A question to the floor...

[Steve_Perry]

Some of you may remember the numpty that hit my car back on the 6 FEB 04. Well my car has been repaired at the MB bodyshop not that there was much damage, total repair bill was approx £170 but my excess is £150 so I find myself down by 150 squids through no fault of my own.

On chasing my insurance company, it seems they are having trouble getting hold of said numpty. Also the insurance company responsible for the vehicle that hit mine claim they have not received notification for any incident.

Using internet searches I have confirmed that the name he has given me does correspond with the address that he has given me too. Apparently the given mobile number just rings and isn't answered. My insurance don't seem to have had much joy from the company that numpty is working for either, the vehicle is leased. I'm guessing the bloke hasn't mentioned anything to anyone as a casual inspection of the Corsa van won't show up any damage, neither would a more detailed one to be honest since the van has obligatory dark grey moulded plastic bumpers.

My insurance say they are chasing the bloke as best they can but is there anything I can do in the meantime? Is it worth contacting the police? Is there more my insurance should be doing?

I'm finding this experience extremely frustrating as it seems one can get away with a minor accident just by ignoring all contact attempts from an insurance company

All thoughts greatfully welcome.

S.

 

[C240Sport97]

send a letter to numpty demanding payment within 14 days, failing which you issue a claim at the Small Claims Court. Keep your insurance company informed.

Some of you may remember the numpty that hit my car back on the 6 FEB 04. Well my car has been repaired at the MB bodyshop not that there was much damage, total repair bill was approx £170 but my excess is £150 so I find myself down by 150 squids through no fault of my own.

On chasing my insurance company, it seems they are having trouble getting hold of said numpty. Also the insurance company responsible for the vehicle that hit mine claim they have not received notification for any incident.

Using internet searches I have confirmed that the name he has given me does correspond with the address that he has given me too. Apparently the given mobile number just rings and isn't answered. My insurance don't seem to have had much joy from the company that numpty is working for either, the vehicle is leased. I'm guessing the bloke hasn't mentioned anything to anyone as a casual inspection of the Corsa van won't show up any damage, neither would a more detailed one to be honest since the van has obligatory dark grey moulded plastic bumpers.

My insurance say they are chasing the bloke as best they can but is there anything I can do in the meantime? Is it worth contacting the police? Is there more my insurance should be doing?

I'm finding this experience extremely frustrating as it seems one can get away with a minor accident just by ignoring all contact attempts from an insurance company

All thoughts greatfully welcome.

S.

 

[mapleleaf]

probably not what you want to hear but, given the damage cost is 170 and your excess is 150 then wouldnt it be better from a purely commercial point of view to pay the lot yourself. whats an extra 20 quid given all the aggro and if your insurance co cant trace the culprit I presume your no claims will suffer .

I'd still trace the git anyway & drag him thru the courts ..... or even send the boys round with the big bats (well not really).

Frustrating as it is, its going to probably cost more to sort out that the claim is worth. Why not turn up at his workplace & speak to his boss/fleet manager . Even if there is no payout, you could drop him in it at work.

just my humble opinion.

 

[Kinky]

Surely the police would get involved?

He's been involved in an accident. His 'lack of response' would suggest there's something suspect.

I'd go and ask the police their advice and grass him up as best as possible.

K

 

[C240Sport97]

I suspect the police won't care since no one was hurt .. they will be spendikng time putting new film in the GATSOs and harrassing law abiding motorists

 

[Kinky]

and eating doughnuts

 

[C240Sport97]

but their doughnuts do not cost us money!

 

[silverclk230]

I had a similar experience recently. It took my insurance company ages to get the other party to respond, who only did so after said Ins co got their solicitors involved to threaten court proceedings. Apparently its not unusual for claim correspondance to be ignored until court action is threatened.
They had to trace his insurer through a nationally available database. Luckily for me it was a well known chain of auto widscreen repair co. The ins. co. also got the registration no. mixed up, which added to the delay. It took nearly nine months and many phone calls chasing to resolve and get my excess and NCB back.
To add insult to injury the repairer sprayed the bumper the wrong shade of silver and helped themselves to £5 loose change foolishly left in the car.

 

[IanT]

We had a similar problem...

My other half reported an accident (hit and run) to the Police and to her insurance. The Police couldn't help because noone was hurt and her insurance company took the details (and her car) for the claim. Obviously the car comes back fixed but she got a letter from the insurers saying that the other party hadn't responded so they were intending to settle the claim as a 'fault accident'. Luckily her memory was pretty good and she probed the insurance company for the name of the person the car was registered to and their address. The insurers told her the name but weren't allowed to tell her the address, so she just looked all the similar names up in the phone book and drove round the addreses until she spotted the (damaged) Nova.

Naturally the Insurance company became more interested when a pile of conclusive photos landed on their doormat.

I'd suggest doing a little detective work yourself and supply as much detail to the insurance company as you can, avoiding a face to face with the offending driver if you can. A couple of photos of him in his van at work should do the trick. Someone will be able to advise on this, when I asked our local Bobby he said there was no law against taking photographs with other people in them, otherwise CCTV would have to be banned (precendent already set). Talking to his employer might be a good idea too.

Just my 2-penneth - our claim was settled very quickly after we did our own follow-up and there was no need to meet or disagree with anybody.

Ian.

 

[l5foye]

At the risk of being unpopular. this all strikes me as ' mountain out of molehill' stuff. Firstly, if cost was only £170 with insurance company paying, then the cost to a private paying customer would have been £100 or less. The costs incurred by the insurance company in chasing after the other driver are passed onto its customers in one form or another. While I appreciate how annoying it is getting one's car hit through no fault of the owner, in the circumstances the best course of action would have been to arranged and paid for the repair yourself and then seek recovery from the other driver. As things stand, you have come to the adverse attention of your insurance company. It is sometimes wise to cost your time (and phone calls etc) and then consider when to cut your losses.

 

[kusanku]

My late father had a similar incident a few years ago. Someone hit his car whilst reversing, and drove off, hoping to hear no more about it. Fortunately a neighbour witnessed it, and was able to inform us who the culprit was (the father of another neighbour, unfortunately). Needless to say, he denied it, and didn't contact insurence companies etc, would not accept the estimate for the repair, insisted the car was already damaged before he hit it. Basically just one tactic after another to avoid paying. I decided to intervene after a while, and did the standard letter stating a 14 day deadline followed by court action. He paid up.

 

[Flash]

Informing the Police is a complete waste of time and they do not even do anything and just waste tax payers money, and the victims time giving statements and afterwards not even doing anything – what I’m abot to say next is completely off topic but very recently one of my businesses suffered a serious arson attack this week – despite giving the Police leads on the culprits/naming the suspects (who I know are behind it for a fact – and who even have the nerve to still drive pass everyday in the early hours of the mornings tooting their horn outside the premises after the incident and tormenting me) - supported with some evidence the so called Police will not even “caution/question” the [email protected] have threatened to be back again) – I have lost all faith in the legal/ justice system….

I hope that u are able to recover ur costs and get to the bottom of this mess…

Flash

 

[Flyer]

Hi Steve

Hmm, tricky one. Like you, I'm sure that we'd *all* be miffed if this happened to us. The police, as has been said, won't want to know, private matter, etc.

If I was in your position, I would offer to pay your insurers the £20 and ask them to withdraw the claim; that way, whilst the accident will still be on your record with them, it will be a "no claim - for information purposes only". Any NCB/Protected NCB will be unaffected.

Do you have ULR cover? With a separate company? If so, consider asking them to recover the full amount of your outlay. We used to do this for clients who didn't wish to claim on their policy. The only problem is; how far would they be willing to go?

The second option, and potentially better for you, is for you to head for the Small Claims Court and issue against the third-party there. You can now do this online . That alone sometimes does the trick, espcially if it's a company-owned vehicle. Add a few quid on for the court fee and inconvenience (£30). Don;t give up!

Cheers
Andrew

 

[jazzman]

Yeah plenty of d,heads out there,had my merc 7 months been hit twice,once by a 19 year old Barry Sheene wrong side of the road head on, lucky i saw him coming and was able to come to complete stop before he hit me,took 9 months to recover costs even after police attended the accident.Second time twerp decides he wants to turn right from the left hand lane on a two lane one way system, crunch!
I learnt my lesson many years ago,always carry a cheap camera in the car, if you have an accident that was not your fault take photos of both vehicles and the offending driver.If they admit it was their fault get them to sign to confirm this, believe me if you dont and there is no witnesses when you go to claim these people will have changed their story and you will end up paying.Evidence is the key so collect as much as you can before you leave the scene.
I wish you luck in reclaiming your cash but it looks like this guy is going to deny it was his fault, but as you say you know where he lives if he does not pay up there are other ways and forms of retribution just make sure its dark and nobody sees you.
Good Luck

 

[Steve_Perry]

Result!!

Many thanks to all those who replied. Seems I got a result today... On getting home from work tonight I had two letters waiting for me:

1. A letter from my insurance company explaining that the other party had finally coughed to the incident and a promise/intent from him that he was going to report the incident to his insurance company. The letter went on to say that in light of recent events I will be issued with a cheque for £150 in due course.

2. A cheque for 150 smackers :bannana: :bannana: :bannana:

The system does work or at least in some cases it can.

Case closed.

S.

 

[Kinky]

Nice one Steve.

Beers on you then?

K

 

[Steve_Perry]

Nice one Steve.

Beers on you then?

K

Yup

S.

 

[Kinky]

COOL. I'll be up about 11:00am on Saturday.

I'll supply the kit kats. :bannana:

K

 

[Steve_Perry]

COOL. I'll be up about 11:00am on Saturday.

I'll supply the kit kats. :bannana:

K

Hehe you can't miss my gaff K., it's the one with a leary green car parked in the drive

S.

 

[Flash]

Many thanks to all those who replied. Seems I got a result today... On getting home from work tonight I had two letters waiting for me:

1. A letter from my insurance company explaining that the other party had finally coughed to the incident and a promise/intent from him that he was going to report the incident to his insurance company. The letter went on to say that in light of recent events I will be issued with a cheque for £150 in due course.

2. A cheque for 150 smackers :bannana: :bannana: :bannana:

The system does work or at least in some cases it can.

Case closed.

S.

Congratulations - I'm pleased that u got the result that u were looking for...

Flash