Document it before you drive away
While the car sits where it was hit, it is evidence. Take photos in place with enough of the street or lot in frame to show the parking spot, the cars either side, and whatever building faces it. On a North York side street or in a plaza off Sheppard, that context is what lets anyone reconstruct how the hit happened — and it disappears the moment you pull out.
Pay attention to paint transfer. A streak of someone else’s colour across your door records the height, the direction, and often the type of vehicle that struck you. Shoot it close and in good light before rain or a car wash removes it.
- A wide shot of the car in its parking spot
- Close-ups of the dent, the crease, and any transferred colour
- Photos of nearby cameras, storefronts, and doorbells
- The date, the time you parked, and the time you came back
- Any note left on the glass, photographed before the wind takes it
How Ontario coverage handles it
Ontario law requires a driver who strikes an unattended vehicle to stop and either find the owner or leave their name and address where the owner will see it. When that happens — or when a camera identifies the vehicle — you are the not-at-fault party, and DCPD puts the claim through your own insurance company with no deductible on the not-at-fault damage in the usual case.
When nobody is ever identified, DCPD cannot apply, because there is no known insured vehicle on the other side. Most Toronto drivers then use their own collision coverage and pay the deductible. Report the incident to police or a Collision Reporting Centre either way; insurance companies look for that record on unwitnessed damage.
- Driver identified: DCPD through your own insurance company, no deductible
- Driver never found: your collision coverage, minus your deductible
- A police or Collision Reporting Centre report on file
- Notice to your insurance company promptly — the policy expects it within days
- Your policy documents, which show exactly which coverages you carry
What the repair looks like
Parked-car hits land on doors, quarter panels, and bumper corners — the surfaces with the least structure behind them and the most visibility in daylight. A shallow dent with unbroken paint can often be worked back and the panel refinished; a sharp crease or a torn edge means stretched metal that needs proper straightening before anything is sprayed.
Doors raise one extra question: whether the hit reached the intrusion beam or the hinges. A door that latches with a new sound, or a gap that widened at one corner, says the damage went past the outer skin — and we confirm that before paint, not after.
Getting a number and getting it fixed
Send a photo of the damage and one of the whole side of the car, and you get a free written estimate back the same day. That number is useful whether you open a claim or decide the repair sits close enough to your deductible to simply pay for it.
The shop is off Keele just south of Sheppard, open Monday to Saturday from 8 AM to 7 PM with Sundays by appointment — easy to reach after work from most of North York. Every insurance company is accepted, and the refinish work carries our lifetime paint warranty.
