Hello. This is a long shot but i thought i may aswell try you guy for some advice.

In May 2008 i was travelling late at night (3am) behind a Vauxhall Corsa driven by a young lady down your average 30mph road. The girl suddenly braked and consequently there was a slight bump (less than 10mph after i had braked).

Following the accident she got out of the car and so did the passenger, the passenger inspected the damage (Or lack of) and then he said "no need to worry about it" and then HE got into the drivers seat and drove off.

I heard nothing for weeks after this, then out of the blue i received a letter through the post alerting me that the Male had made a claim on his insurance and that the car was a write off? My car had a simple crack on the front bumper and that was it. No issues with the wheels, suspension, brakes... Nothing. I even removed the bumper and there was not a mark on the bumper bar! The impact was so slight there was no way the car could have been written off by myself.

Anyway i explained this to the investigator who had been instructed Zenith to deal with the case and he wanted to come to my home address. to go over the details. At the time it was not convienient for him to visit my home address for personal reasons. The insurance investigator refused to meet me anywhere but my home address. I offered to come to his office but it turned out he worked from home and the only place we could meet was my home address. I attempted to explain to the man that i had a terminally ill grandmother who i was caring for and that him visiting the address was more than inconvenient considering the state of my granmothers ill health.

After that, the driver (who was not even driving at the time) was awarded the claim. The reasons being "the insured was being unco-operative". To this day it winds me up that i got penilized for being unable to meet the investigator anywhere other than my home address. Business should be able to be conducted at a business adress if unabled to be conducted at the insured' address in my eyes.

Is there anything i can actually do to challenge this horrific mess? I have attempted to speak with Zenith but the people there are saying it is too late to do anything as they have paid out for the claim and now has been archived.

There are many issues with this from the non insured driver through to the lack of care from the investigators.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks Anthony

I had almost the same kind of incident about 8 years ago when I was with Churchill. Matey gets out of his car (clapped out Vaux Astra) and immediately opend the tail gate. (we had touched bumper to bumber, tail gate was never touched). Low and behold when he attempted to close it again, it wouldn't latch! Me being me, I told him I believed he knew that there was a problenmm with the tailgate before hand. I told him that I would not be making a claim and I will infor my insurers of the incident in full.

Then I get Churchill on saying that a non-fault accident co had been instructed to persue the matter. By now, I had found that the insurance details he gave me were false! The estimate showed a claim for new rear lights, new tailgate ect ect ect. My car only had a black rubber mark on the bumber... even the number plate wasn't damaged! I offered to take my car in to a Churchill repair centre for them to inspect. I took a copy of the estimate with me. The guy came out and asked me what area of my car he was looking at. (thats how insignifitant the damage was). After a video examination of my car, I showed him the estimate from the TP and he laughed asying i'd either had my car repaired or the TP was pulling a fast one. He communicated his opinions to head office and I also asked them for the TPs insurance details and they had'nt got them, they were just dealing with this non fault outfit.

This is the best bit; dispite all this Churchill paid out! My insurance premium doubled and I threatend them with legal action. I also reported the TP to the police for not exchanging details (although I don't know what happened threre). In the end (after about a year) Churchill re-instated my no claims bonus and acknowledged their mistake. but obviously, I switched insurers.

Getting back to your situation, I don't think you have done any favours by not allowing the loss adjuster to do his job which wouild of included inspecting your car, so i'm not sure hwo you are going to prove your case.

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I am afraid there is very little you can do about the claim at this stage.

You will probably find that your insurers have agreed to deal with the third party claim on a without prejudice basis due your alleged lack of co-operation.

You could make a complaint about the handling of the claim to your insurers and ultimately the financial ombudsman, but even if your complaint is upheld I think their decision to settle the third party claim will stand.

The problem being there is no proof that the other driver hit the brakes suddenly or that the passenger switched seats and drove the vehicle after the accident. 99% of all accident such as this result in the rear vehicle bearing full responsibility. It is not uncommon for damaged to the rear of a vehicle appear minimal but for the repair estimate to be huge (rear bumper impacts tend to cause internal damage, kinking to the quarter panels, misalignment issues, etc).

In a lot of road traffic accidents it is not what happened that is important, it is what you can prove.

Sadly in this instance the balance of probability is in favour of the other driver.

Thank you guys for your replys.

I was thinking the same as you both. It is such ashame that people can get stumped like this.

Thanks again

Ant

I put an idea to churchill about offering free disposable cameras(more useful than a nodding dog) to keep in the car incase of a bump then you could record the evidence, however in this day and age almost every mobile has a camera and should be used.