Petrol Station Incident... Any advice?

[moonym20]

Cheers Pontoneer, reassuring to know the highways act should come into play on a garage forecourt.

After the verbal abuse, I gave all my details, the third party would only divulge was insurers, first name and car reg.

Both cars only had one occupant, there was one other person present at the time on the opposite side of the forecoart and (understandably) tried very hard not to be involved in any way.

The only evidence I hopefully have in my favour is the CCTV from the forecoart. I'll revisit the garage later tomorrow and use the steps mentioned previously to get a copy of the incident.

Thanks again.

 

[fab1975]

@ Moonym20, you have all my solidarity, even if I would not like to be in your shoes, as it is objectively a very difficult situation.

For what it is worth, I can tell you what happened to me 4 years ago: without going into the details of that specific episode, the bottom line is that I had placed a claim with my insurance for a minor damage to my car bonnet caused by a tipper truck driver who decided to offload part of his debris on the road. Unfortunately it was essentially his word against mine, which is why I then decided to buy a dashboard camera.

The point was that even if I had told very clearly to my insurance (Allianz / Audi Insurance) that I would have proceeded to repair the paintwork only if the counterpart had admitted full liability, unfortunately my claim was still open when I got the annual renewal notice… which was 50% higher! I then decided to cancel my claim as it was more about a matter of principle than any actual damage, but to my surprise the renewal premium would have still been 20% higher, officially on the basis that “since I had been involved in an accident anyway, I would have been considered a riskier driver”. As you can imagine, I challenged the insurance customer care agent to explain how I would have been more likely than anyone else to cause an accident on the basis of the fact that once in my life my car had been hit by debris while I was behind a tipper, but all he could say was “I see your point, sir, but this is our policy”. I then explained exactly the situation to Natwest Insurance (UK Insurance) and they had been more than happy to insure my car at a slightly cheaper premium then the pre-accident quote from Audi Insurance.

In your case, as all the other members suggested, you should get your own copy of the CCTV video ASAP. If you cannot go now, at least give the petrol station a call straight away and ask them to keep the evidence until you can fill in the form, pay the admin fees, etc.
Once you have evaluated the video footage, if you feel that you can unequivocally prove that it was the other guy’s 100% fault, I would suggest you to stay with your current insurer (as it makes things easier), pay a higher renewal premium now and then claim it back on your counterpart’s insurance once you can prove his liability. If otherwise the video footage is ambiguous and the claim is going to look like 50/50, then I would cut the losses, shop around and get your car insured elsewhere. Of course, you will still need to mention that you have an open claim, but other insurers might be willing to make you a good offer just to get a new customer.

Good luck and keep us updated.

Fab

 

[moonym20]

Third party got my details, with the exception of an address. They didn't ask and truth be told I forgot to offer that information up. They declined a full name, address and contact number. Just reg, first name and insurer.

Spoke to the police, they were satisfied both parties supplied enough information to not require any interest on that front. It was my choice if I want to persue an antisocial accusation. I opted not to because there was no violence and I really don't want to waste police time on something petty like this.

 

[moonym20]

Cheers Fab

 

[mat8n]

I'm sure if you talk to lv you'll get a better renewal price.

Personally, I would just claim on your fully comp insurance.
I wrote my old sl off last year with a cost to the insurance of nearly £12k. The cost is irrelevant, it's a claim/accident. Unfortunate as it is you can't get away from that now.
I now have a 50/50 claim against me(they'll never admit liability), my insurance went up £100,my ncb was protected.

Get your car repaired correctly and quickly and just move on. No matter what the outcome the Insurance ccompanies know you've been involved in an accident so your insurance will be loaded in some way, that's how it works.

You'll fight and fight and get all stressed over what will end up being a £300 or less increase. It's sh*t but is it worth the stress and worry?

 

[BTB 500]

According to my insurance company, my insurance premium went up by £50 following a no-fault accident (one which the insurance company for the other party had accepted full liability) because statistically I am more likely to have another accident than someone who hasn't had an accident!

There's also some risk that your insurer may not be able to recover from the other party's insurer (if they weren't covered or couldn't be traced ... gave you false info. etc.), in which case they'd have to foot the bill for damage to your car even if you were blameless as far as the accident was concerned.

 

[moonym20]

I'm going to approach the garage it happened at this evening armed with a written request to obtain a copy of the CCTV. Hopefully this is something they can do.

I guess there won't be many new developments for a while until something, if anything, comes from the third party.

Appreciate all the advice given so far.

 

[moonym20]

Minor update to proceedings;

Visited the garage with a written request for a copy of the CCTV last night. The manager was apologetic and believed he couldn't release the footage to me, but would put the recording to one side to hand it over when my insurers ask for it.

Went to see the MB Indi garage that looks after my car, on inspection it's not as bad as first thought. New facia and it's probable a boby shop can reshape and weld the damage to the front bumper. Cost is likely to be around the same as my £600 excess.

Also had a chat with LV, they are making a request to obtain the CCTV for review and in touch with a the third party insurers to see if they intend to make a claim. If not and liability is not clear cut, maybe best to cut my losses, pay out myself for the repair and chalk this one up as experience.... Taking into consideration loss of NCB, claim history etc etc

 

[jaymanek]

If the other part makes a claim, which they will... All of the family and the family parrot will be claiming for neck injuries...
Likeliness is your insurance will pay something... SO it will probably affect future claims anyway.

I would shop around for new quotes.

 

[Squirrelcatcher]

Why has the insurance premium increased? If its because of a loss of some NCD the insurance company usually do this until liability is established and whether they have to make a payout.

I think that the increase is merely due to the fact that it is renewal time. They do it for the thousands of individuals who don't check and just let it auto-renew. I don't think that I've had one insurer who hasn't forced me to move elsewhere.

 

[supaer]

Being an insurance broker I wish to shed a bit of light.

Your policy will most likely (99% are) a claims made basis. So even if you move your policy to another insurer the claim occurred under your period of insurance with them.

I don't think that the price hike was due so much to the claim being notified, as most car insurers only want you for a year and then move on and go to another insurer.

I would just try money supermarket and go to another insurer with good coverage and let the old insurer deal with the claim.

 

[MB-BTurbo]

Why would they only want you for a year?

...also, any update?