Car pile up on A road, car written off, TPFT only

[BankFodder]

it doesn't matter if she responds. What you're doing is laying a paper trail. Make sure that you send the letter at least by first class recorded delivery so you have proof

[The Phantom]

https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/media/971792/npcc-guidelineschargingpoliceservices_v14_3_april-2019_v1.pdf

 

page 29

 

this doesn't tally up with what I have been told, I have to contact the collisions unit again and double check the pricing for this.

I will e-mail them now to get a written response and cost for my specific report

[The Phantom]

In their request form it says something different again.

Here it says it is £130 

 

I better check what is actually correct

Untitled 1.docx

[The Phantom]

Alternatively I just take the £130 as the given cost as that is what's printed on their document request form -  just to speed things up and get the letter out to her

[BankFodder]

Don't worry about putting the correct figure. Simply warn her that it is likely that the fee will be involved which you understand "maybe as much as £350 – blah blah".

The important thing is to get the letter off quickly and to have a paper trail. You don't have to worry about all the teas crossed in the i's dotted et cetera

[The Phantom]

Just to recap, as it has been a few days.

Letter sent as suggested in post above, no response (so far)

 

Time is up on Tuesday and MCOL claim will be made, I will use the short summary as suggested by BF a few posts above.

 

I will tick the box to say more detailed Particulars of claim will be sent within 7 days. I will upload a draft of those more detailed Particulars later

[The Phantom]

Draft of expanded particulars of claim 

draft claim1.doc

[BankFodder]

Quote

Claim reference number XXX



Between XXX – claimant
and
XXX – defendant





Particulars of claim

1. On the 17th of December 2019 the Claimant was driving home from work on the A38 west bound in her Ford Fiesta, registration WV      , when traffic came to a sudden halt. The Claimant had to break sharply as the vehicle in front made an emergency break and came to a stop. At this moment a collision occurred when the Defendant ,driving a white Seat Leon, registration WL drove with some speed into the back of the Claimant's vehicle.

 

2. The defendant pushed the Claimant's vehicle forward and into the stationary vehicle in front, a Toyota Auris with registration WG

 

3. The collision was caused by the Defendant's negligent driving and the Claimant's vehicle.

 

4. The claimants vehicle registration WV         suffered serious damage and has been assessed as not economically repairable.

 

5. An independent damage report by Davies & Gray (Claims Assessors / Valuers) has put the estimated repair costs at £6716.52 and put the vehicle status as 'Beyond Repair MIAFTR Category B' and the matter to be dealt with on a total loss basis

 

6. The claimant has attempted to correspond with the defendant and her insurer and has received no reply.

 

7. Eventually and to mitigate the losses of all concerned losses, the claimant has since disposed of the vehicle in order to put a halt to ongoing storage costs.

 

8. The defendant and her insurers have been notified of all actions and possible costs and yet have failed to respond

 

Particulars of Defendant's Negligence

 

9. The defendant drove too fast in all the circumstances.
10. The defendant failed to see the Claimant's motor vehicle in sufficient time to avoid colliding with it or at all.
11. The defendant failed to stop, slow down, swerve or in any other way so to manage or control her said vehicle as to avoid the said collision

 

12. 2. By reason of the matters aforesaid the Claimant suffered losses

 

13. Particulars of Claimant's Losses

 

14.  Ford Fiesta vehicle, WV ……. £1690 less £40 received in salvage value = £1650

15.  Recovery from scene of accident and stoarge costs at Field Services in Ivybridge…..£850

16.  Independent damage report from Davies & Gray, Claims assessors / Valuers …...£78

17.  Postage / Communication costs……… £20

 

18. The Defendant is liable for the Claimant's losses arising from this road traffic accident and has been asked to pay for these losses totalling £2598

 

19. The Defendant has failed to pay the said sum and remains indebted to the Claimant.

 

20. The Claimant is entitled to interest at the rate of 8% per annum from the date the debt was due being the 20th January 2020 to the present date (15 days) at the daily rate of 57p making a total sum of £8.55 and continuing at the daily rate of 57p.

 

 

 

AND THE CLAIMANT CLAIMS

 

1 . The sum of £2598

 

2 . Interest in accordance with section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at such rate and for such period as the court sees fit.

 

3. Costs.

 

 

Statement of Truth I believe that the facts stated in these Particulars of Claim are true.

 

 

Dated this …...

To the court and to the Defendant

 

 

Ms ABC / Claimant

 

I think you have to serve this on the defendant within seven days of issuing the claim and also complete a certificate of service which you can download from the court site.

Send this particulars of claim by first class recorded delivery mail.

Check to see that it's completely accurate.

I've suggested removing the reference to the reports and so forth. This is evidence and really you should stick to pleading the facts of the accident here.

It wasn't even really necessary to talk about the fact that you contacted them and that they didn't respond – but it will help to put a bit of pressure on her I suppose.

[The Phantom]

Excellent - I will edit as suggested above !

I think I am all set then for Tuesday

[The Phantom]

I just checked the tracking on the last letter I sent to her. (About the additional costs for the police report as suggested a few posts above)

Royal Mail couldn't deliver the letter as nobody was in, so it is at the local delivery office awaiting collection since last week.

Should I send another copy with the particulars of claim if she simply doesn't collect the letter from the Delivery Office ?

She may suspect it has something to do with this and won't bother to collect it and sign for it ?

[BankFodder]

Yes, send her a copy by ordinary first class post with no tracking.

Fill out a certificate of service and refer to both letters in it

[The Phantom]

I have to do a certificate of service Form N215 for the extended particulars of claim, I had a look and there is enough space to list the letter as well.

 

It asks for two dates though, "on what day did you serve" and "the date of service is"

I suppose one is the date I posted it and the other is the expected date of delivery, but it would be different for the extended particulars of claim and the letter discussed above (I posted that this morning). Would it be better to do two separate certificates of service ?

n215-eng.pdf

Edited February 4, 2020 by The Phantom

[BankFodder]

Just put the most recent one – the one that was simply sent by ordinary first class post. Yes if you wanted you could do to certificate the service – why not.

[The Phantom]

I almost completed the MCOL claim form, your summary was spot on, it fitted but only just. 

Mine would have been way too long.

 

Just one more before I hit send, the lady gave me her name as Sue, but when checking her name and address it has come to show that her full name appears to be Susan Elizabeth (she is listed as a company director at the address she gave me)

So her name and address come up on company check websites.

Should I use her full correct name or what appears to be her nickname she gave me and she used on her letter to me ?

[The Phantom]

I go for Susan, Sue must be her nickname, it's a common abbrevation

 

[BankFodder]

I would go for her full name.

Also if she is a company director, you want to hope that she is not going to say that she was driving a company car on company time and that in fact you should be suing the company

[The Phantom]

Yeah, I have no way of knowing that, she only gave me her private details at the scene of the accident.

Including her shortened name.

 I only found her full name when I wanted to check whether her address was correct (when she didn't respond to anything)

When I google her name it pops up on a company check website.

She has two active directorships, one is for a local Gymnastics Club (?) and one for a Consultancy where she is a Company Secretary. Neither of these are registered at the address she has given me, which I believe is her home address

[The Phantom]

It's done.

Just finished the process, got my claim number.

 

Will send the expanded particulars of claim Tomorrow or Thursday. It says I have to send them within 14 days of the claim having been served. I think the claim will be deemed served by the end of the week or so. So I have a good amount of time to get them out.

 

I will come back with any updates as and when they happen

[The Phantom]

The claim was issued yesterday, I got a notice of issue in the post today and I believe the defendant got her paperwork also today, as I had a sudden and unexpected flurry of Direct Line phone calls this afternoon whilst I was at work and two e-mails from Direct Line, as well.

 

I wasn't home when they called, my partner took the call and told them to put in writing what they needed to tell me as I wouldn't deal with anything over the phone.

Apparently they told him they wanted to 'make amends' with me and therefore needed to talk to me.

He still told them to send a letter and not bother with the phone calls as everything had to be done in writing, so not sure what they will do now.

 

Should I engage with Direct Line at this stage, as they now seem to have developed a sense of urgency in this matter.

 

 

[The Phantom]

P.S. The two e-mails from Direct Line are basically asking me to provide them with required information to process the claim...which is ridiculous considering I already sent a mountain of information and paperwork to their customer since December who claims has passed it all on to Direct Line.

They were also copied into letters I sent to their client

Now as the court papers have dropped on her doormat they want me to supply them with it all again, as they only now seem to get started on this....

I must say this is shocking

 

Should I write them a letter telling them to contact their client who has all the information including the amount due ?

[BankFodder]

I suggest that you have no correspondence with direct line. If they  ask for some information then as a matter of courtesy you might want to send it to the defendant with a note saying that this was apparently required by her insurer but you will not be dealing with them.

I can imagine that direct line has started to contact you because the defendant has been on the phone to them in a panic and so now they are starting to sit up and pay attention. That was the purpose of issuing proceedings.

Stay your ground. Follow the process – but I suspect things will start moving along fairly quickly now.

[The Phantom]

Sorry for all the P.S> here, I forgot to mention that Direct Line has accepted liability for the accident on behalf of their client in their e-mail

[BankFodder]

In that case you should contact the client with a copy of direct lines admission and tell her that she should immediately complete the paperwork that she receives from the court and admit your claim completely plus costs. Tell her you will then be immediately applying for judgement and if she wants to avoid a CC J registered against her and blighting her credit file she should make sure that the judgement sum is paid as soon as possible and in any event that the money is cleared funds within 28 days

Make sure you monitor everything. Observe all deadlines and give no ground at all until the money is absolutely in your account – every penny.

[The Phantom]

I mean this may now sound comical, but they have  even offered me a hire car now...  

Almost two months after the accident and almost four weeks after I got rid of what was left of my car.

 

Never mind, I will do as suggested above and post that tomorrow to her, so she hopefully has it Saturday or Monday

[BankFodder]

By the way, I've slightly lost track. Did you send the extended particulars of claim? If not, then you must send it even though they have admitted liability in principle. Follow proper procedure absolutely until you get a full admission and the money is in the bank.

If they have for your hire car then I should certainly take it if I were you.

They are idiots.

By the way, although this probably could have been sorted out about two weeks earlier, I suppose Christmas and New Year got in the way – but in effect this is a model example of how to deal with an insurer in this kind of circumstance.
The assertive, take control and keep control and react quickly every step of the way.