Third party accident

[Crazyhorse7]

Whilst I was waiting at a mini roundabout a Lexmoto motor cycle tried to squeeze in on my left (I was also turning left) and damaged my car with two long and deepish scratches. No personal injury.

 

I got out of the car and spoke to him briefly. He apologised but said it wasn't his fault(?). He blamed the non-existent ice on the road.

 

I was blocking traffic so I asked him to wait while I moved my car. As I got back in my car he drove off. I went to the Police and reported it who have now said they will prosecute him for not remaining to provide details and for driving away from an accident. The only evidence I have is my front facing camera which clearly shows the third party at the side of the road and then pulling away again.

 

No problems; except getting my car repaired. If I make a claim my insurance will rocket up by over £200 for next year and I lose 2 years NCD. A point I'm sure we all agree with as scandalous!

 

Finally to my question: I'm not claiming via insurance but can I take the third party to small claims for damage to my car? If so where do I begin?

[BankFodder]

Yes you can. There is no need to go through your insurance. On the other hand, you will have a contractual duty to inform the insurance about this and why it is being settled am afraid that they will leap into action because of "industry practice" and they will mark your card and you will lose your no claims discount until the matter settled.

 

Have you got the details of the driver? Do you know where he lives? Do you know if he has any assets?

 

You should start off by getting two quotes for the work and then contact the motorcyclist, setting out all of the details and giving him the quotes and tell him that you expect him to pay you the value of the lower quote.

 

Seeing that he has driven off, he's already demonstrated a lack of good faith and so it seems to me that you need to act quickly and aggressively and that means that your letter and the quotes would be incorporated into a letter before action giving in 14 days. At the end of the 14 days you would start a County Court claim.

 

Your chances of success are extremely high but of course the problem will be with enforcing the judgement.

 

However, if he is an insured driver – and this needs to be ascertained with the police – once you get judgement then I would expect that you could enforce it against the insurers.

 

One of our users – UncleBulgaria is familiar with the minutiae of this and hopefully he will come along and advise you on these details

 

However, if you receive advice which suggest that you should leave it to the insurers and that they will sort out correctly and justly between them – that I will say right now that this is not good advice. Insurance companies take a long time to do this kind of thing and in the end they generally speaking like to take the easy way out – especially because this means that some kind of 50-50 split arrangement is agreed between them and both you and the other party lose your no claims discounts and pay higher premiums for the next few years.

 

Industry agreements are generally speaking a nice little earner – for the industry.

[Crazyhorse7]

Thanks for the advice.

 

I have already contacted the insurance company and stressed to them that I will not be claiming via them. They state that since I am not making a claim my NCD is intact. (we'll see when I renew in 8 days time).

 

I don;t have drivers details only the Police have them at his moment but I assume they will obviously pass them on for my "claim" purposes. He is insured.......with the same insurer!

 

I'm taking a free half hour with a Solicitor tomorrow to see what steps I can take but I've already asked for quotes (again good advice) and just waiting for outcome.

 

I'll wait for Uncle Bulgaria as well to see if he/she can add to your excellent advice.

 

Once again many thanks

[neil6534]

personally I would speak to your own insurers, if you have the reg number for the offender then typically they will chase that person down....they would summise that you wouldnt be able to pluck the reg number out of thin air and it would be down to the offender to prove otherwise

[unclebulgaria67]

Thanks for the advice.

 

I have already contacted the insurance company and stressed to them that I will not be claiming via them. They state that since I am not making a claim my NCD is intact. (we'll see when I renew in 8 days time).

 

I don;t have drivers details only the Police have them at his moment but I assume they will obviously pass them on for my "claim" purposes. He is insured.......with the same insurer!

 

I'm taking a free half hour with a Solicitor tomorrow to see what steps I can take but I've already asked for quotes (again good advice) and just waiting for outcome.

 

I'll wait for Uncle Bulgaria as well to see if he/she can add to your excellent advice.

 

Once again many thanks

 

If you visit the Askmid site with the third parties reg number, you can get their Insurance details

 

http://m.askmid.com/mt/www.askmid.com/mobile/

 

Armed with the details, you can contact the relevant Insurance companies claims team that deals with third parties and they will ask for details of the accident. Also provide them with any Police information given to you. The third party Insurers will have to contact their policyholder to get their side of the story, before they accepted liability. This may take some time, as they will probably allow their policyholder about 3 weeks to respond.

 

I doubt the Police will provide you with more information about the third party, as they don't tend to do that. Without the name of the bike rider and their address, it would be difficult to issue a small court claim against them. Hence why you might have to make the third parties insurers aware of the accident and then follow the process.

 

I don't think any no win no fee Solicitors will be interested, as there is no money in it for them e.g personall injury. They will tell you to either use your own Insurers, plus any legal cover you might have with your car insurance or to try to claim directly with the third parties Insurers.

[unclebulgaria67]

To add. If the bike squeesed down the inside of you causing damage, then i think they should be liable. But the third parties insurers may argue the toss, depending on what evidence is available. Bikes are not supposed to use their size advantage to undertake actions, which are not driving with due care attention and allowing for other road users. They might argue that you turned in without looking.

[unclebulgaria67]

Just to help you understand that liability is not always easy to prove.

 

http://www.markthompsonlaw.com/motorcycle-filtering-through-traffic/accident-and-personal-injury-case-examples/

[JoeyJoeC]

He said that the 3rd party is with the same insurance company, so I doubt they will argue with themselves.

 

Neil, it's often best not to get your insurance company involved as they may see it as you're making a claim.

 

Crazyhorse, you can make a claim against their insurance if you know the reg and the company they are with, which you do.

[neil6534]

A claim is only made on your insurance only if your insurance company notifies you or advises you it will then it's your choice to accept or not

[CrappoMan]

...Bikes are not supposed to use their size advantage to undertake actions, which are not driving with due care attention and allowing for other road users. They might argue that you turned in without looking.

Luckily, the OP has camera footage which should show their position on the road and that they didn't move.

[dacouc]

You also have the option of issuing your court action or more likely threat of court action as Insurers tend to avoid the costs of a court when they suspect they will lose, obviously they will have assets.

 

Your first port of call would be to obtain their details via uncle's link and give them a ring as they may be happy to handle the claim without threats of court action, although be aware they will normally want to contact their client to ask them their side of the story and / or obtain the report from the police re the failing to report / give details.

 

Good on you for getting a dash cam before the horse has bolted

[unclebulgaria67]

These dash cams are proving very useful to some people. I have seen a number of cases now where it has saved a lot of time and money.

 

At some stage ( if not already) i can see some car manufacturers including cameras as an optional extra, with a hard drive constantly recording when the ignition is on. And also triggered, when the car is subject to movement.

[Sidewinder]

These dash cams are proving very useful to some people. I have seen a number of cases now where it has saved a lot of time and money.

 

At some stage ( if not already) i can see some car manufacturers including cameras as an optional extra, with a hard drive constantly recording when the ignition is on. And also triggered, when the car is subject to movement.

 

Standard on our fleet now. Records not only images but speeds, locations and G forces so that driver behaviour prior to an incident can be measured. All stored on an SD card that can be pulled and downloaded in the event of a collision

[labrat]

fitted front and rear to both mine and wifes car

[Crazyhorse7]

Info: Insurance comp have decided to make him pay in full as it was a no blame claim on my behalf. Premiums stay put and I don't lose NCD.

 

The camera came in very handy and I would urge everybody to get at least one. I have one for the rear but I need a new cable.

 

Thanks to those who helped.

[unclebulgaria67]

Info: Insurance comp have decided to make him pay in full as it was a no blame claim on my behalf. Premiums stay put and I don't lose NCD.

 

The camera came in very handy and I would urge everybody to get at least one. I have one for the rear but I need a new cable.

 

Thanks to those who helped.

 

Was this your Insurers or the third parties ?

[Crazyhorse7]

Both. We're the same company.

[unclebulgaria67]

Both. We're the same company.

 

Ok. With the same Insurers involved, they tend to make sure it is looked at by different people, keeping it separate. But it probably helped being with the same company.

 

A sensible decision. The bike rider made it worse by riding off.

[JoeyJoeC]

I have a front and rear dashcam, I sell low-voltage-protection kits which means you can run them 24/7 and they only stop recording when the car battery has dropped too much, as so you can still start the car and not damage the battery.

 

The issue I have constantly is the SD cards stop working after 6 - 7 months.

 

My dashcam footage has appeared on YouTube compilations a few times, Also on BBC1 and the local papers when I caught a charity van fly tipping old junk. Both men were sacked from their jobs.