Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me. I had an accident last year which was deemed to be my fault, but my car was repaired immediately with no questions. About 9 monthe after the accident date I get a letter from the third party's solicitor saying that if I don't pay for the repairs on their client's car they would have to claim against me in the small claims court to recover the costs. I sent this letter to my insurers and they told me the claim hadn't been paid because the third party's insurer hadn't sent them an itemised invoice showing the work carried out on his car.

Today I get papers from the small claims court for the money that the third party reckons I owe him. What do I do? I can't get in touch with my insurer until tomorrow.

I have changed insurers since the accident, but that was the case the last time I contacted them and they didn't mention anything about that. I only changed when the insurance was due for renewal, so I think I'm still entitled to the service that I paid for. Any delay in processing the claim has certainly not been on my part - the accident occured in April 2010 and my insurance was renewed in November 2010.

Yes the Insurers you had at the time are liable for this. Send the court claims form onto these Insurers by recorded delivery. Before you do so, give them a call tomorrow, to obtain an address and name of the person to send the court claim to. Keep a record of the recorded delivery posting and name/address where sent.

It is up to the Insurers to sort it out, by paying the third party the relevant sum, at which point the court claim would be withdrawn.

Thanks for the advice. That's what I thought, but getting these papers when I got in from work today was a shock- made worse when the insurers' phone lines were closed. I'll definitely do as you say.