Claimant lying about damage to car

[dan08]

Hi, a few months ago a large van was going to cause a head on collision with me (he was travelling across to the wrong side of the road). I managed to swerve in time but unfortunately hit the wing mirror of a parked car. I stopped and the owner of the parked car came out. There was no damage to my car.

 

The van driver also stopped down the road and came back to see what he had done - he knew he had been the cause. We both asked him for his details which he refused and he fled the scene. We took his reg no, I also took photos of the damage.

 

When the man with the damaged wing mirror made a claim against my insurance company he added other damage which was on his car. I told my insurance company that I had only damaged the wing mirror and they asked if I would be agreeable to paying for a new one. I said yes.

 

Since then they have paid out £1900 to the man whose wing mirror was damaged. My ins co also accepted his claime for other damage without contacting me. I will now lose my no claims bonus when my insurance is due. As the money has been paid out is there anything I can do? I have the photos I took at the scene.

[BankFodder]

Yes, I would make sure that all of my evidence was properly collated.

I woul send an SAR to the insurers. Assimilate the SAR file into the evidence and then issue a 7 days warning of legal action if they don't comply completely with your demands.

 

The insurers will try to fob you off and tell you to complain to the FOS.

Don't do it.

Stand your ground and sue in the County Court.

Once they have your court papers they will probably start to behave themselves.

Who is the insurer? - or are you trying to protect them?

[dan08]

It's Elephant

[Ganymede]

Yes, I would make sure that all of my evidence was properly collated.

I woul send an SAR to the insurers. Assimilate the SAR file into the evidence and then issue a 7 days warning of legal action if they don't comply completely with your demands.

 

The insurers will try to fob you off and tell you to complain to the FOS.

Don't do it.

Stand your ground and sue in the County Court.

Once they have your court papers they will probably start to behave themselves.

Who is the insurer? - or are you trying to protect them?

 

 

What is the point of the SAR and issuing proceedings etc?

[Conniff]

SAR will get you all the paperwork they have on you plus phone recordings etc so you can get back your entitlement to a no claim discount.

 

Court can be done on line and it's very unlikely they will go to court but pay out when they get the papers.

[Ganymede]

SAR will get you all the paperwork they have on you plus phone recordings etc so you can get back your entitlement to a no claim discount.

 

Court can be done on line and it's very unlikely they will go to court but pay out when they get the papers.

 

 

Am I missing something here? The OP asked if there is anything they can do about their insurers paying the owner of the other car £1900.00 for his vehicle repairs.

 

I still fail to see the point in a SAR and see no cause for the OP to issue proceedings against their insurer.

 

The OP's insurer will recover their outlay from the vehicle that caused the OP to swerve, provided that they can be tracked down of course.

[afcwben]

I was also confused about the SAR point, thought I had missed something

[dan08]

Thanks for all your replies. The owner of the vehicle which caused the accident was traced via his registration. He denies everything. At the time he told me to drive on and not say anything to the owner of the damaged car - so I don't think he is going to take responsibility for this.

 

I was wondering if the SAR would be helpful because I had several telephone conversations with my insurers and I told them that it was only a wing mirror which was damaged.

 

What is really getting to me is that my insurance company just doesn't seem to be on my side - I gave them the whole story and was of course prepared to pay for the wing mirror. I have photographs of the claimant's car which prove that the other damage was done by a black vehicle, mine is blue. The damage doesn't look like £1900 but he also put in a bill for a hire car during the repair.

 

I am putting together a letter + photos to my insurer and also asking them for all the data they have on me, including recordings of telephone conversations.

 

I think they are completely incompetent if they pay out a claim like this when there is proof otherwise and then penalise me for it. What is insurance for after all!

 

I am quite surprised that the insurance companies want to do everything via telephone calls these days instead of the old way of filling out an accident report. I wonder if it is so they can 'lose' the phone recordings and deny certain conversations ever took place. Would anyone recommend using a broker instead - at least you could have face to face communication with someone like Swinton who have offices throughout England.

[Ganymede]

I still wouldn't waste my money on a SAR as it's pointless, after all you're not the one paying!

 

But if you have money to burn by all means knock yourself out...

[dan08]

Hi Ganymede, but I will pay in the long run as I will lose my no claims bonus. Also I can't believe that my insurance company would just pay out without investigating properly, this isn't the first time this has happened to me. This kind of practice is just making people dishonest.

[Conniff]

An SAR isn't going to break the bank, the maximum that can be charged is £10, a lot lot less than the potential of a lost no claims bonus.

 

Armed with hard copies of letters and phone calls should allow to be seen what the insurance company is paying out and why.

 

It will have hard copies of the op telling them that he has pictures and it was only a mirror damaged.