Non-fault accident + excess

[J!nx]

Late August, a car crashed into the passenger side of mine whilst I going around a roundabout, about to leave, indicator was on, car came speeding out of the junction and into the side of my car, I have a witness to, damage to our car was wheel arch, door, the other car just a scratched bumper and a impact dent at the side of the bumper. I did/do have whiplash, constant pain went away after about a week and half, but now I have a reccuring pain when cycling/exercising but hopefully it'll get better with time, I don't want to claim for it, I don't believe in the whole system and the companies involved make more money out of it than anyone else in my opinion.

I'm a named driver on my Dad's insurance, he was with me at the time also, he's worrying himself sick over it all because he's that type of person, the other car was a rental/hire car and the driver was a foreign visitor and all we got from him was his works address basically and mobile number and a whole lot of sorries.

We paid out £350 excess to the garage for repairs,the insurance company have had trouble/struggled/or not bothered getting in contact with the third party insurance company, we've been calling for regulary updates and they seemed to have barely done anything. One person said they had got in contact and was waiting for a call back and then contradicted themselves by saying they never got through because the line just rang out/was busy, though we got a letter acknowledging it was a rental car, stating the firm, and that they were making enquiries.


People have advised my Dad he has to make a claim through solictors (we had ones appointed to us by insurance but so far told them we don't want to profit from it in anyway) to get back his excess, is this true? He thought the insurance company would just get it back and they would pay it to him eventually.

Insurance renewal is due in a months time and since it won't be settled as their fault by then, our insurance added insult to injury and sent out a renewal notice today, doubled our premium up on us, irony knows no bounds when that letter came through, I've been in two minds to make a claim for my injury purely just to recoup the cost of next years insurance going up, it seems incredibly unfair when all of this hasn't been our fault.

Neither of us have been through anything like this before, any input would be great, I'm just tired of seeing my Dad stressing over all of this and winding himself up, he has too much of a conscience.

 

[Lum]

Useless to you now but this is why people make their claims through 3rd party claim companies like Helphire. You are now getting shafted despite your only mistake being to let your own insurance handle the claim.

Get back on to those solicitors and get them to go after the rental company, the driver and the driver's employers. I suppose it's particularly bad luck that it was a foreigner driving a rental car on business as chances are the foreign business will have been providing the insurance, not the rental company. The driver probably genuinely had no idea who was providing the company insurance (when I drive a company car, I have no idea who our company's insurance are) so chances are you're going to need to go through the foreign company, though in theory the rental company should know who the insurer are and be able to provide your solicitor with the details and policy number.

Insurance claims handlers are too crap to handle this. They have hundreds of claims in their inbox and all they do is write a letter to the company then forget about it and move on to the next claim, until something else arrives in their inbox to remind them about it, or you phone them up (regularly) to remind them about it.

As for your current renewal, you have three options really

1) if you forsee this being resolved by the next renewal and you plan on sticking with the same company (don't let this put you off, they're all equally crap at complicated claims) then go ahead and renew then when it's finally settled ask for your premium and NCB to be adjusted and backdated. Be aware that if this drags out beyond both this renewal and the next one you'll likely never see either back.

2) If the cost of the repair wasn't that high, offer to reimburse your insurance company the cost of the repair in exchange for your NCB back, then either get them to continue to persue the claim or persue it yourself through a solicitor such as the one they put you in touch with. This is what I did in 2005 and I finally got my money back (with no interest) at the end of last year just as I was getting ready to file a claim with the small claims court.

3) Kiss your NCB goodbye and sue them for personal injury to recoup the cost of the increased premiums. Bear in mind that your premiums are going to go up for the next 5 years simply for having been in a non-fault accident, even if you didn't have the NCB loss to contend with. This is why a lot of people sue for personal injury anyway.

 

[J!nx]

I've read a few accident/crashes on Motors and seen Helphire mentioned, I'll look into it definitely.

Thanks for posting, I rambled a bit, just tired of this stressing him out which leads to many tempers flaring, you've definitely helped and gave us a new perspective. My Dad isn't very impressed with the way our insurance has handled it, sods law really, a month later I wouldn't had as high of excess, and renewal's due mid-October, just really all unlucky and unfortunate.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Tesla]

Shop around for insurance prices.

I had a non-fault accident whereby I was rear ended by a LWB Van.

I found afterward that some insurers would penalise me for this incident and others wouldn't be fussed.

The driver/owner of the Van wouldn't give me his insurance details so Merlin off of these forums recommended a great solicitor to me and he sorted most things out. It took around 6months from the date of the accident until my cheque arriving though.

 

[SeatIbiza]

The driver/owner of the Van wouldn't give me his insurance details so Merlin off of these forums recommended a great solicitor to me and he sorted most things out. It took around 6months from the date of the accident until my cheque arriving though.

This is illegal. You should have called the police at this point.

Refusal to give your details is a criminal offence iirc.