Hit While Parked? Here’s How to Handle It in New Zealand

Introduction

Finding damage on a parked car is frustrating, especially when nobody has left their details. Start by making the area safe, preserving evidence and checking your insurance position. In New Zealand, the steps differ depending on whether someone is injured, the other driver is known, and whether you are the vehicle owner who found the damage or the driver who caused it.

This is general information, not personal legal or insurance advice. In our editorial review, we recommend checking your current policy wording and following your insurer’s claims instructions.

At-a-glance: what to do

First steps when you discover your parked car has been hit

1. Check safety first. If anyone may be injured, or emergency services are needed at the scene, call 111. Do not put yourself in danger while inspecting the vehicle.
2. Record what you can see. Take wide and close photos of the damage, vehicle position, road markings or carpark layout, debris, and any paint transfer. Note the date, time you discovered it and precise location.
3. Look for details and witnesses. Check the windscreen and nearby area for a note. If someone saw what happened, ask for their name, contact details and a short account of what they observed.
4. Preserve CCTV quickly. Ask relevant organisations or people to retain footage covering the likely time window. Where footage identifies you, it may be personal information you can request; however, an organisation may need to crop or blur other people, and access is not guaranteed in the exact form requested.
5. Tell your insurer or broker promptly. Give accurate facts, photos, witness information and the other driver’s details if known. Keep copies of messages, claim numbers and repair information. Do not assume cover or an excess outcome before the insurer reviews the policy and evidence.

When to use 111, 105 or the traffic-crash reporting process

Call 111 when someone has been injured or emergency services need to attend the crash site. For non-urgent matters, 105 is New Zealand Police’s free nationwide 24/7 non-emergency service, including for property damage and driving incidents that do not need urgent Police assistance. Police also provides a traffic-crash reporting process for non-injury crashes.

If you are the owner who discovers unexplained damage, you can make a non-emergency report to provide information about property damage. This article does not treat a Police report as a universal legal requirement for the damaged owner, nor as a requirement for every insurance claim. Give your insurer any Police reference number if one exists.

Police may not attend every property-damage report in person. A report does not itself establish fault, guarantee an investigation or guarantee that Police will obtain CCTV. If you later obtain useful information, Police has an update process through which you can identify CCTV or video evidence that may be accessible.

If you hit an unattended parked vehicle

The legal duties apply to the driver who caused the damage. Under section 22 of the Land Transport Act 1998, a driver involved in an accident must stop, check whether anyone is injured and provide all practicable assistance to an injured person.

Where an accident damages an unoccupied motor vehicle, the driver must report specified particulars to the owner within 48 hours. The particulars include the driver’s name and address, electronic address if the driver has one, vehicle registration number and the accident location. Leaving a visible note may be a sensible practical step to try to contact the owner, but it should not be treated as a substitute for meeting the full reporting duty.

If the owner cannot readily be contacted or identified, the driver must report to an enforcement officer as soon as practicable and within 60 hours. The 60-hour duty is not a deadline imposed on the owner who later discovers damage.

Insurance: cover, excess and fault

Your cover depends on the exact policy, its terms and the evidence available. As a general distinction, third-party motor insurance covers the insured person’s liability for damage to another person’s vehicle or property. Comprehensive cover includes accidents caused by the insured person or someone else, and damage to the insured vehicle, subject to the policy terms.

For a damaged parked car, check the following before making assumptions:

• Type of cover: Does the policy insure damage to your own vehicle, or only your liability to others?
• Excess: This is the amount you may need to contribute to a claim. An insurer may waive or refund an excess in some circumstances where another driver was at fault, but this can depend on proof and on having that driver’s identifying and contact details.
• Claim conditions: Check notification requirements, repair instructions, exclusions and any documents the insurer asks for.
• Evidence: Provide photos, witness details, communications, registration details and any Police reference number if available.

Fault and recovery are fact-specific. A parked vehicle being struck can be important evidence, but liability, any effect of parking circumstances, and cover should not be pre-judged before the relevant facts and policy are assessed. When we compare policy information, we focus on these practical differences rather than assuming every policy handles an unknown-driver event the same way. You can review options in our car insurance guide.

ACC and vehicle damage are different issues

ACC’s no-fault scheme may cover eligible personal injuries from an accident in New Zealand. It is not cover for repairing a car or other damaged property. Vehicle repair costs and any recovery from another driver are matters for the applicable insurance policy, the parties involved and, where necessary, civil dispute processes.

If you disagree with an insurer’s claim decision

First, ask the insurer to explain its decision and raise a formal complaint through its internal complaints process. Keep the policy wording, claim correspondence, estimates, photographs and a timeline of events together. If the issue remains unresolved, you can use the insurer’s free independent financial dispute-resolution scheme. These schemes can consider insurance-policy and claim-decision disputes.

Practical Takeaway

• Prioritise safety: use 111 for injury or emergency attendance needs.
• For non-urgent property damage or driving incidents, 105 or the traffic-crash reporting process may be appropriate.
• Document the scene early and ask potential CCTV holders to preserve footage promptly.
• If you caused damage to an unattended vehicle, meet the statutory 48-hour owner-reporting duty; if the owner cannot readily be contacted or identified, report to an enforcement officer as soon as practicable and within 60 hours.
• Contact your insurer or broker promptly, but check policy wording before assuming that repairs or an excess will be covered or waived.
• Keep the legal, injury and insurance issues separate: ACC relates to eligible personal injuries, not car repairs.

References

• New Zealand Legislation — Land Transport Act 1998, section 22: Driver’s duties where accident occurs
• New Zealand Police — Traffic crash report
• New Zealand Police — 105 (Ten-Five) information
• New Zealand Police — What happens after I make a Police report?
• Consumer Protection — Car insurance
• ACC — What we cover
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner — Responding to access requests for CCTV footage
• Consumer Protection — Making a complaint about your financial service provider

Author / Editorial Team

This article was produced by Insurspy’s internal editorial and research team. In our editorial review, we prioritise authoritative New Zealand public sources, distinguish general information from personalised advice, and review insurance content for accuracy and practical usefulness. Policy terms, eligibility, excesses and claim decisions can differ, so readers should check their current policy wording and contact their insurer or broker for guidance on their circumstances.