council insurance claim,10 months after?

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guydewdney

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 14, 2004
Messages
2,911
Location
Porlock, Zomerzet
Car
906 Sprinter 313cdi
Whilst very very slowly reversing my 33' long ten ton motorhome outside the mot bay in (a.n.other) council's mot yard, a council owned sprinter van drove alongside my offside, then did a tight u turn behind me, causing a small collision. At the time, the manager and driver and i all agreed that it would probably go 50/50 and not to bother with paperwork etc. No one was hurt. There were several witnesses from the council (one of whom said later it was the van drivers fault) damage to my vehicle less than 100 quid.

That was july 2013

Today, i recieve some paperwork from a repair company about a claim against me by the council. Paperwork says no witnesses! Yet this was in the councils own main vehicle depot!

1- why did they wait so long?
2- how do i now know the damage to the sprinter was related to our collision, or some subsiquent, near year long, other incident?
3- isnt there a statute of limitations on such things for this reason?

I spoke to a.n.other councils insurance department, who seemed confused and commented that it was odd.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?
 
If there are no witnesses and the "incident" was not recorded at the time, how do they know it was you?
 
They are trying it on. That is what they do. Large bodies like bus companies do exactly the same.
Tell them to come up with any proof/evidence or foxtrot oscar.
I hate it when large organisations bully the 'little man'
 
When dealing with any large organization especially government funded/related never take anything for granted especially verbally always get it in writing.

Even if its on private property report the incident to your insurance company with the names of those involved in case anything comes back later as in your case it has.

My drivers fill out a daily report sheet on any incidents, and when I can, I review the van cams randomly as a matter of course for QC on their driving and road behaviour, they all know I do this as a random thing and especially if there's been a road rage incident etc I'm up to full speed on the matter should the phone ring or official correspondence appears in the post.

The smallest thing can slip your mind be it bad driving slight hit or brush past a parked car when out on the road but the van cams had stopped false claiming from the public,
and my fuel bills and maintenance have dropped drastically since their fitting.

Get in touch with your insurance company and discuss the matter with them asap.

They probably found an old incident report form unsanctioned and gave it a shot.










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Tbh, there was a collision, i not denying that. But why put in a claim a year later? The first i hear of this is a letter from "nationwide repair centres" saying, "sorry to hear of your damage" blah blah. Weird.
 
You have 6 years from date of impact to claim...
 
For vehicle damage? how does one prove that the damage was from the accident after five odd years and 50,000 miles????
 
as you seem to remember the details of the damage to their vehicle, as an initial test, ask the garage (preferably) what repairs they are doing to vehicle.

See if this tallies with your recollection of the damage.
 
I dont currently have any details of the alleged damage.... or his reg - in fact paperwork says "registration - unknown"

weird.
 
For vehicle damage? how does one prove that the damage was from the accident after five odd years and 50,000 miles????

You would normally notify your insurance of the incident and the situation.

From that point onwards, a claim can be raised for up to 6 years after.

This is what Adrian Flux advised me in 2005.
 
yeah - as mentioned by my insurance (broker - sureterm direct) today when trying to get to the bottom of this - they have no knowledge of the claim, bar what I have told them.

Which raises another question - the girl on the phone said I had to tell them of any "accidental damage" whether a claim is made or not. So I asked what accidental damage was - and got a non committal reply. So I asked if a carparking ding would count (cue stock reply). So I asked if a stone chip would count (guess what - std reply) - so in fact your insurance can be invalid as you didnt report a small sub mm chip due to a stone being flicked up by another car.... Where does it stop???
 
JohnEBoy said:
You would normally notify your insurance of the incident and the situation. From that point onwards, a claim can be raised for up to 6 years after. This is what Adrian Flux advised me in 2005.

Almost correct...limitation runs 6 years from date of loss when relating to property damage (England and Wales) not date of notification to insurer. Whilst often reported on the same date not always the case.

OP, it is for Council/their insurer/representative to prove damage relates to the accident in question, furthermore if it is a split liability case they only recover the corresponding percentage. It doesn't look great on their part to have left it this late but sadly doesn't preclude them from claiming.

For what it's worth I'd always suggest reporting to insurer even if only for notification purposes, that way if you need to rely on them down the line they can't argue you failed to report. That said if you do report for notification purposes you have to declare on insurance proposal so often expect premium increase and only way to defeat is to shop around.

Turn it over to your insurer at that time and let them deal, it's why we have insurance.
 
Seems strange that you should receive notification of this directly from a repair company not the council or whoever insures their vehicles?
Nationwide Repair Centres appear to have a "pile em high repair em cheap" policy from reports on the net--with comments such as " avoid at all costs"

One possible scenario is that the vehicle you were in a minor collision with a year ago has been involved in yet another accident and has recently been sent for repair to Nationwide. Perhaps on that later occasion the incident was reported as having no witnesses and perhaps no other driver/vehicle to blame. In an attempt to recoup costs "incident reports" have been trawled and your name popped up. Sounds very fishy to me. A good lawyer would argue that unless the vehicle was recovered/ repaired immediately after the accident and has been used on the road subsequently its entirely possible further damage which you are not responsible for has been done.
 
Seems strange that you should receive notification of this directly from a repair company not the council or whoever insures their vehicles?
Nationwide Repair Centres appear to have a "pile em high repair em cheap" policy from reports on the net--with comments such as " avoid at all costs"

One possible scenario is that the vehicle you were in a minor collision with a year ago has been involved in yet another accident and has recently been sent for repair to Nationwide. Perhaps on that later occasion the incident was reported as having no witnesses and perhaps no other driver/vehicle to blame. In an attempt to recoup costs "incident reports" have been trawled and your name popped up. Sounds very fishy to me. A good lawyer would argue that unless the vehicle was recovered/ repaired immediately after the accident and has been used on the road subsequently its entirely possible further damage which you are not responsible for has been done.


Exactly what we have thought, that hes gone and wrapped it around a tree and wants to lay blame on me.....
 

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