At fault with bumping into Royal Mail van now they are threatening court action over inflated charges

[moderndaypeasant]

Hi I hope this is in the right place!

My husband accidentally reversed into a Royal Mail van and bumped the van's licence plate. There was a witness and details were exchanged. The damage was a tiny dent in the licence plate. The Royal Mail van man said he had to take it to his authorities when my husband said he would give him £20 for the plate.

A few weeks later we get an invoice from Royal Mail for £270.49! They had included the cost of a manager to discuss the issue with the driver amongst other things. (surely a manager doing his job is part of his already allocated salary and is not a cost incurred by Royal Mail??) Anyway we ignored the letter as we just cannot afford £270.

We know we had admitted fault by offering to pay so we are liable but are we liable for so much?

We have now received a 'final reminder' threatening court action if we don't pay in 21 days and us then being liable for court costs in addition to the original amount. My question is can they take us to court and would we be liable for court costs?

My husband reckons they won't as it wouldn't be worth their while but I am not sure.

I know we are in the wrong by not going through insurance and by offering money at the scene of the accident but I hope we have some rights in this!

Thanks!

[grahamengineering]

I wouldn't ignore it. They could theoritically pursue you for their costs. After all if they had placed a claim against your insurer they would of applied the same costs. I'd write to them first and ask for a breakdown of all costs including the lengths of time this managerial discussion took.

 

Surprised they are even bothering given the codition of most of the Pat vans round here.

[raydetinu]

Suggest you make an offer which would sound reasonable and be acceptable to save then the bother of court hassle.

Try offering cost of new plate and fitting at say £30 + £30 =£60 but be prepaored to go a little higher.

[DES_1001]

why don't you go through your insurance?

[moderndaypeasant]

Thanks for your replies. We didn't go with insurance because our excess is really high.

[Hontch]

Are you sure your excess applies to a 3rd party claim, I dont think it does usually?

[crem]

As far as I know, the excess would apply to any type of claim.

[Hontch]

Nationwide and LV insurance (possibly run by the same company) specifically state, you only need to pay the excess towards your own repairs and I'm pretty sure you will find most other insurers are the same.

 

Excess does not apply on Direct-Line 3rd party only insurance...

 

It also seems illogic to have to pay an excess toward a 3rd party claim.

[raydetinu]

Correct, excess only payable on fully comp/fire or theft claims for your vehicle; however you would loose your NCB ( up to three years worth ) and your next years premium will be loaded for any claim including TP.