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complications with car insurance after accident, advice?


ms-phoenix
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Hi all, I am so delighted to find you here! :)

 

Last Thursday my husband and I were driving home through the country lanes in our VW Golf and were 50 metres from our house when a giant SUV appeared around the bend. Hubby, who was driving, braked immediately, while the SUV, going at about 30 mph, just slowed down - we slid on wet mud on the road surface, and the SUV braked and - bam - a head on collision which left us with a written off car (we assume) and the SUV owner with nothing but a cracked number plate.

 

I was a passenger in the front seat, and got severe whiplash;:Cry: my neighbour took me to the local hospital where the nurse said I have 'the most spectacular muscle spasm' she'd ever seen.

 

The driver of the SUV told us he didn't think it was anyone's fault, and that we should both admit liability - but this is the first time this has ever happened to us, and I want to make sure we don't get conned. We checked out the road and think he would have seen us before we saw him because of the height of his vehicle and his position on the road - he also revealed that he was driving to pick his wife up and I think he was going too fast around a narrow bend, and didn't stop - just slowed.

 

My husband is Scandinavian, and during his conversation with the insurers while I was at the hospital, the insurers put down that he admitted liability, while I feel that he didn't fully understand what was being asked of him. It looks like they were wanting us to go 'knock for knock' but I don't know what that means.

 

Since then, we have discovered that our car insurance is still registered at our previous address, which we left a few months ago, due to an administrational oversight - and they told us, after leaving us with a wrecked car and no courtesy car for four days, and with no contact - that we may not be entitled to anything, and that our claim is now on hold!

 

This has meant that I have been unable to get to hospital for my whiplash physio, and I don't have any idea what to do to resolve this. So -

-is it true that they can decline payment due to the address not being updated?

-can I claim personal injury?

- and can I get the insurers to retract that my hubby was at fault, when he didn't understand the question?

Thanks for any advice!

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Knock-for-knock means the liability is shared between both parties (ie both drivers).

 

If it is the insurer's fault that the address wasn't updated even though you told them, then they should still pay the claim.

 

I think you would be able to claim for the personal injury too.

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Knock for Knock is an agreement between certain Insurance Companies NOT to recover their outlay, it is NO WAY reflects liability.

 

Let me explain.......

 

In any given year there will be a number of accidents between people insured with Insurance Company A and people Insured with Insurance Company B. Sometimes it will be the fault of Company A so Company B will write to Company A and ask for their money back, other times it will be the fault of Company B and Company A will write asking for their money back.

 

Insurance Companies realised that they spend a lot of time and money writing to ask for money back whilst at the same time they spend a lot of money sending money out to other Insurance Companies so they started keeping records to see how much money in any given year they paid out to Company X and how much money they received back from Company X. If the two amounts are fairly close then they set up a knock for knock agreement, which means that each Insurance Company pays for the repairs to their own Insured's car and neither Insurance Comapny pursue the other for the cost of repairs.

 

Knock for Knock exists simply to save the Insurance Company time and money, under a knock for knock claim the policyholder who was not responsibile still pursues the other party for their unisured losses and if successful will not lose their no claims discount.

 

Knock for knock does NOT exist between all Insurance Companies, only those whose records show that they pay out roughly the same as they get back from.

 

Mossycat

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Knock for knock is quite uncommon, what you're probably looking at is a split liability, which means exactly as it sounds, which is that both parties admit partial blame for the accident and the payout is split between the 2 insurance companies.

This is usually only a last resort if liability cant be clearly established.

So in this case, with a head on collision, no witnesses etc then it would be difficult to establish who was "at fault" so a split liability outcome it quite likely. As your insurer hasn't made a full recovery from the third party, then this will be classed as a fault claim on your record.

 

The address thing shouldn't make any difference, I assume you have now called in and updated it on the policy so as long as you pay any additional premiums (if there are any) then the claim should go through as per normal.

If you haven't, then call them now and update the address as its a rating factor on the policy and needs to be corrected.

 

I would also agree that you can claim for personal injury, this will normally be covered under your insurance policy so just speak to the claims advisor dealing with your claim and they should send you the necessary forms to fill in etc.

 

Let us know how you get on

 

 

DA

If you find the advice I give is useful, then please feel free to click the scales :)

 

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt" :)

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Thanks so much for all your advice :)

 

That was really helpful.

 

The insurance company has still not sent out an assessment engineer, or courtesy car; so we have had to spend £20 per day on taxis to and from our home. They have admitted that it was their fault that the address wasn't updated; they have a record that I called to update it (I also wrote as they requested) but they have no record on their system of the date, or the letter, or when it was- only that it was, in their words, a 'long time ago'.

 

Today they have told us that our claim will be reopened, and said that we are jointly liable for the accident, with the other party; and that we should have an engineer with us 'in the next few days.' So, that means we have been a week tomorrow without a car, and incurring more and more expense each day. Can we claim this back?

 

I have been back to hospital due to the whiplash injury, but no-one has explained to me about how or if I should claim for personal injury; would I have to claim againist my husband? And how would it work if it's joint liability?

 

Our insurance is fully comp and is with More Than. Indeed, I've had more than enough of waiting for them to get their act together!

 

Thanks again

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