Don't recall J mentioned which section got damaged..............
I work in the motorbody repair industry....so a lil advice based on experience.
99% of policies have a required time frame of which you need to adhere for NOTIFICATION. It can be as little as 24 hours depending on your insurer.
So you have 2 choices there:-
1. Take the time to check your policy, and weigh that time frame up against when your LAME can inspect the damage. Notify insurer if needed
2. Take the punt and await the LAME inspection, and lodge if needed.
Next step.
Get an ESTIMATE from your LAME and weigh your options. (based on the estimate)
2 again.
1. Advise your insurer that you wish to proceed with a claim.
2. Advise your insurer that you will NOT be proceeding with a claim.
The key to protecting your insurance is keeping them informed. (you might be lucky, some insurers will actually oversee the repair process on your behalf even if you pay privately) (Shannons -car do this frequently)
You are not going to know if you should lodge until your LAME see's it. When he does, one of his questions will be, "What is your excess". Make sure you know the answer, because he will be almost the one that decides on a claim for you. i.e if your excess is $500 he will prolly say claim. If its $5k he might say........ $x.xx less for cAAAAsh.
I deal with this stuff almost daily. I have seen clients with a 1k excess insist on insurance for an $800 repair. (i make good money on those..........) And I have seen others with a $250 excess pay cash for a $4k repair, because they don't want to pay the extra premium next year
either way, my short advice, Notify the insurer, listen to your LAME.
Jas