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

[BankFodder]

Absolutely right. You can do it yourself.

Don't worry about the attitude of not wishing to talk to you. Send the letters –, send the threats – issue the papers – and suddenly you will find that they are talking to you.

They are simply trying to dominate you with "industry practice".

I hope you recorded the call to direct line – you have read our customer services guide haven't you?

You shouldn't be trying to deal with them anyway. You should be dealing directly with the woman who hit you – as I have already said. Now you should write her a letter telling her that on such and such a date you did try to deal with her insurer but they refused to deal with you.

Tell her that from now on you will be dealing directly with her and that is up to her whether she wants to pass correspondence to her insurer but if eventually you are obliged to issue a court claim, that she will be the person named in the claim form regardless of what her insurer says.

[The Phantom]

I have today posted the second letter to her in accordance with the advice given a few posts back. I think I got everything in there that was suggested.

It went tracked and should be delivered Monday.

I included the valuations, the invoice from the recovery company and set deadlines as previously suggested.

I told her twice (in my first letter and also in this one) that I am now dealing with her because her insurers regrettably declined to talk to me

Edited December 28, 2019 by The Phantom

[BankFodder]

If you didn't include it, then send her an additional note as suggested above pointing out that her insurer has refused to speak with you.

 

You may as well leverage this against her and against the insurer. It will help to introduce a little bit of division between them and this will be no bad thing for you. 

[The Phantom]

It's Ok, I put it into both letters

So told her twice why I am writing to her and not to her insurers. Told her she should claim back from her insurers now

[The Phantom]

She received the letter on the 30th of December (I checked the online tracking)

So far no response. Not from her and not from the insurance either.

I called the car recovery yard that is holding my car, nobody has contacted them about inspecting the vehicle. It just sits there. 

Been 20 days @ £20 = £400 storage plus £250 recovery = £650 so far

I have checked with a scrap yard and they would give me £78 for the wreckage with free removal from the site.

I am not sure at which point I can have the car removed and scrapped or how much longer I should give them to get their act together ? 

 

I will send the letter of claim but I am unsure how much longer I should leave the car in the recovery yard for

 

I also checked the name & address details the lady gave me, just double checking... I googled her name and found she is a company director listed in the company house. She is an active director in one company and a company secretary in a sports club. The address listed in the company house matches what she gave me. Her name is a bit different though. She said her name was Sue (XXXX) , the company house lists her as Susan Elizabeth (XXXX), might be important if I have to issue court papers I suppose.

[BankFodder]

Hold off sending anything until I post off a fuller reply tomorrow

[The Phantom]

Ok, no worries. I was just looking at letter of claim templates etc. Will wait.  

[BankFodder]

well you can certainly start drafting something but I need a bit of time just to go over the thread again and to fix my ideas.

[The Phantom]

It is OK, I just read the pre-action protocol and the annex documents / forms I have to send with my letter of claim to her.

I am just unsure whether interest should be added and whether I should leave the car on site and have an open amount or have it removed , tally up the costs and then have a fixed sum to claim for. Also as we are both private individuals the case would be listed at her local court, unless the car was a company car for the company that lists her as a director, but I have no way of knowing that

[unclebulgaria67]

Check with your Insurers whether they have received anything from other Insurers about this accident.  Could anyone be trying to hold you responsible for causing their accident damage and looking to claim against your Insurance ?

 

Thought I would mention, as it might be worth checking, before you issue a Court claim against the third party in the vehicle behind you.

 

in regard to making sure the amount you are claiming for is as reduced as possible, did you get a quote for repair and inspection report on the damage ?

 

I don't think you should be keeping the car in storage for much longer expecting any third to pay such costs. If the car is a write off, as the repairs exceed the value of the car, then, if you have full reports on the damage and repair costs, then I would suggest that you sell the salvage.  Also the Court claim might not be as easy as you think it is. The third party insurers may defend the claim and argue that you were partly responsible. Therefore you don't want storage costs to build up, which you end up having to pay.

[The Phantom]

The thing is I don't know if they still want to inspect the car or not, as they won't talk to me.

 

My own insurance didn't want much information from me, they said they would contact me if they needed anything else.

They intend to pass this to the insurance (Direct Line) of the person who hit me in the back, as I was pushed forward by the force of the impact from behind. And that will be their line.  

 

If I have to get an inspection report on the damage, who would issue that ? And who would pay for it ?

At the moment I am racking up storage costs of £20 per day, so far these costs alone will exceed the value of the car. I am at £420 storage and £250 recovery. This of course doesn't include the damage to the car itself (photos above). The car is only worth around £1500

 

I think Bankfodder suggested to take the driver of the car behind me to court, not her insurance, as I am getting no joy from her insurance itself.

 

 

[BankFodder]

You couldn't sue her insurance anyway because you have no contractual or any other relationship with them. You would have to sue the driver.

What I have suggested is that you start taking direct and rapid action against the driver because she is in a position contractually to put pressure on the insurer.

Keep all your correspondence directly with her. Give her the opportunity to inspect the vehicle and given the fact that the costs of racking up I think you should explain to her that it is getting very expensive and you are anxious to mitigate losses. Therefore your giving another seven days for her to inspect or to arrange an inspection after which you will dispose of the vehicle in the interests of saving everybody any losses.

Send the letter to her recorded delivery – tracked – so there is no doubt that she has received it.

The insurer won't deal with you. They have no interest in dealing with you. As I have already pointed out, I believe, the woman behind you is the weak link. She is the one who will break ranks and panic and put pressure on the insurer. Focus on her, write to her, threatened her with a legal action – and eventually issue the papers against her. She'll do the rest

[unclebulgaria67]

Point is that you cannot have the car in storage for too long, as there  is a daily cost, which you may have to pay. Direct Line won't need to inspect, as the value of claim is not enough.  Just have photos of the car from all sides and a report on the damage, plus estimate of repair.  

 

If the car is an economic write off as repairs exceed value of car, then sell it to salvage and stop incurring storage costs. 

 

The third party driver passes responsibility to her Insurers in dealing with all accident matters. Direct Line may have told her to do absolutely nothing, other than pass on any communications to them. This is correct, when the accident fault is not 100% clear.

 

just because you had someone crash into the rear of your car, does not mean there is automatic presumption of fault and payment of your claim. Direct Line will collect all of the information and then decide what they need to do. This could take many weeks to complete, as it is a busy time of the year and staff will have been out over the festive period.

 

If you have given the third party all of the information suggested, perhaps contact third party in writing to advise your car will be sold to salvage within say 7 days to avoid further storage fees and the car will then not be available for inspection by her Insurers. Ask her to advise her Insurers without delay.

 

 

[BankFodder]

I think what you have been given is broadly a similar approach except that my colleague site team member @unclebulgaria67 is suggesting a more gentle and patient approach – whereas I'm afraid that I have a much more aggressive view of these things.

Certainly, you should follow the advice which is given in common – and after that you should adopt whichever approach is more suited to your taste and temperament.

We will support you either way

[Mwynci]

15 hours ago, The Phantom said:

The thing is I don't know if they still want to inspect the car or not, as they won't talk to me.

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry if you've answer this already, have you tried them since the first call ?

 

 

[BankFodder]

2 minutes ago, Mwynci said:

 

Sorry if you've answer this already, have you tried them since the first call ?

 

 

 

The OP has already been advised to put them on formal notice that the storage situation will be ended and that the vehicle will be disposed of and that they have a final seven days in which to carry out an inspection and that if they failed to do so or if they don't reply then it is they who will be held liable for any consequences.

I don't think there's anything more to say on this.

[The Phantom]

5 minutes ago, Mwynci said:

 

Sorry if you've answer this already, have you tried them since the first call ?

 

 

 

I haven't tried the insurance company anymore. I started to go straight to the person who is insured with them as per the thread above. I think it will be counterproductive to now go back to the insurance company after starting the ball rolling into a different direction. (i.e. dealing with the insured direct)  Direct Line (the insurance) said I would need to get representation, which I do not wish to do.

[BankFodder]

Write to the woman directly but send a copy to the insurance company.

[The Phantom]

4 hours ago, BankFodder said:

I think what you have been given is broadly a similar approach except that my colleague site team member @unclebulgaria67 is suggesting a more gentle and patient approach – whereas I'm afraid that I have a much more aggressive view of these things.

Certainly, you should follow the advice which is given in common – and after that you should adopt whichever approach is more suited to your taste and temperament.

We will support you either way

 

Thank you - I will send her another letter giving another 7 days as suggested above.

I already have many photos of my car and also hers which I took when I inspected my car back in December. I will also contact a few garages locally and see if anyone can do a damage report for me with the statement that in their opinion it will be uneconomical to repair or something like that for a fee.

Then I will make arrangements to dispose of the wreck 

[The Phantom]

6 minutes ago, BankFodder said:

Write to the woman directly but send a copy to the insurance company.

 

OK, I can do that too , will compose the letter tonight and post tomorrow

[The Phantom]

Found a company online which I have approached for a damage report.

They can do one for £65 plus VAT , I guess that is acceptable.

But as stated above I will need one for my files, so will get that sorted

 

 

 

[Mwynci]

5 hours ago, BankFodder said:

Write to the woman directly but send a copy to the insurance company.

 

Or even call the third party insurance and save a couple of day, or weeks if they have a backlog. 

[The Phantom]

They have initially declined to talk to me over the phone and said I need to get representation.

I prefer to keep everything in writing now. 

 

 

[BankFodder]

Quite right. This is gone beyond calling on the phone

[unclebulgaria67]

I have suggested a more cautious approach, making sure you have all your "ducks in order",  because sometimes with accidents involving multiple vehicles, any fault for the accident can be unclear. 

 

 It could well be the case that the Direct Line driver behind Phantom thinks Phantom was 100% at fault. Direct Line based on what their customer has told them,  may be looking to argue about fault. For example, they could say that Phantom was not payng attention, almost hit the vehicle in front, slammed on the brakes and caused the accident behind.   Of course the other vehicles should have left safe distance to brake. Playing devils advocate here to point out that arguments may be raised.

 

If Phantom has no information from witnesses to suggest that they had any fault in causing the accident, then once they have evidence (damage and costs) required, then can of course send letter before claim to third party giving notice of claim and then issue the claim.  This may achieve the result in getting the claim dealt with more quickly.