In May of this year, I had a minor bump. I was in Tescos fuel station and reversed into another car that was behind me. The car in question was a MG sports car. I checked my rear view mirror, saw nothing so started to reverse. I hadnt moved more than 1 ft when I felt the collision. I honestly hadnt seen this car behind me, it was that low to the ground. There was no damage at all to my car, not even a scratch, but the other parties car was slightly damaged in that it had a bent front bumper and the indicator lens was smashed.

I admitted liability straight away and passed my details onto my insurance. No problem. Back end of May, i recieved a letter from the other parties insurance stating that I owed him £777 + Vat etc, for car hire!! And unless this was paid withing 14 days, I would be taken to County Court to claim the money owed!.

I contacted my Inusrance (Swiftcover) and they said not to worry, forget about it can you pass the letter on to us, which I duly did.

Yesterday, I recieved a County Court summons for the amount, plus an extra £150 for expenses etc!!

Is this normal ? I will be sending these forms to Swiftcover, but I feel that my insurance should be dealing with this, not me! And that I shouldnt be recieving any correspondance at all. After all, Its what I pay fully comprehensive for! IMO, this is not acceptable. What I dont want, is for 14 days to lapse and then to recieve another letter informing me that I now owe £900+

I think myself, that £700 car hire is a bit exsessive and can see why my insurance are questioning this and it looks like his insurance are not happy with my insurance, so they have gone direct to me to try and scare me into paying. Just exactly where do I stand with this ?

Help as this has me worried to death! I didnt sleep last night thinking I was going to be getting a bill for £900, which I dont have !!

Thread moved.

Suggest that you send it onto Swiftcover urgently by recorded delivery, with a covering letter asking them to deal with it as a matter of urgency and to reply to you in writing stating what actions they will be taking.

If you have a court date, do not ignore and attend if Swift have not confirmed they will be dealing with it; defend it and take all correspondence with you.

Email them as well amd keep doing so untill you get a response.

I would guess that at least part of the problem here lies with your insurance company. If they're not dealing with the other party as quickly as they would like or are querying the hire charges for example, the other party might feel they have no choice but to issue proceedings and, since you are the liable party, the proceedings have to be issued in your name.

As has already been advised, contact your insurers urgently and keep on top of them to make sure they are dealing with this properly. Ultimately, if they can't agree then it may go to court and you may be required to attend.

Thanks for the speedy replies and apologies about posting this in the wrong section:oops:

There is no court date on the forms that came through the post that I can see, its seems it a claim form via the courts ?Only date on it I can see is the 13th of July, the issue date and forms asking me my personal details and how much I earn monthly.

Attending court would be out of the question as I live too far away, plus work would not allow me the time off to attend

Contact your insurers first thing tomorrow. When you send the papers to them, keep a copy for yourself.

If a defence is issued then the claim will be transferred to your local court.

i guess reasonable costs for car hire...

my question ould be what car did he hire, and which garage did he go to that cudnt do the work for weeks!! a standard car you could rent for £150 pw so he is saying for a standard saloon he had a rental for 5weeks.

he should only be renting a small call imo cos in an MG sports he only gets 2 seats, so a ca hire is almost an upgrade as it gives 5 seats! lol upgrades arent covered lol!

cheeky man!

Spoke to the insurance today and they have said just send all paperwork to them and in the meantime, they will contact the third parties insurance and say that all future dealing should be dealt directly with them and not me.

Also found out that he is claiming almost £1600 worth of damge to his car as well ? And due to this his car was written off. Cannot understand this, my car bumber is plastic and not a sctatch on it. His damage at the time, was a dent in his bumper and broken indicator lens, his headlamps were fine as was his radiator, in fact, he went on to fill his car up and I watched him drive it away !

Be interesting to see the photos he has submitted for the damage as I reckon there is something going on here and he is trying to pull a fast one, using his insurance

Update:

All paperwork recieved from the 3rd party and his insurance have been passed onto my Insurance, Swiftcover, who are acting on my behalf ( which they should tbh) and up to now, have been nothing short of brilliant. Thier manner when dealing with me and this have been nothing short of 100% proffesional.

Top marks up to now for them