Help for friend after non their fault crash

[The GodMother]

Hi All

 

A good friend of mine, charity worker and child who are school friends of my son has got a bit of a problem.

 

A couple of weeks ago my friend and her family were on the way home when they were hit up the backside of the car buy a driver who was accelerating. The car my friends family were in was stationary. They were shunted forward about a foot the tail gate bumper and tow bar are damaged. Repairs are going to cost more than the car is worth but the car is driveable. The car is needed for hubbies work, he was the innocent driver, and to do fundraising for the charities they currently support.

 

The driver that hit them insurance is dragging there heels about this. TBH its looking like the driver will get away with this and they will have to foot the bill or get a new car. The friends insurance is 3rd party after years of being fully comp. There insurance is not being to helpful either. As far as aware the at fault driver is insured as there insurance company has not said the policy number is not recognised or anything.

 

My thoughts is what can they hurry the insurance along.

My other thought is can they sue the driver personally via the small claims courts for the damage to the car if they do get away with it. I have suggested this but my friend seems to thing legal advise would be expensive

[king12345]

One thing is not clear to me: Do they know which insurance are they dealing with?

If so, give them the reg number of their policy holder and they'll have to deal with the repair.

If insurance is unknown, askmid will help

 

https://www.mib.org.uk/check-insurance-details/

 

After finding out insurance details, your friend got to speak to them (MUST RECORD ALL TELEPHONE CALLS) and tell them that he needs the car for work.

Some insurance company are better than others and provide courtesy cars, but you'll only know after speaking to them.

Being hit from the back and not claiming any personal injury???

If the insurance has any sense, they should close the claim asap and pay for the repairs.

[The GodMother]

There were no injuries luckily. They are aware of who the insurance is as all detail given but there insurance is being funny and the other persons is also being funny.

Strangely enough the person that done the damage has not put a claim in for the damage to insurance for her car or my friends. with both insurance companys being funny then getting any where is not happening

[maroondevo52]

Hi,

 

I've moved this thread to the Motor Insurance Forum.

[unclebulgaria67]

There were no injuries luckily. They are aware of who the insurance is as all detail given but there insurance is being funny and the other persons is also being funny.

Strangely enough the person that done the damage has not put a claim in for the damage to insurance for her car or my friends. with both insurance companys being funny then getting any where is not happening

 

With a third party policy your friends insurers won't really help, unless they had legal cover. Because there is no personal injury claim, there is not enough money in it for a no win no fee Solicitors or accident management company to become involved.

 

I suspect the third party insurers are not being helpful, as their driver has not given full details of the accident or admitted being at fault. Your friend needs to get a couple of quotes for accident repairs and also to find out the current market value to replace e.g autotrader adverts, guides such as glass.co.uk. With the information it will inform them whether it is a repair or write off situation. Then contact the third party insurers and advise them that they either resolve the claim or a court claim will be issued against their policyholder. Your friend might have to send the third party driver a letter before action and if necessary issue a court claim.

[The GodMother]

they already no that the repair is going to be more than car is worth the quotes have said that. A write off will not give them enough to buy a suitable sized car, 5 children and the parents, so either way they will be out of pocket.

[unclebulgaria67]

they already no that the repair is going to be more than car is worth the quotes have said that. A write off will not give them enough to buy a suitable sized car, 5 children and the parents, so either way they will be out of pocket.

 

They should not be out of pocket at all. But they must put in the effort in to establish the true cost of replacing the car. The settlement from the third parties insurers needs to be enough, so they can go out to buy another car similar to the one that will be written off.

[king12345]

If your friend wants to keep the car, he can.

He can buy the bumper from eBay or scrapyards (if he's lucky he can get same colour) and get it fitted for little money by any mechanic, I say about £50.

Tow bar is a different matter.

If he uses it, he will need a new one fitted and that will cost a bit more.

He can try to get the same brand so the fixing point will be the same and it would be a straight swap.

I can't see this damage costing more than £500 including re-spray if necessary, so unless the car is already a moving scrap, it shouldn't be written off with quotes for second hand parts.

Then of course if he goes to main dealer, the bill will probably be a couple of thousand, so uneconomical to repair.

If the car is reliable and he wants to keep it, he needs to contain the repair costs.

If he doesn't use the tow bar, he could even agree to have it removed for good and lower the costs even more.

[ericsbrother]

most cars have a set of collapsable dampers that the bumprs fit to the car by to absorb the impact of a shunt that is fast enough to destroy the bumper but not enough to wreck the whole car. These do cost good money to replace as it is unwise to take them from a scrap car unless you are absolutely certain of the scrapper's history. this will push the cost up to more than a couple of hunderd quid but still less than the thousand or so new parts from a dealer will cost. As tow bar damaged you will have to look at these other bits or the next minor bump will cause damage to the body shell that protects you and your passengers and you will end up with broken bones when otherwise you migth have had slight bruising.