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

[The Phantom]

When dealing with companies I tend to do everything in writing. As a matter of course I do not entertain telephone calls and I don't tend to call companies back either. When I have an issue I deal in writing only, so never really had a reason to set up the facility to record calls.

I find keeping a paper / letter trail simpler.

 

 

[The Phantom]

My car is gone now, total bill from recovery yard was £850 , I got a receipt and detailed invoice from them.

I will start doing the letter of claim and will post it here a little later, if someone could take a look and let me know if I should change anything I would appreciate it

 

[The Phantom]

It's a WORD document, draft version attached

Accident letter of claim draft.docx

[BankFodder]

Far too much detail in my view. Give me a few minutes.

[BankFodder]

Quote

XXXXXXXX

YYYYYYYYY,

XXXXXXXl ,

XXXXXXX ,

Devon 

 

E-mail: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

 

PPPPPPPPPPPPP

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

FFFFFFFFFFFF

Cornwall 

 

 

Date

 

 

Letter of Claim

 

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

As you are aware, on XXX date on the road XXXX you drove into the back of my car registration number XXX and caused damage.

The collision was caused by your negligent driving. As you know, amongst the witnesses were two police officers in an unmarked car which was directly behind your own.

 

My vehicle suffered serious damage and has been assessed as not economically repairable.

So far you have failed to respond to correspondence although I have gone to lengths to keep you advised as to various inspections of my vehicle, cost of repair, storage costs et cetera.

 

I am fully aware that I have a duty to mitigate your losses even though you are responsible and have failed to communicate with me. As a result, I have now arranged for the disposal of the vehicle as it was assessed as a total loss.

I have supplied you with all necessary warnings and also copies of inspections and invoices et cetera.

 

My total losses include: 

Ford Fiesta vehicle, XXXXXXX  ……. £1690 less £40 which I received from a scrapyard and which I have deducted from the value – £1 650

Recovery from scene of accident and stoarge costs at xxxxxxx in xxxxxxx…..£850

Independent damage report from XXXXXXXX, Claims assessors / Valuers …...£78

Postage / Communication costs  ……… £20

 

Total amount claimed from you: £2598

 

For your reference I have enclosed a copy of previous communication issued to you, invoice from car recovery company, car damage report with invoice from assessor , all of which have drawn no response from you.

I please let me have your cheque for the full amount of the Debt sent to the following address: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

If I do not receive this sum within 14 days then I shall begin an action in the County Court to recover the sums plus interest plus my county court costs and without any further notice to you. Copies of all paperwork including my unanswered correspondence will be shown to the judge.

 

 

yours sincerely

 

[The Phantom]

Great work ! Will amend as suggested and send on Monday with the relevant attachments.

 

[The Phantom]

Received a letter today from the lady that drove into the back of me

Have taken all personal info out. Copy uploaded

Letter.pdf

[BankFodder]

Quote

Thank you for your letter of the XXX date

 

I have already made it clear to you that I have tried to engage in correspondence with you and with your insurers and have had no reply. As a consequence I have had to take my own action to mitigate my losses and your own.
To be clear, if I do not receive the sum that I am claiming within 14 days of the date of the letter of action which I have already sent to you then I shall be starting proceedings in the County Court for the recovery of all my losses plus interest plus my court costs.

You should understand that a county court judgement against you may impact your ability to get credit.
As I'm sure you must appreciate, it is inevitable that I will obtain a judgement in my favour and I will then take vigourous action to enforce it against you.
I have no intention of making any further attempts to communicate with your insurer. All my correspondence will be with you. Any problems that you have with your insurer is between yourself and them.

 

I do not intend to correspond any further on this matter.

Yours sincerely

 

 

[BankFodder]

When is day 15? Have you registered on money claim online and have you started drafting your claim?

Please will you post the draft of what you intend to send off here so that we can comment

[The Phantom]

Thanks for the fast response.

I will post the letter tomorrow.

 

Day 15 is next Tuesday, i.e. 4th of February

(I posted the letter of claim on the 20th of January which is the date on the letter, and it was delivered on Tuesday, 21st of Jan)

 

Yes, I have registered with MCOL and had a look around on the site, as I have never used it before.

(I took Easy Jet to court once before, but at the time you still had to do everything at your local court. This online filing is new to me.)

 

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by The Phantom
type & additions

[BankFodder]

Well by now you should have posted a draft of your claim here so that we can comment.

Please don't leave things to the last moment. You need to be prepared – and also we have other things to do rather than have to scrabble around sorting things out at the last moment.

14 days to have prepared your draft claim was very adequate

[Gick]

Next Tuesday is 28th January. The 5th of February is a week on Tuesday.

[BankFodder]

 

2 minutes ago, Gick said:

Next Tuesday is 28th January. The 5th of February is a week on Tuesday.

 

Pedant!!

 

 

 

13 minutes ago, BankFodder said:

Well by now you should have posted a draft of your claim here so that we can comment.

Please don't leave things to the last moment. You need to be prepared – and also we have other things to do rather than have to scrabble around sorting things out at the last moment.

14 days to have prepared your draft claim was very adequate

 

Whoops, sorry.  

[Gick]

So being accurate when it comes to legal matters is pedantry? Well I never!

[BankFodder]

Well, after all - what's a week or so between friends

[The Phantom]

Ok, Tuesday week. It's the 4th of Feb as stated.

Letter of claim was dated and posted 20th of Jan, delivered 21st of Jan.

The two weeks are up on the 4th of Feb

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by The Phantom

[The Phantom]

I will upload a draft later this week

 

[The Phantom]

Draft 1

draft claim1.doc

[BankFodder]

It's rather wordy and I rather fancy that it is too long to fit into the money claim character limit – have you checked it?

It may be that you will have to do put in a short form particulars and then check the box to say that further particulars will be on their way.

Also, you don't need to talk about your own insurance and what you have or you haven't got. Your insurance is irrelevant.

You only need to alleged that the defendant cause damage to your vehicle by her own negligent driving

[BankFodder]

Quote

The claimant seeks damages in respect of damage caused to his vehicle registration XXX by the defendant's negligent driving on XXX date.
The damages claimed include the value of a replacement car and also storage and related expenses of the wreck.
The claimant has attempted on several occasions to correspond with the defendant and with her insurer and has received no reply.
This claim is for £XXX plus interest pursuant to section 69 County Courts act 1984 – plus costs

 

Do you think that that summarises your claim?

Did you say at some point that the defendant has admitted liability?

[The Phantom]

She hasn't communicated at all with me, all I got from her was the letter I uploaded on Saturday.

All she says is she has passed all the info to her insurers and I should talk to them.

 

I was thinking of putting details in there on how the accident happened , but I now feel that will be too long as well.

 

[BankFodder]

Okay well if you're happy with what I suggested above, then use that as your initial particulars which you will put up on the money claim site. You will see that there is a checkbox saying that you are going to be providing additional particulars directly to the defendant. This has to be done within seven days of issuing the claim. So we started prepare that now.

The document you have posted up is a reasonable start. The format is good in that it is set out in paragraphs.

You need to set out what happened, point by point – chronologically – one point per paragraph – numbered paragraphs.

Don't bother talking about your own insurance status.

You need generally speaking to say what happened, where it happened, what vehicles were being driven,

You need to point out that the collision was caused by her negligent driving. You would normally pointed out – but because there was a police car behind you may as well say that this entire episode was witnessed by the police – do you have registration number and colour number of the police?

What damage it caused to your vehicle, the fact that it was assessed, that it was beyond economical repair, that you have now disposed of the vehicle although you have attempted to involve the defendant and also her insurer at every step of the way and inform them as to the steps you are taking and as to the mounting costs and that you eventually felt that in the absence of any response of communication from either party, that you had to bring an end to the increasing expenditure in the interests of all parties and say dispose of the vehicle.

 

You then need to itemise the costs involved – value vehicle, costs of storage, cost of disposal – blah blah.

You will then need to sign it as a statement of truth.

Get started post up your document and will check it over.
Once you have issue the claim you then post the additional particulars directly to her and you sign the certificate of service.

That's probably about it.
 

[The Phantom]

Ok, I will take what you have suggested as the MCOL initial particulars, and then put some meat on the bone with the additional particulars to send to her direct.

 

I will use what I have posted earlier as the starting point for that and fill it out as suggested and then re-post later in the week for re-checking.

 

On the date of the accident there were quite a few  policemen and police cars on site, including ambulance and highway maintenance cars and employees. To get the name and details of the specific policeman who was behind us in the accident I would need to request a copy of the police accident report I think. There is a link on the Police Website specifically for solicitors and insurance companies to request this, but not for private individuals like me.

When I called the police they said it would cost me £350 to get a copy of the accident report from them, does that sound right ?

I need to keep an open mind, if there is a hearing I may need to have this as evidence I suppose

 

 

 

[BankFodder]

I have no idea about the cost of the police report – but it may well be right.

I would like to her immediately and point out to her that as she fully realises, the police witnessed the accident and also have prepared a police report. Tell her that if she obliges you to take legal action against that you may well have to purchase a copy of the police report for £350 which will be added to the claim you are making plus interest. Tell her that this will not be necessary if she admits her negligence in the accident – in which case the whole matter will be very straightforward and far more amicable.

Asked to respond immediately if you want to avoid the extra cost of a police report

[The Phantom]

Ok, I will get on to that and send her another letter to this effect.

She may not respond, but we will have to cross that bridge when it comes to it