Been involved in a car accident and the situation is a mess

Vegeta

Vegeta

Vegeta

Soldato
Joined
6 Nov 2004
Posts
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I was involved in a car crash that was not my fault - basically a car was in the wrong lane and to not miss its turn off cut into the left lane (a lane which I was occupying and it hit my rear door/wheel arch with the side of its front bumper and mostly it’s wheel and tyre leaving black tread marks on my car).

At the time of the accident I was happy to settle this outside of insurance to save me and him the hassle - but having getting quotes for my car it would run into several thousand (damage significant on my car but not on his). So we agreed to go through insurance.

Anyways I hear nothing for two weeks only to find out the other driver is denying liability! He is claiming I drove into his lane side swiping him. I am absolutely devastated as i’ve done nothing wrong and this is having a huge financial burden on me and stress at the wrong time of year coming up to Xmas.

My excess is £1,450 alone and my insurance have advised me I will need to pay this to get my car fixed and they will continue to try and prove liability onto the other driver. I have contacted the police/local council etc to see if there is CCTV there with no luck. My insurance renewal is coming up and if I factor in the crash and loss of no claims it goes from £500 to £1700... I have always paid it in full to save money! So the cost in the short term is close enough to £3000.

My question is how do i approach this?

1, I don’t want to settle for anything other than the other driver taking all fault can I push my insurance company to take this to court if they continue to deny liability? I have text messages from the driver the next day asking for quotes surely that admits some form of liability?

2, With my insurance renewal coming up soon do I declare absolutely no claims bonus even though I have over 5 years built up? (Before this I had company cars therefore never built any up).

3, If I finally do get to the point where they admit liability or it is deemed they are at fault will I likely be reimbursed for paying for higher insurance while the claim was in dispute? If it goes on for a year that’s an extra £1,200 loss for me.

Thank you for any help
 
Diagro said:
Why is your excess that high?!?! Mines £250
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That does not help the op really, that's his excess its too late to change anything. Having seen many threads along these lines however one thing anyone reading this thread should do is get a dash cam or at least say they have one if involved in any incident..
 
As it was damage only you should have swapped details and reported regardless. I would potentially just let the insurance companies fight it out. Not much more you can do really.
 
Unless you have an independent witness it'll go 50/50.

I had pretty much the same, I was coming off a roundabout and a guy undertook me and went into my rear wheel. As much as I wanted to and explained and draw little pictures and diagrams unless I had a witness they settled at 50/50
 
You'll need to disclose the claim at renewal and renew with a reduced ncd while the claim is still open. Unfortunately choosing such a large excess to reduce the premium was a calculated risk by yourself which hasn't paid off. With no witnesses it may go 50/50
 
If damage was significant on your car you should have exchanged and got the insurance ball rolling straight away. As for your excess, you will have been paying less for your insurance per year with an excess that high but now your realising it’s a bad idea. Sorry it sucks but he is lying and you cant do a thing about it.
 
Some insurers don't care too much I think. I had someone admit fault but my insurance company said there was no guarantee the other insurance Co would pay out as they weren't being very communicative. I kicked up a fuss including discussing the legality of that (I had no idea where it stood but didn't seem right) and eventually they did. I put pressure on my insurer to sort it out stating my car was stationary and parked, if you can't get the money out of the other party's insurer over such a clear "their fault" accident then there's something wrong with the whole insurance system. I suspected at the time my insurer did the maths, realised I had to pay a large excess and as they wouldn't be out of pocket too much themselves, didn't want to put too much effort into getting the other insurance co to pay out until I had a good moan.

Years ago I worked on an insurance system. The fault/no fault rules seemed pretty simple.
I'd inform insurer of their text messages asking for the quotes. Does seem a bit odd that they now want to fight it, given they were initially talking about paying for the repair outside of the insurance involvement, unless they too have a high excess. Probably sunk in how much it'll cost.
It's probably good to get the police involved on the day if they will attend. That way you can kind of hammer out face to face who did what etc. People are less likely to lie with the police involved and when everyone is talking face to face.
 
Maccapacca said:
Unless you have an independent witness it'll go 50/50.

I had pretty much the same, I was coming off a roundabout and a guy undertook me and went into my rear wheel. As much as I wanted to and explained and draw little pictures and diagrams unless I had a witness they settled at 50/50
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Pretty much this, guy opposite me at work had exactly the same as the OP but no witness means it's just split between you.

Nothing you can do about it unfortunately.
 
I know this doesn't really help, but I'm amazed that the standardised EU accident form isn't mandatory in the UK..

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crappy one op. dig your heels in with your own insurer, send them the text messages where he asks for quotes to repair. that surely is an admission of liability, why would anyone ask for quotes to repair vehicle damage they weren't liable for.
 
Really boils my blood this! People are so sorry and apologetic at the time, then they slither away and start lying about everything!

My missus was at the front of a 3 car accident a few months back, the guy who caused it at the back denied even being at the scene!!!! luckily my missus took pictures of him on the phone standing next to his written off car. But hes still now somehow denying liability!!!
 
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