Template letter car accident

[stoploss]

Hello All

 

I was driving round a big roundabout and I had someone hit my drivers side rear wing and rear drivers side door.

 

Its just dented really, not too bad.

 

The other guy has a dent in his front wing.

 

He will need his bumper removing, and his front wing filling and re spraying.

 

I spoke to his boss (it was a works van) and said I was willing to pay for the damage as I didn't want to risk any black marks on my name, as i know having accidents that are not even your fault goes down against you.

 

He came back to me saying the repair for the damage to the wing was £475.

 

I though that was a real rip off price for a small dent and a re sprayed wing, but I dont want anything bad against my name so I am willing to pay.

 

What I dont know is what paperwork to exchange with him.

 

I don't want to admit I was responsible for the accident.

 

I don't even want to admit I was driving a car, because I have every intention of telling my next car insurer that I have no clains, no crashes and no convictions. (Essentially lie).

 

I'd prefer it to be as if I maybe bumped his car with a shopping trolly by mistake , or dropped something on it by accicent.

 

Has anyone got a template letter or an idea of some legal begal wording I need include in the settlement, and how I should pay?

 

The guy says its 475 without the VAT so if i want to have a reciept I will have to pay the extra VAT.

 

I am quite aware the guy and his boss are going to pocket my £475 but I consider it worth it to keep my self out of trouble.

 

What do you all think?

 

Cheers

 

Stoploss

[borisbeaver]

I'm a little confused, from your post you say that this works van hit you? Why are you paying for the repair to the works van?

 

As Blackadder says, "There's something smelling fishy here, and were not talking about Baldricks apple crumble!"

[stoploss]

Because I dont want to tell my insurance I had an accident.

 

Having accidents that are not your fault makes your insurance go up.

 

My Dad told me that there are no witnesses and he could make up lies about what happened it it might go down against me.

 

My Dad says it will be knock for knock.

 

If it costs me £475 to keep my nose clean I don't care its not a world of money...

[borisbeaver]

You still shouldn't have to pay for the damage to the van.

[stoploss]

You dont get it do you Borris. If I start doing better I might want to get a more expensive car.

 

The insurance might be say £1000 a year with no points no convictions and no crashes.

 

It could easy be £1800 a year with crashes and stuff like that.

 

Thats how insurance works. Its ok if you have a piece of crap 52 plate ford mondeo diesel, thats not the end of the world, but if you want a nice car you are screwed.

[CRH71]

You dont get it do you Borris. If I start doing better I might want to get a more expensive car.

 

The insurance might be say £1000 a year with no points no convictions and no crashes.

 

It could easy be £1800 a year with crashes and stuff like that.

 

Thats how insurance works. Its ok if you have a piece of crap 52 plate ford mondeo diesel, thats not the end of the world, but if you want a nice car you are screwed.

 

I really struggle to understand this, and I have A LOT of driving experience under my belt, including a few accidents (mostly non-fault).

 

Let me get this straight - HE hit YOU, but YOU want to pay for it to avoid an issue with your insurance?

 

The only reasons I can think of for wanting to take this action are that you are not insured yourself or your vehicle was in some other way knowingly un-roadworthy (tax/MOT/C&U violations), or you were in some way to blame (i.e. you cut across the other driver).

 

In the experience I have had with insurance companies, none of this would go against you - I had a non-fault accident with a foreign lorry driver who actually turned out (eventually) to be completely uninsured. I cancelled the claim with my insurance company (it wasn't worth the hassle of the NWNF lawyers and ambulance-chasers ringing twice a week) and that was the end of the matter. No affect on my insurance (although my then insurance company did threaten to increase my renewal premium significantly, I just voted with my wallet and went elsewhere - declaring the accident circumstances when I took out the new policy) - no impact and no affect to my (then) unprotected no claims.

 

I must also confess that I take offence to your comment of "a piece of crap 52 plate ford mondeo diesel" - there are many people, myself included, who would count something like that "piece of crap" you describe to be a pretty reasonable method of transport indeed! Not everyone drives brand new vehicles out of choice - some of us have other responsibilities and priorities for our limited income.

 

If, as you say, you start doing better and you can afford a "nice car", then you should be able to afford to run it properly, which includes paying the insurance premium applicable to that vehicle, whether that's £1000, £1800 or £18,000. By the time that time comes, anyway, you'll have built up a degree of no-claims bonus and will probably be outside of the declaration period for a previous accident (most insurance companies ask if you have had any accidents in the last 3-5 years).

 

To my eyes, unless there is an element of fault here that you're not telling us about, this is clear-cut. HE hit YOU, therefore YOU should be claiming from HIM. End of story. If, after the insurance company has made their investigations it is found to be non-fault on your part, then your no-claims bonus will not be affected and there will be no impact upon your premium now or at renewal.

[crem]

There is definately something not right about this post. Many of stoploss' conclusions are down right wrong, such as a non-fault accident affecting your insurance premiums.

 

I think, having already suggested you will pay for the 3rd party damage, you are in essense admitting fault and, if something now goes wrong with your little arrangement, the 3rd party is well on the way to winning a court case coz "you already offered to pay but retracted it". what type of innocent person would do that?

 

As for whether or not your intention is not to declare the accident in future, this again could badly backfire on you. You are legally required to declare any accidents(whether fault or not) or convictions when asked by the insurance company. Please see this thread to discover how expensive this lie can turn out to be:-

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?295760-plz-help-4k-repair-bill-and-insurance-cancelling-policy

[borisbeaver]

You dont get it do you Borris. If I start doing better I might want to get a more expensive car.

 

The insurance might be say £1000 a year with no points no convictions and no crashes.

 

It could easy be £1800 a year with crashes and stuff like that.

 

Thats how insurance works. Its ok if you have a piece of crap 52 plate ford mondeo diesel, thats not the end of the world, but if you want a nice car you are screwed.

None of this was in your original post. We can only advise on what was posted and not read your mind. From the insurance prices you have quoted, I suspect you are a young driver. I had and accident in my first car, when I was 19 when my car was rear-ended. My next accident happened last year when someone came out of a side road and ripped the front of my car off. Neither accident's were my fault and I did not get penalised by my insurers because of this. Oh yeah, I drive a Shiny Black 51 plate Mondeo estate. I absolutely love it. It wasn't bought new, but it's mine, it's clean and it's insured, taxed and MOT'd. I cannot afford a new car on my salary, but I won't buy junk - oh and I pay £210 per year to insure it fully comp.

[Endymion]

Just wait until you agree to pay for his damages and then he makes a personal injury claim against you and your employers for whiplash. You have, effectively, admitted liability by paying for his damages and also probably voided your employers insurance by not reporting it and so any claim made by the TP will have to be paid by you or your employers, in full and this will include all his solicitors fees etc.

 

No document can legally stop the Claimant from making a claim for personal injury claim and you or your employers will not have the first clue of how to go about defending such a claim as they will produce medical evidence saying you hit them, caused the injury and hey presto £££. I have seen claims that are succesful for much lower speed and damage caused impacts.

 

They may not make a claim, but why take the risk?

 

You and your employers are mad for going down this route, irrespective of whether you want to drive a nice big car in the future.

[crem]

You dont get it do you Borris. If I start doing better I might want to get a more expensive car.

The insurance might be say £1000 a year with no points no convictions and no crashes.

It could easy be £1800 a year with crashes and stuff like that.

Thats how insurance works.

With all respect, you clearly don't know how insurance works.

An insurance company does not penalise a customer for being an innocent victim in a crash. Being a victim does not make you more likely to be

a) a victim in the future or

b) more likely to cause an accident in the future

 

i.e. they are concerned with the "risk factor" of insuring you and being hit does not make you such a risk.

 

As you have been told many times on here already, by offering to pay for damage that you maintain was not caused by you, will be seen as an admission of guilt. Having paid for the damage, you are now open to an injuries claim and, whether you intended to declare it or not, insurance companies now have many ways of checking such data. If they unearth the accident it will void any insurance you have running and open you up to all sorts of possible criminal accusations.

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

It seems to me that OP is suggesting perpetrating a fraud.

 

Is that something CAG condones?

[honeybee13]

The OP hasn't been seen for 3 days, are we wasting our time atm?

 

My best, HB

[mpressive]

I had two claims over the last 5 years. The first I was rear ended at a junction. The second was an unoccupied car, with the handbrake not pulled up, rolled down the road and hit my car.

 

My insurance is with Admiral and both claims were handled by their legal team, Albany Assistance. In both cases they knew, and agreed, that the accidents were not my fault and there was nothing I could have done. Indeed, in the second accident, two Police officers were actually walking past my car when it was hit. Both provided statements.

 

When my insurance renewal came round it has increased by £400. Admiral, and other insurance companies I have tried, all say it is because I have made two claims, regardless that neither were my fault.

 

To quote the Admiral customer representative, I am now "statistically bad luck". I didn't know bad luck was taken into account in the factual statistics of insurance.

 

To answer the OP - I would try to keep as much as legally possible from those insurance companies and their shoddy practice.

[crem]

I

When my insurance renewal came round it has increased by £400. Admiral, and other insurance companies I have tried, all say it is because I have made two claims, regardless that neither were my fault.

 

To quote the Admiral customer representative, I am now "statistically bad luck". I didn't know bad luck was taken into account in the factual statistics of insurance.

 

With all due respect this sounds total BS. I made 5 claims last year on 4 seperate policies (driving school cars so an occupational hazard before anyone assumes I am very accident prone ) and another about 6 years ago, all "non fault" claims. None of these accidents affect my NCB or insurance renewal quotes.

[Mossycat]

Actually Crem most (if not all insurers) do now load a policy for a non fault accident.They justify (or try to) this by citing statistics that show that an individual involved in an accident is more likely to be involved in another one and this justifies an increase in premium.Last year my car was parked up whilst I was on holiday and was damaged by another driver, by going to a comparison website I entered all my details for a quote on the basis that I hadn't had an accident, and then re-did the quote disclosing one non fault accident, my premium rose by £40. Since this affects me for 5 years I claimed £200 (£40 x 5) as uninsured losses from the responsible party on the basis that if they hadn't hit my car I wouldn't have to pay this increased premium, after a bit of arguing the threat of a County Court Summons made them pay up.Insurers want it both ways, they want to increase your premiums because of a non fault accident but they don't want to have to pay out for this increase as uninsured losses, which to me is totally wrong.Mossycat

[borisbeaver]

Admiral - nuff said