LV Car Insurance Nightmare, please advise

[Henry57]

A few months ago, I had a car accident in which involved the passenger in the car (my partner) pulling the handbrake resulting in the car being written off and as under a year old was replaced with new. LV were generally quite incompetant with constant delays and I only ended up getting a new car because the lovely people at Peugeot hassled them for me. I thought that was it.

 

This afternoon, a letter arrives addressed to my partner, saying that they are persuing a claim against him on my behalf, asking for a cheque to be written out to me to cover my excess paid and for him to transfer around £6k to their bank account within 21 days or face legal action. I cannot believe this - needless to say we don't have £6k just sitting around.

 

I now understand why the policeman who attended the scene told me to 'tell the insurance company whatever you like' - but I gave a correct account, not wanting to be fraudulent. I understand that insurance companies will try to recover their losses but is this not insane?

 

Is there anything we can do? If it has to be paid, will they accept installments e.g. £100-£200/month?

 

I should also note that the letter we recieved was so full of grammatical errors/capitals in the middle of sentences etc, plus they got the year of the accident completely wrong that I was almost convinced we were being scammed. The writing of the letter is so poor, it is hard to ascertain who has to be paid what and when. Will there be any mileage in complaining about this?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Ganymede]

Hi,

 

First of all can I ask why your partner pulled the handbrake?

[Henry57]

He pulled the handbrake because he was intoxicated and wanted me to stop the car.

[Ganymede]

Well I'm sorry to say but it sounds like he is liable...

[raydetinu]

Yep agree, they are perfectly entitled to persue your partner for their costs, as being the cause of the accident.

[Mwynci]

Henry57, you can try asking the insurers if you can pay a montly amount, they can refuse, but if they were to take you partner to court, there's a good chance the court would agree to such a settlement.

 

There won't be much mileage in complaining about the letter errors, but there's no harm in pointing this out to them.