Evri driver claims one of the dogs has bitten him

[Halfwaythere]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone could advise.

My mum has had a letter through the door from a solicitors claiming ‘dog bite and scratches’ and claiming compensation for an attack on an evri driver by a dog.

Looking at the photo of the date of delivery my dog a 1year old 5lb chihuahua is seen in the delivery picture with my dads hand grabbing the parcel. We aren’t aware of any attack or bites until my mum got a letter. 

My mum remembers on the day she had the dogs in the back garden, If there is someone at the door the dogs are locked away, my dad opened the door and my dog must have got loose. My dad said it stepped out and straight in when he called him and he didn’t see any attack. My dog has no previous history of this and is very tiny.

 
The day the letter was received 1 week and 6 days from the incident, I saw the same driver delivering on my street and have a video. He is in shorts and I could see no damage to his legs as stated and he was still working. 

also previously there was an instance involving him and my dog but at my address which is a street away. My dog has his bed on the window ledge and enjoys to look out, the same delivery man came to my house to deliver but before he knocked on he was tapping on the window to my dog which I found strange.

can anyone advise.

They have asked me to contact my insurance company but I don’t even know if the said attack actually happened and the extent, if any, of the damages.

I feel like this evri driver is trying to scam me to get compensation.

Tia

[dx100uk]

is this from evri themselves or a personal claim raised by the driver?

who are the solicitors and who is their stated client?

 

 

[Ethel Street]

Irrespective of the driver's motives and whether you think he is right you must send this letter to your insurers immediately and without replying to it yourself. 

It is a formal letter of claim from a solicitor alleging that your dog on your premises caused personal injury to the driver and wanting financial compensation from you. Your insurance policy will have a condition requiring you to send it straight to insurers and they will deal with the solicitor direct. If you don't do this your insurers could refuse to deal with the claim if the driver later took you to court.

If insurers decide the driver has a case then your insurers will pay it. There is not  normally any excess on cover for third party personal injury claims so insurers would pay from the first £.

Your insurers will ask you for a written statement of what you know so you will have the chance to tell them everything you have told us here.

 

EDIT I'm not sure whether this claim is against you or your mother. If it's against your mother then she must send it to her insurers.

[Halfwaythere]

It’s a personal claim from the evri driver from their solicitor to the address where it happened not a person, I’ll attach the letters but struggling it won’t allow photos 

@Ethel StreetIs this not admitting liability ?

[Manxman in exile]

@Halfwaythere  -  just to clarify, when Ethel Street refers to "your insurers" I think she means whoever insures your house and its contents (assuming you have such cover).

If you have separate contents and buildings cover it will be whichever one provides cover for occupier's liability (or it might be called something like your legal liability for injury to third parties arising from your ownership or occupation of the property).  If you do have separate cover for contents and buildings it will probably be your buildings policy.

Of course it might be confused somewhat by it being your dog but your parents' house.  Who is the letter addressed to?

Edited August 12, 2023 by Manxman in exile

[Halfwaythere]

It’s addressed to my mums address where it allegedly happened but it’s my dog.

I have home and pet Insurance and im sure they will pay out but my point is I think it’s a false claim and on my pet insurance that goes against my dog in the future

[Manxman in exile]

But who is it addressed to?  Or is it just The Occupier?

Insurers are not in the habit of paying out on false claims.  If the driver can't prove on the balance of probabilties that your dog bit him, I doubt they would pay out.

If you don't want to involve insurance you'll have the hassle of dealing with the claim yourself.

(If this happened at your parents' house I don't know if your own home or pet insurance would cover it.  Does your pet insurance cover biting third parties?)

[Ethel Street]

Passing the letter to insurers to deal with is definitely not admitting liability. It's simply that your insurers deal with third party claims on your behalf. 

I'm not surprised the solicitor is acting for the driver personally as I believe all Evri delivery drivers are self-employed.

To clarify the point Manxman raises about which insurer, I mean the household/home insurer of the occupier of the house where the driver was bitten. I assume the occupier is your mother/parents.  If she/they has separate buildings and contents policies it is the insurers of the contents (not the buildings insurer) because the claim is being made against the occupier, it's an 'occupiers liability' claim. 

Whether there is any complication later because it is your dog not theirs we can't say at this stage. But don't overcomplicate it. Right now the claim hasn't been made against the dog's owner, it's been sent to the occupier of the premises where the incident occurred. Unsurprisingly it won't be addressed to them by name as the driver probably doesn't know their name. But there's little point in ignoring it on that technicality as the solicitor would soon be able to find out who occupies the premises by using enquiry agents if you do nothing. And the cost of that gets added to the claim.

[Halfwaythere]

Just addressed to ‘dir sirs’ and my mums address. I would have to check that with insurance.

what I found strange to in the letter it gives the drivers address date of birth and national insurance number, I thought that would be against gdpr rules 

[Ethel Street]

1 hour ago, Halfwaythere said:

what I found strange to in the letter it gives the drivers address date of birth and national insurance number, I thought that would be against gdpr rules 

 

Why? The information has been given (presumably) with the driver's consent. You can disclose any personal information you like about yourself.

Anyway there's a reason why the information is given, which is that if at a later date your insurers do make a compensation payment the NHS can make a recovery from the insurer of their treatment costs if the driver received hospital treatment. The DoB/NINO allows the injured person to be correctly identified.

[dx100uk]

Is this a company of nwnf scammers?? And just a threat-o-gram what is their name?

[Halfwaythere]

No I believe they are legit solicitors but I don’t know them it’s Sebastian Rowe in Manchester.

I don’t believe the driver is being fully truthful that he needs compensation for ‘rehabilitation’ for anything my dog could have done within those seconds at his size and surely he would have said at the time or gone owe, not ‘ok thanks bye’ 

[Ethel Street]

Pass it to your mother's/parents insurers asap. It doesn't matter what you believe, it may invalidate your mother's/parents' insurance if you try to deal with it yourself.

Insurance companies are very well aware that third parties exaggerate, invent, and tell outright lies to try and get money from insurers. They deal with third party solicitors trying it on every day. They are well used to investigating the allegations and rejecting them if they can't be substantiated.

All the reasons you think the driver isn't being truthful you can put in your/your mother's statement to insurers so that their lawyers can take them into account.

[Halfwaythere]

Thank you but I don’t want it to affect my mums insurance, I would like if possible to do through my own pet insurance.

It’s really horrible people can do this and the accused mental health should be considered when things like this, receiving a letter saying their is a claim against you is really distressing I’ve had palpitations for 2 days 

[Ethel Street]

You can't. The third party has issued a demand for compensation to your mother as occupier of the premises where the alleged incident occurred. Your mother can't transfer the claim to you.  The most likely result of you contacting the solicitor and saying 'it was my dog' would be that you would be added to the claim as a co-defendant, not that your mother would be deleted from it.

Were you there when the alleged incident occurred?

[Halfwaythere]

I may have been in the back garden but I know nothing about incident or time so really difficult for me to say 

[whitelist]

As previously advised, it is most important you let the insurance company sort this out, and not you personally.

All we have is an allegation at the moment. Nothing more to substantiate your dog caused the injury,

In 2015, they changed the law because of the epidemic of attacks on postal workers by dogs.

The law now states owners have to keep "Reasonable control" of their dogs, even on a private residential address. The dog injured an individual on the property will be enough of a lack of reasonable control.

But proving it was your dog that caused the injury is another matter.

Best let the professionals deal with this one.

[Halfwaythere]

How can he prove it was my dog or is it his word 

[whitelist]

That is why you let the insurance company sort it.

 

The insurance company would expect pictures on his phone with metadata for a start that will put him at the house date and time, what medical treatment received, etc/

Yo can also tell the age of the injury in a picture as well, being recent or a few days old. The insurance company will demand this before substantiating any claim from the claimant.

[dx100uk]

they are nwnf scammers..

Pricing 

No Win No Fee

Most of our services are dealt on a No Win No Fee basis which means that you only pay a fee if we are succesful.  

The areas we offer this services apply to:

• Personal Injury
• Industrial Disease
• Housing Disrepair

dx

[Halfwaythere]

I know it’s like worth a try make something up, at most he can cause a bruise at his size if he did get to them, is that compensation worthy 

[Kyosanto]

Stop worrying about this.

You are falling victim to a scam where they send threatening letters hoping that you will cave in to fear and pay up.

The more questions you ask or doubts you entertain, the more the fear builds up, increasing the chance you will indeed cave in and pay up a "settlement fee". Let the dodgy driver worry about coming up his evidence, that you already know he doesn't have.

As 4 people have already told you, let your mum's insurance deal with the scammers. That's what you pay them for.

 

[theberengersniper]

My worry here is that you're going to make posts on various help/advice sites until someone somewhere tells you that you should either; a) deal with it yourself, or b) ignore it all, because I get the distinct impression from reading this thread that you don't want to accept the advice you've been given. I hope I'm wrong, sincerely.

The fact of the matter is, as has been said many times, you will make this situation considerably worse if you don't pass this on, or have your parents pass this on, to their insurer. I understand the desire to protect them and any associated anxiety they might be feeling, but that's a short-sighted view.

[Halfwaythere]

12 minutes ago, theberengersniper said:

My worry here is that you're going to make posts on various help/advice sites until someone somewhere tells you that you should either; a) deal with it yourself, or b) ignore it all, because I get the distinct impression from reading this thread that you don't want to accept the advice you've been given. I hope I'm wrong, sincerely.

The fact of the matter is, as has been said many times, you will make this situation considerably worse if you don't pass this on, or have your parents pass this on, to their insurer. I understand the desire to protect them and any associated anxiety they might be feeling, but that's a short-sighted view.

Not at all I’ve used this forum before and found it very useful and from that I have learned I need to have all my facts right before I jump to the instruction of a letter from an outsider when I have no knowledge in the matter