As far as this being a parking lot, I was a witness two years ago to a hit and run, took down the drivers description, make of vehicle and license plate. Long story short, cops briefly investigated it and declined to press charges or pursue since it was in a parking lot which they consider private property (the person who hit and ran claimed they didn't realize they had hit another car). I offered to be a witness for the person who was hit if they wanted to go press charges. They spoke with their insurance company and based on all the info had the repairs done through insurance with no black mark against their policy. No idea if the insurance company decided to pursue the person who hit and ran.

Since it isn't a large amount of $ and the guy seems to be OK I'm hopeful he'll pay. As long as you are both cool and understanding I suspect it will work out.
 
Sarchi said:
Just itemize everything in a list, be as detailed as possible. If you give him a bill and make it clear you'll go through insurance if he doesn't cooperate, it should be enough for him to see that he has to pay up. If he questions anything you can get the backup documents later. Just get this to the guy as soon as you can, i.e. hand it to him or use registered mail.

I would add some items at the end, like "labour to install parts - $150", "time lost from work - $250"...these can be reduced or withdrawn later as part of whatever settlement deal you reach.
Click to expand...

really......
 
Sarchi said:
I would add some items at the end, like "labour to install parts - $150", "time lost from work - $250"...these can be reduced or withdrawn later as part of whatever settlement deal you reach.
Click to expand...

who says Ontario has an insurance fraud problem?
 
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