car insurance badly dealing with claim

[luckybird00]

Hi i am hoping for a little advise as i am umsure of where to turn.

In may this year, a car reversed into me while I was stationary and did some damage to the front passenger side of my car.

me and the driver of the other car exchanged details and I called my insurance company who are Churchill to report the incident straight away.

My car was repaired and I have had to pay the £400 excess and the other party had issues with his insurance.

since then I have had to call up churchill numerous times to see what is happening with my claim and as my policy is to be renewed this month the premium has rocketed.

I have heard nothing from them in regards to the accident and it is costing me a small fortune to keep calling them.

any ideas on what I can do?

Thanks

[Conniff]

I would put in a claim to his insurance company for the excess and see what they come back with. Send it by recorded delivery.

 

I trust the claim isn't disputed by the third party?

[luckybird00]

Yes there are.

It was a hire car that the third party was driving and it hadnt been taken back in time so he wasnt insured.

we took photographs of the damage to his car which was a scuffed bumper which had disappeared when the car was recovered.

his insurance company state there are indemnity issues.

[T.C.]

The simple solution is to issue proceedings to recover the excess from the third party driver, but include the Hire company as the 2nd deffendant.

 

The Hire company still have a statutory duty to maintain a minimum of third party cover otherwise they can commit the offence themselves of use, cause or permit a vehicle to be used without insurance (aid and abet offence), otherwise the hire driver should have been dealt with for TWOC (Taking without owners consent) which is a criminal offence and an arrestable offence.

 

It sounds like the hire company are just trying to string things out, but get either your insurance company (or if they won't do it, then it is easy to do yourself) to issue proceedings for the recovery of the uninsured losses and that tends to focus their minds

[luckybird00]

I feel the hire company are close friends with the third party as they didn't seem bothered with the damage to their car that had disappeared after the accident!

I have never been in an accident in the 21 years of driving so not sure wgat to do.

[luckybird00]

What are uninsured losses? How fo I do so?

[T.C.]

What are uninsured losses? How fo I do so?

 

Uninsured losses are things such as your excess, or anything else that has not been covered as part of your claim, but usually just the excess that you are required to pay.

 

So for example if your excess is £400, then your claim would be to recover your uninsured losses of £400 plus the costs of issuing proceedings.