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No end in sight to insurance case being closed


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I was in a car crash in October with my husband and our children, the car was written off and we ended up having to pay the entire years premiums within 7 days. We weren't in the wrong, but the knock on effect of an open claim has left us having to pay higher insurance premiums and we were unable to replace our car for months. I've wrote this in depth, but I can't paste it from here, unless somebody else can. I was just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and if so, how long did it take until it came to an end?

 

My husband, our children and I were in a car crash in October 2017 after a man decided it would be a good idea to turn his head 90 degrees to the left whilst driving at the national speed limit, going around a corner! We were travelling in the opposite direction to this man, when my husband noticed him. My husband drove us completely off the (county) road, to the left and stopped the car.

 

The man then decided to look at the road he was driving on and noticed us, then his instincts told him to swerve his car, head on into us! We were off the road, there was no other traffic in either direction. The road was clear for him, but he ran his car into us on his right!! He started up his car and tried to drive away, but his car made a crunching sound and stopped him.

 

The police just happened to drive by and it was (we thought) clear who was at fault, but his insurance company is big and ours are small, and someone on the drivers side is denying liability, even though the driver had previously accepted it. Our car was written off, car seats were rendered unsafe and we were faced with an insurance bill of almost £1k, to be paid in 7 days, because apparently, when your car is written off, you need to pay the remaining balance to your insurer and we were 2 weeks into our new insurance cycle.

 

We live in an isolated rural area, a 2-hour drive away from our nearest family and my husband had a 2 hours drive to get to work and back each day. 'Luckily' this happened on my husband's first day of our holiday week, so we had a bit of time to try and sort something out. We eventually got a courtesy car, but it wouldn't accommodate all our family and the cost of replacing the car seats was too high for us to cover. Just the cost of getting a courtesy car cost us a small fortune, having to go back and forth (40+ miles) to the hire company and garage by bus, over 4-5 days. We were foolish to think that this would be resolved easily. We were on the right side of the road, the other driver wasn't, simple right?

 

We were faced with the reality that the £1k we'd just paid the insurers, to pay off our annual car insurance bill, was not going to be finding it's way back to us anytime soon and now Christmas and 2 of our kids' birthdays were here! Credit cards and overdrafts were now needed to do the shopping and we were unable to spend Christmas with our family, which had never happened before. It devastated my parents and the kids' missed spending the day surrounded by all their family, like they'd grown up with. I can't drive and buses don't run here very often, and the cost of getting to the nearest town with the kids is over £20 to get there. I wasn't able to leave the house until January, when we were able to buy another car.

 

We have continued back and forth with the insurance company, but it's now June 2018 and all our money went into paying the insurance company and replacing our car. I can't believe that this is our reality! Our insurance company has told us it's now our word against theirs, and we've been advised to back down, but we weren't in the wrong, so we told them no and that we wanted to fight the decision, but that now means that there's no end in sight and that money we paid, will not be returned until the case is closed.

 

We are unable to have a holiday this year, we haven't had one for years, but we'd saved for the previous few years and all that saving paid the insurers and replaced a previously decent car. The kids don't feel as safe as they did and I don't feel like I can keep them safe anymore. This man is still on the road, driving around our area and that's the worst thing. He's a danger to himself and everyone else.

 

I would really appreciate any help anyone could offer and if anyone knows how long this is likely to go on, that would help greatly.

 

I know there are so many more needy cause on here, we have a house and we have staple foods like pasta, so we're not in as much need as those with ill children, so I don't expect or want funds that could otherwise help those causes. I just wanted to share our story and perhaps make a change to the way these things are dealt with, because our problems are very real.

 

Thank you for reading.

Edited by Andyorch
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Andy

We could do with some help from you.

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What is the name of the insurance company and what did the police say? Do you have a police report?

 

It's not quite clear, are your insurers telling you to admit liability or are they telling you to share liability?

 

Also, what does the other driver say about it? Have you seen his account of the accident?

 

What value are we talking about here? Can you please explain exactly what you are trying to get back

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Without witnesses and no helpful Police report from the officers who were at the scene, you would need to ask yourselves, how you would be able to take this to court ?

 

Everything you have said might be true, but how do you evidence the other driver was 100% at fault ?

 

If you cannot evidence that the other driver was at fault, then you might have to accept a 50/50 outcome.

 

Your Insurers are not going to pay for this to go to a court and if you want to go to court that would be at your expense. But with no evidence, you might not succeed.

We could do with some help from you.

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHERS

 

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Without witnesses and no helpful Police report from the officers who were at the scene, you would need to ask yourselves, how you would be able to take this to court ?

 

Everything you have said might be true, but how do you evidence the other driver was 100% at fault ?

 

If you cannot evidence that the other driver was at fault, then you might have to accept a 50/50 outcome.

 

Your Insurers are not going to pay for this to go to a court and if you want to go to court that would be at your expense. But with no evidence, you might not succeed.

 

I think that's a given.

 

Let's see what the OP has to say about police reports on the other side' s story. We also need to know the value to see what is at stake.

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The other driver's drawing of the result of the crash, mirror's ours - with him on the wrong side of the road, clearly pushing our car further off road.

 

We were paid for the value of our car, but this was eaten into by the cost of having to pay a years insurance in 7 days, so we weren't able to buy a replacement car that would accommodate our family for months. My husband still needed a car to get to work, so we had to buy a small car to get him to work and the insurance was sky high, because of this unresolved crash outcome. My husband had over 20 years no-claims and we were now faced with another insurance premium, higher than our previous car. When we got our current car in January, we had the same problem.

 

Our insurance provider refused to replace our 5 car seats, that were all occupied during the crash and at over £200 each to replace them, we couldn't do that either. They said we had to claim from the other side once the initial case is closed, but they want us to accept 50/50.

 

We had a police officer at the scene that heard the driver admit liability, but we've since been told that this is admissible as people say things they don't mean at the scene.

 

We had legal protection on our insurance policy, as we bought through a broker.

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Who told you this is not admissible? Do you have the collar number of the police officer? This admission is extremely helpful indeed.

 

I don't quite understand because you say that you would pay for the value of your car and yet you are paid for the seats. You really are going to have to explain this and I don't think many people fully understand the fact that you have been paid for a car without seats???

 

Presumably you had a fully comprehensive policy and your insurer paid you for the value of your car. Have you seen the written reports from the other driver?

 

Did you take any photographs at the time? Have you got any photographs now of the road? Please could you put up the drawing that you have in PDF format

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OP, it's hearsay and it is admissible in evidence. You could put it in your own statement if you heard it. and if the police heard it, another statement would be required from them.

 

Do you know if your insurers have obtained a police report? This has already been asked and if you don't know, you need to ask your insurer. If the police officer heard the admission, it might be in the written report (if there is one). Interviewing a police officer for the purposes of an insurance claim is something that some police forces charge for, and your insurer may not be willing to pay for this. Ultimately, if you want the officer to give evidence, the reality of it is that it's unlikely to happen...that's why you need a copy of the police report.

 

BF, I think the OP meant child car seats that their own insurer wouldn't pay for.

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Well I wish she would engage with this thread and say so.

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We had a police officer at the scene that heard the driver admit liability, but we've since been told that this is admissible as people say things they don't mean at the scene.

 

 

I think there is some confusion in that. If the police at the scene heard it then it's definitely admissible providing the police officer included it in his report at the time (nor is it hearsay evidence if that is the case).

 

 

What the person who told you this may have in mind is that apologies or offers to pay the cost of repairs or similar at the scene of an accident are not to be taken as admissions of negligence [s2 Compensation Act 2006]. Whether this is relevant will depend on exactly what the other driver said. Was it an admission of negligence or something else? Even an admission of negligence isn't conclusive proof of liability. As you say, people may admit to things which aren't true or accurate at the scene. But any statement is still admissible, it's up to the judge to decide what weight to attach to it.

 

 

Depending how much money is involved you should maybe consult a solicitor.

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Bank fodder, I find your tone, incredibly unhelpful. People have other things going on in their lives and you may want to consider that in future.

 

I have been trying to reply, but kept getting logged out.

 

A car seat as in the things you buy from a shop for children, not the actual seats of a car. I assumed that was clear.

 

Apologies to everyone who has followed this thread and tried to help, but this isn't actually the hardest part of my life right now and has turned sour, so I shall be removing myself and finding help elsewhere.

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Fair enough. I hope you manage to sort it out

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