Fuming is an understatement

Oh dear, this sounds all too familiar. We had an orange van, presume this guys works van reverse onto us, drivers side as the road ahead said notice that it was closed, so as he was in front of us, he took a right turn to come back onto us being STATIONARY. He admitted his fault yes, there + then, for 6 months later after the repair had been done through our insurance had a letter to say he STILL HAD NOT ADMITTED IT WAS INDEED HIS FAULT, until a few weeks go when our insurance company closed the case finally. But, yes we had no witnesses only a group of school children to my left side being the passenger - WHAT A NIGHTMARE + STRESS THAT WE CAN ALL DO WITHOUT.

sara1954 I believe plenty of folk do that to save losing their no claims bonus etc.
My DH reversed into the side of someone's car in a carpark of a restaurant. He waited until they returned and were about to drive off still chatting. He showed them the bump, gave his details and asked them to send him the bill for the damage which they did.
For me, not so lucky.
I was driving to church on a Sunday morning with a baby in the car seat and a quick witted 10yr old. A full car of young men rammed into the back of us at a junction.
I briefly spoke to the driver but as it was a dangerous spot I agreed to go to a safer place. Baby screaming. I was in shock.
The other car disappeared but 10yr old had taken the number.
It turned out to have no insurance. My car was a write off and we had no car for months. I think we got the sale value of our car but just a few hundred pounds and not enough for a replacement.
Luckily no-one was badly hurt. Thank God for carseats and safety belts.

It happened to us at a roundabout and the chap admitted liability then in the insurance claim he said it was our fault. Unfortunately we didn't have a camera (this was nearly 30 years ago) with us at the time.

We argued our point with our insurance company but the other company came back and said their client had died so they couldn't pursue it. Needless to say, we were stuck with the blame and penalised by our insurance company for it!

Thanks for all you stories ladies, at least I know I’m not alone, sadly

My daughter was hit in her Ford Ka by a big BMW, She was driving straight on and he was turning right. He was in the left turning/ straight on lane. He frightened the life out of her by shouting at her. Police, insurance and investigators said it was a slam dunk he was in the wrong and it went to court. He won! The magistrate spent the time taking about his Merc! Barrister was useless, I could have done better.

An elderly lady reversed into me in a car park, she admitted fault, and I was fine about it, she asked me to get a quote and she would send me a cheque, I thought I was possibly doing the wrong thing, but she seemed trustworthy

I told how much, she didn’t ask to see a quote and said she would send a cheque, and it turned up the next day.

Good to avoid insurance companies, but that only works if you can afford it of course.

minxie

Thanks Ladies, I have photos of both damaged cars and once I have calmed down I will do exactly as suggested and go right to the top, and write a detailed account
I absolutely refuse to be cheated out of the truth.
Thanks again

I took loads of pictures, didn’t make a blind bit of difference! I even thought about pursuing a claim that the other driver had made a fraudulent claim, but I knew the insurance company had more cash for lawyers than I had and I want about to go through a claims management company !

Slightly different situation here but someone came screaming down our road last week and took my door mirror off and scraped the paint down both doors.
No-one saw anything but my neighbour heard it and found my mirror in the road but obviously, no-one stopped to admit liability.
I've now either got to pay to have the damage fixed or pay the insurance excess which will affect next year's premium coz the insurance company won't have a third party to reclaim from.

This has happened to both my daughters when they were not at fault. One driver hit DD2 when she was stationary. She thought he wasn't going to stop but he did and walked back. It was dark and raining so she couldn't make out exactly the damage to her car. They exchanged details and the insurance companies got involved. Turned out her small car had hardly a mark on it, negligible, so he obviously couldn't have done much damage to his large, substantial car. He claimed about £2000 of damage. If there had been so much damage to his car her little car would have been a write-off. DD2 sent full details/map of the accident area but to no avail. Finished up 50:50. He sold his car so no evidence there. He did well out of it.

Crikey that's annoying!! We've used a dashcam for many years and our current limmo has both front and back cameras so no "ooh it wasn't me!" Carry on ! Stand your ground-and get down to Halfords and have a dashcam or front n back fitted pronto! Good luck!

DH was knocked off his motorbike and bike damaged whilst stationary in a garage forecourt when he was about to dismount to fill up. Car in front reversed. Then denied it was his fault as 'his reversing sensor didn't sound' so DH must have driven up behind him whilst reversing. Fortunately CCTV clearly showed the incident showing DH had been stationary when car reversed.

I was back ended in the centre of a city by a driver who was simply going to fast to stop. Turned out he didn’t speak a word of English, was a Polish national and had no insurance. You can imagine what a mare’s nest that was. It took over a year for my insurance company to pay up as it was excuse after excuse. In the end I contacted the ombudsman as it was then, and magically I was paid within 3 days. It’s worth persevering.

An initial denial of liability is routine. They're really saying 'OK, what have you got?'. Present your evidence.

Many years ago I was driving quite slowly up a hill on a country lane and a car going far too fast came over the brow of the hill, braked and skidded diagonally over to my side colliding with me. The driver jumped out asked if I was OK and apologised profusely.

As seems to happen so many times her insurance company would not admit liability saying I was responsible as I was in the middle of the lane. Fortunately I had taken photos which showed that I was on the extreme left hand side.

Her insurance company then tried to say we were equally responsible as it was a single track lane and we should settle on a "knock for knock" basis. This country lane is single track in places but at the place where we collided it was two lanes wide. Fortunately I had a measuring tape which showed it was more than 14ft wide. It was obviously the other driver's fault.

I always kept a camera and a measuring tape in the car after that. Nowadays most people have smartphones so not only could you take photos, you could also record anything the other driver said. The more evidence you have the better.

DH and I were once sat in a hotel carpark after a long drive and eating sandwiches when an elderly lady and her friend who were parked opposite backed into us. Driver was profusely sorry and then a week or so later her husband got involved and said we had driven into her! Insurance company accepted our version.

Happened to me as well, was stationary in a stream of traffic when someone reversed into the side of my car and it was supposedly my fault. Very posh and convincing male driver obviously convinced the insurance company who said I was at fault. I rang and asked why they took his side. They wanted to know if I'd seen him coming, yes I had, and if so why I'd not taken evasive action. I explained it was impossible as my make and model of car didn't fly and couldn't manage vertical take-off, given there was nowhere else to go with solid traffic in front, behind and on the other side of the road. They reviewed it and said that as a gesture of goodwill it wouldn't affect my NCB. I wrote and told them I wasn't interested and that I was not responsible, so my NCB was irrelevant. I requested they write and tell me they accepted it was not my fault and was the fault of the other driver. They finally did so. I think the very convincing man who's fault it was thought he'd win due to being 'a man who obviously knew more about cars' than I did and I think the insurance company realised they had fallen for it. Don't let it go, good luck.

minxie I am currently in exactly this situation. A car pulled out of a side road, hit my moving car and drove off without stopping or even slowing down. I followed, got the number and took photos, and managed to get her to give me her insurance details, but a week later we had a whole new scenario; she had been on the road and I had rammed her car at the back. The photos tell a very different story and the insurance company have refuted her allegation, but why do people do this? It's just so dishonest, and it's depressing to try to deal with a liar. I just want it all to be over, so I feel your pain and frustration.

Good luck with the advice given it’s awful when you are the innocent party.
My friend was hit by a man in a car with the wrong number plates on and from the accident damage any fool could see she was hit and innocent of any wrong doing - she was stationary too. But they found against her on one of these zoom courts and it’s so unfair. Her Solicitor was S**t and I still
Can’t believe they found in the liars favour !!!
She has dash cams now…

I provided a witness statement, and diagram, for an insurance claimant recently after the other party retracted that they were liable for the accident. I was gobsmacked at the retraction as I’d heard the person admit liability. After 6 months of going backwards and forwards the claimant decided to go 50/50 as she just couldn’t face the prospect of appearing in court.

My husband had an accident where someone just cut right across him on a duel carriageway. There was a dashcam in the car that recorded everything, even his big ‘sigh’!
He then was given a courtesy car and lo and behold, there he is in Asda car park and someone hit him again! Luckily, he had remembered to put the dashcam in the courtesy car.
In both instances, everyone exchanged details.

The dashcam from both accidents were sent to the insurance companies and no one could argue who was at fault. It was all there.

The first car was written off even though it didn’t look to badly damaged. And the courtesy car was sorted.
Everyone who has a car ought to get a dashcam. Makes times like this so much easier.

I feel your pain I had a nasty fall in a art Gallery in Newquay resulting in a broken foot and and ankle so I have now been in a boot almost 6 weeks and still having issues. The owner admitted liability and thankfully sent a text admitting it too but what a carry on

I'm guessing people admit fault at the time because it stops the argument. Unless you record the conversation it's worth exactly the paper it's printed on ?

My advice would be get a camera no one can lie with them in your car as you got video proof

If it ever happens again and you're not too shaken up, get a photo on your phone, or several, before either vehicle moves. Or get a dash cam with front and rear cameras and make sure it's always operating. They plug in to the lighter socket. Nextbase are a Which best buy. Then you can tell the perpetrator not to worry, it's all recorded on your dash cam. Mine activates if my car is hit while parked too.

Here is some good news.

Earlier this year DH was driving my car (with me in it as well) down a main road, when a young man shot across in front of us at a cross roads with a minor road, we couldn't avoid hitting him, not hard, and obliquely, no injuries, the young man kept saying it was his fault and he hadn't seen us bright blue recently cleaned car, driving down a half mile or more long straight with the sun shining on it!!!!!!

When I rang my insurance company, halfway through sdescription of the accident, the claims staff said to me. 'This is a no fault accident, we will get everything, including your excess back from the other driver', even before I could say it was.

It seems that as she typed in the details of where the accident happened it was coming up on her screen on googlemaps and she could instantly see that no way could the accident be anyone's fault but the other drivers. Three cheers for insuring through the AA