Cyclist causes £550 damage to my car

[apn8keh]

Just back from the police station. Have shown docs & described incidence. They won't report it as a road traffic accident as I wasn't in the car. They weren't too bothered about me facing the wrong way as they said 50% of cars are parked the wrong way round. He suggested I take multiple pictures of my car from varying distances to prove that it was perfectly visible since its always parked under a street lamp. Had a bit of info from a longtime traffic cop & apparently nighttime is considered as starting one hour after sunset & finishing one hour before sunrise so I can't be accused of parking illegally at night. I just need to weigh up whether I'm gonna open a can of worms & have to fork out compensation for his collarbone if they hold me to blame in anyway & is that gonna cost more than the damage to my car.

[slick132]

Phew ! At least you didn't get banged up for the night.

 

IMHO, although his insurer's may try and wriggle out of it saying you should claim on YOUR car policy, you should go ahead, quantify your loss and send a letter to him seeking reimbursement.

 

If that brings excuses or refusal, issue Small Claim.

 

Sorry about his collarbone but you are in NO WAY responsible. There IS no can of worms to open here and he must take ALL of the blame.

 

As back up, have you checked with your car insurance Legal Cover bods.

[Guest louis wu]

If it was MY car that had been damaged by the cyclist, I would be sorely tempted to reward his honesty, by offering to go AT LEAST 50-50 with him on it's repair bill.

considering the cyclist expects to OP to foot the entire bill, I don't think I would be inclined to be so generous.

[apn8keh]

My boyfriend laughed at me when i came out the police station saying at least I didn't have to spend the night there! About 2 hours after I got back from the station the policeman called to say that police have a book which details the hours of day & night. I said i'd checked the sunrise time & it wasn't looking to good for me, but he said 8.15 was not the time in his book, it was 7.45 so he said I was in the clear re the direction I was facing.

 

Can the cyclist really stand up in court and say the accident was my fault because he could not see a car parked under a street lamp in the rain. I'm guessing if thats the case he wouldn't have been able to see a person crossing the road.

 

My drive to work follows the route he would have took & there were plenty of cars parked the "wrong way". So he managed to negotiate all of them safely, only difference is he would have been going much slower as he passed them as they were on the flat whereas when he came past mine he would have been doing some speed as we're on a steep hill. I'm tempted to use a camcorder to walk the route he took to demonstrate that my car was no less visible than any of the others.

[crash3903]

I've checked his policy with liverpool Victoria & he has cover under liability to public if he damages someone elses property in an accident.

 

To get back on track now you have established you are not in the wrong, he has insurance so he should use it - or has he got it for just in case type scenarios???????

[apn8keh]

Do you think if I write to him that he will pass it to his insurers & they would cough up. He said they had told him I should claim on my car insurance, but thats typical insurance companies if they think it can be paid off another policy they will push that first.

[slick132]

Write to him and claim from him.

 

How he d/w it is between him and his insurers.

[ScarletPimpernel]

If you write to him, what he does next is a matter for him. Ultimately this man caused damage to your car; he is liable for the cost of repairs and any other costs.

 

Why not try something like:

 

After causing damage to my car at (location) on (date/time), you called at my address and admitted liability.

 

The cost of repairs is (or will be in the region of) £xxx. Please let me have your proposals to pay in full within fourteen days. If you do not contact me with a satisfactory proposal to settle, I will have to issue a claim against you in the County Court without further notice.

 

If you intend to ask your insurers to deal with this matter, please ensure that you inform them of the deadline.

[slick132]

Hi there,

 

SP and I have discussed this and think the suggestion above could be used as an LBA if no response is rec'd to a Prelim Ltr which could be sent on the following lines to the cyclist:-

 

Dear Cyclist,

 

Thank you for having the decency to call on me to admit responsibility for the damage caused to my car Make, model, reg'n no. when you ran into it on your bike at time and date.

I hope your injuries are not too serious and you'll make a speedy recovery.

 

I enclose copies of 2 estimates for the repairs necessary as a result of your collision. I would appreciate payment within 14 days in the sum of £xxx being the lower of the two estimates.

 

If you pass this on to Insurers, please make them aware of this deadline. I hope we are able to settle this matter amicably and quickly and look forward to your reply.

 

Yours faithfully

 

apn8keh

 

Send it Recorded Delivery and if you don't have a satisfactory reply after 14 days, send a Letter Before Action on the lines of Scarlet P's suggestion above, adapted as necessary.

 

You could worry forever about "What if they come back saying............????"

 

Send the letter, see what response comes back and decide how to progress from there.

[DeejayP999]

First up, the police should have reported this as an accident regardless of fault as it involved a motor vehicle on a road and some one was injured. It is irrelevant that no one was in the car.

 

Not that that really affects the liability aspects of this: There is no doubt that the cyclist is liable.

 

However, his household insurance will deny any liability - they always do. I had similar situation very recently when a neighbours tree collapsed and flattened my car.

 

I had to claim on my own car insurance who initially declined to make any attempt to pursue the other party - despite clear liability (the tree was totally rotten).

 

Ultimately I took my neighbour to the Small Claims Court to recover my uninsured losses. Her household insurance continued to deny all liability until they received a copy of the summons, at which point they changed their tune and admitted liability in full.

 

Don't give up on this because that's what they want you to do. Claim on your own car insurance and then go to the small claims court for your uninsured losses. It's very unlikely that you'll ever actually get to court - they'll most likely pay up before you do.

[slick132]

My concern re claiming through your own Insurers is that you may lose some of your No Claims Bonus. You can, of course recover this through Small Claims Court action.

 

However, there is possibly of a knock-on effect where, even when you reclaim for loss of NCB, you will still lose out in later years until you are back to the NCB level you were at before the incident.

 

That is why I would use the above letter and NOT use claim on YOUR insurance unless absolutely necessary.

[apn8keh]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for all your replies you've been a great help & I'm really glad I found this forum because you cover a wide range of topics.

 

Saturday morning a letter arrived from my insurers for my claim, which is funny because however I reported it to said she was putting it info only! Anyhow, they tried to tell me to pay the excess & get the car repaired & they might chase it....sod that! I have to call another department on Monday to ask them to chase the cyclists home insurance. There is no way I'm claiming on my insurance as your right you can't truly quantify the cost of increased premiums for the next how many years. I'm currently on 9 years & although they're protected you have to be careful about how many claims you have in 3 years. I currently have them chasing up for damage to my rear bumper that was reported to me by a note on my windscreen. Even though I haven't had the car repaired they registered it as a claim. I should be entitled to 2 claims in 3 years but with this 2nd one they reckon I lose 5 years no claims bonus. I'd rather drive around with 2 bust bumpers than pay any more to my insurers!

 

I'll keep you posted.

[DeejayP999]

My concern re claiming through your own Insurers is that you may lose some of your No Claims Bonus...

 

Your NCB may be temporarily suspended, however if you successfully prove liability against the other party your insurers will restore your NCB and refund any additional premium that you may have had to pay in the interim.

 

If you don't manage to prove liability against the other party you'll have to claim on your own insurance anyway - so you may as well get your car fixed now and argue the toss later. (And that way there's always the chance that your insurers will pursue the matter on your behalf).

 

Trust me on this one - I've just had to do it for real. It took 7 months to get the money back from the other party. That's a long time to be driving a damaged car.

[slick132]

Hi DJ,

 

Proving liability and getting the cyclist (or Insurer) to pay in full are 2 diff't things.

 

If APN8KEH's insurance can't or won't chase cylist (or Insurer) for losses, APN8KEH will have to sue cyclist for Policy Excess. However, as APN8KEH acknowledges above, recovering the costs of NCB loss over a number of years is difficult as the figures are difficult to quantify.

 

Glad you got your claim sorted eventually.

[DeejayP999]

…recovering the costs of NCB loss over a number of years is difficult as the figures are difficult to quantify.

I hear what you're saying - and initially I wondered how to quantify the value of my NCB. So for the purpose of the court summons, I put in a deliberately high guesstimate (factoring in the knock-on effect over the next few years). But in practice neither of the insurance companies involved even tried to quantify it’s value. The 3rd party insurer paid for the damage (and my excess etc) and my own insurer restored my NCB.

 

I was surprised by this, too: I know that in theory it's a "No Claims" and not a "No Blames" Bonus, but this appeared to be standard practice where one party is wholly to blame.

 

I suspect it’s done as a reciprocal arrangement by insurers precisely to get around the difficulties (and endless arguments!) involved in trying to quantify the value of a lost NCB.

[patdavies]

My concern re claiming through your own Insurers is that you may lose some of your No Claims Bonus. You can, of course recover this through Small Claims Court action.

 

However, there is possibly of a knock-on effect where, even when you reclaim for loss of NCB, you will still lose out in later years until you are back to the NCB level you were at before the incident.

 

 

You will lose NCB at the time of the claim and have to pay the excess.

 

However, if you recover all your insured losses and prove this to your insurer, they will usually re-instate your NCB (as well as going after the cyclist for their costs)

[BADGER 69]

It is unlawful to park facing the wrong way after lighting up time and it has caused serious accidents before. However in this case I think it is simply a case of the cyclist not riding with due care and attention and as such he is liable. I think you would be better of making a claim againt him and let him sort it out with his household insurance or the insurance that he may have for his bike. Some riders do have such insurance.

 

If you find this useful please click my scales.

[apn8keh]

Hi guys,

 

Churchill were about to call/write to the cyclist on Monday & I'm pushing for his insurance to pay. If not then it is better for me to pay for the repair myself rather than make a claim for £375. I'd rather keep a clean NCD & only claim for a big accident where the repair bills are much higher. If you can cope with driving with a damaged car it is better to wait for the other party to accept liability before you get your car repaired. That way they have to pay the full cost of repairs & you don't have to quantify the effect to your NCD as you haven't claimed.

 

I'll keep you posted as I hear.

[apn8keh]

Hi Guys,

 

Just had a call from Churchill. The cyclist has admitted full liability, his insurers will pay in full direct to garage so I don't have to pay any excess & my NCD has been reinstated. I hope this thread has been of help to anyone else in a similar situation. It seems most of us are covered for 3rd party whilst walking and cycling on our home insurance.

 

Cheers

[Chesterexpress]

Good news.

[slick132]

Good result.

 

Thanks for the update.

 

Slick