Vehicle insurance (other persons fault)

Hi, my husband says that you must speak to your insurers and explain that your expenses are rising day by day and that they have an obligation to you. You must go to the Police asap saying that you think that the driver has given false details, which should encourage them to take action.
Good luck, try not to get too stressed.

I think this is your insurance company at fault. In the end the other party is to blame or not (up to them to decide) but, if you have insurance covering a replacement van, it is NOT relevant who is going to pay. I heard this same stupid story from my insurers, saying that they had to be sure the other party's insurers would pay. I pointed out that they were the ones who had taken my money for a replacement vehicle and that had nothing to do with the other party. As a carer I need my car 24/7 and they should keep to the contract or I would go to the independent adjudicator. Strangely, they okayed it there and then! Perhaps we should all name and shame our insurance companies so they can't get away with this rubbish! Why should you be doing their job for them?

I am in the NE of England Sarahellenwhitney . Our insurers say that it is fairly common that people start a new insurance policy before the old one has expired (usually only a day or two). I went to the house because the insurance company say she is not answering any of their calls or texts. The lady who answered the door said she wasn't "her" but the person I was looking for was her mum (or sister) who does not live at that address (the one given) . No angry exchanges, threats etc. just me politely asking to speak to Miss/Mrs XYZ. I have informed our insurers of this who say they will now write to the address. I don't think they get that if she is ignoring calls then she will also ignore a letter sent to (what seems to be) a different address?????

We have taken the van to a reputable repairer who said that the cost of new doors, bumpers etc. will run to several £thousand so possibly a right off (yet to be confirmed).

Mr Hildagard Thank you for taking the time to help me out here.

She admitted that it was her fault at the scene. Said the sun was in her eyes but it wasn't as she was facing the wrong direction.

My lad took photos of her holding "her address", phone number, reg number and date and time, on a piece of paper. he took photos of her vehicle (little damage due to position of bumper) and our van (caved in). Our lads tools are in the van but he would have to break the doors open to access them. Garage confirmed that this would render the van off the road all together as the doors will not shut again. She has still not reported the accident to her insurers and its looking like her address and the address given do not match. What i can't understand is why our insurers (so called reputable company)are not doing all of this "detective" work ? we have a lad sitting around doing almost nothing. we have lost work because he cannot access the tools and equipment in his van. We cannot hire a van (unless we agree to meet all costs, which I cannot afford) until she admits liability to her insurers. I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall !

Please take care gilly of your health and well-being. Can you share this task, instead of taking responsibility.

If insurance companies can get away without paying they will. If you are losing money you may be just as well paying for it yourself then going to a small claims court (dependant on the cost of the repair). It’s not right, and you may not feel like doing it but it may be, financially, the best way.

so sorry to hear your tale of woe. This happened to me and it's taken nearly 3 years to sort out, you've been given some good advice here, follow it, sols letter etc but do not get personally involved - very dangerous for you.

Hi, I’m Bob, Hildagard husband, and a retired Policeman.
sorry to hear about this incident, even more so about being fobbed off by the Police. A few points to consider:
1. She is clearly at fault, as this is a tail end shunt.
2. She admitted her liability at the scene, although her claim of the sun being in her eyes can be easily disproved.
3. Your driver mentioned seeing a mobile phone on the passenger seat. This in itself doesn’t prove anything, but a search of phone records would decide this.
4. It would appear that she has failed to provide a true address, so regardless of blame for the collision, she has committed a separate offence of failing to provide ....to a person who would reasonably require them.
5. Both parties should have reported the incident in person to a Police station as soon as possible, and in any case within 24 hours.
6. If she hasn’t reported the incident to her insurers, yours can’t do much about that.
7. I don’t believe for one minute that the Police can’t do anything about it, it’s more like one officer not wanting to...
8. I think that you need a solicitor for this one, especially as your insurers and their claims department are doing nothing. A solicitors letter is just what they need to encourage them into action.
Sorry this is so long, but I’m trying to help. Good luck.

The people at the house may not have been telling the truth. If you or the lad has the time they could watch the house (from a different vehicle) from about 4-7 say, and see if she goes in. If so knock and confront them. Alternativly, you may be able to get her address from whitepages if you have a phone number or from 192.com. The latter gives all occupants of an address, although you may have to pay a small fee for the most recent entries.
Possibly the lady is not insured or is afraid of losing her no claims bonus - if she chooses to deny it and has had any damage to her vehicle repaired, there may not be much you can do.
Hopefully there is no mechanical damage to the van and the repair will not cost too much. Sorry you’ve had this hassle - we’ve all learnt lessons from your bad experience.

Contact your insurance company and as gor the contact details of your legal cover on policy - give them the information you have and they will handle it. Dont get involved, if you are fully comp then proceed with the repair.

Please take someone with you as a witness.

I would seek any help the police could offer as she is not answering her phone etc mention the fact the mobile phone was on the seat they should be able to trace time of any phone calls.
at the time of the accident were any pictures taken etc.
hope this helps

Take photos of the damage and get the van fixed then, when you get the insurance details, send the repair bill plus bill for lost earnings to them.

Your lad must have her registration details. Were police informed? If the lad can station himself outside her home from 6am to catch her coming out, then he can confront her snd demand the insurance details.

Definitely not what you need and very stressful especially with young children to look after.

When you say your employee's tools are in the van does that mean he can't get them out at all? Rather than lose any more work if he can access them it might be better to just go ahead and hire a van so he can get on an then claim the cost back from the insurance company once it's sorted out? Some insurance companies are useless so it could be a while before you get paid out.

Good luck!

This is of no use to gillybob and she has my complete sympathy but, looking at all the tales of woe in this stream, I'm wondering if the trouble is caused by people always going for the cheapest possible quote. With all the comparison sites, etc., we are all encouraged to go for the lowest price but until we try to claim we have no idea how good the insurers are. I tend to stick to the same company (once they have given me good service) and won't be tempted to change to another company who is offering a bargain rate to new customers. As with most things......we get what we pay for!

Gillybob.Not aware what part of the globe you reside. Two policies ??same vehicle ?don't follow??If in the UK and wanting to change insurers then arrange the present policy to expire at midnight on an arranged date and the new policy to start immediately the old expires.Not aware of how your business works.?
You pay your insurers to investigate an accident and you should not have gone to the other drivers house where anything said or, forbid there is confrontation , it could be your word against their's. The police will not in the UK as far as I know get involved in a dispute over who is your or the other drivers insurer. If you have paid your premium then its over to your insurers not you to do the groundwork and the other party usually or should have given you their details at the time of the incident but taking their Reg number is advisable .Make sure and for the future have not missed anything vital on your policy which could hinder or dismiss any part of your claims.

Insurance companies are useless. My car was written off outside my house by a car being chased by police. My car was valued at £450 minus my excess. I couldn't replace it for that money. It was old, but I had it from new and had full service history and had all necessary repairs done to keep it roadworthy and safe. You can't replace that. After it was all settled, my insurance company weren't interested.
A while later I decided to ring the police to see if they had managed to trace the driver. They told me it was the car owner's underage son and his Mum had been fined for wasting police time, as she had told them a pack of lies. I phoned the car owner's insurance company to tell them. They had no idea who I was, as she had reported an attempted theft to them and never mentioned a third party. My insurance company had never contacted them, as in their words, the police never find the drivers of stolen cars. I gave her insurance company the police report number and my details, and they contacted my insurance company and I got my excess back. I had given my insurance company all the details, including the police incident number, but they had done virtually nothing.

You can ask the ins., co., to do a DVLA check and then you will have the correct address. This will involve a small fee.

Gillybob I feel your frustration. A blithering idiot drove around a bend too fast and went into the side of my car as I was about to make a right turn. The insurance company were as good as useless and despite him admitting fault to me and the insurance company, I was deemed 30% to blame because some half witted judge made this ruling about accidents involving right hand turns.Frustrating is not the word, absolutely furious is better.

I’d be very wary of going to the house, you never quite know who you will come across, some odd peeps out there.

Always, always report accidents to police and get an incident number. Not too late to do it now. Years ago I reported an accident the day after we emergency stopped for a dog and were hit in the back. We were not too worried about our car as it was old etc but we then received a claim saying we had reversed into the other car. The police report stopped that in its tracks.

If you have recorded the number, it the car should be traceable via dvla - surely the claims company can get this info, after all, when you renew your insurance and quote the licence number they can immediately tell the make and model of your car and it must be registered to an address

I’m fuming for you, this is outrageous. Your insurance company seem useless, they should be sorting it all out for you, that’s what you pay for. Can’t offer any additional advice, only sympathy! Hope you get sorted.

Who are your insurance company by the way, so we all know who to avoid!

So sorry ‘gillybob’. These situations are very stressful. So many people driving cars when they shouldn’t for one reason or another and the law abiding rest of us pay the cost. I hope your luck turns and particularly that the police step up but these days it all depends on where you live. Little chance of police interest where I am.

Had a similar thing when a neighbour drove in to to back of my husband's parked van- sun in eyes again!- admitted liability and handed over insurance details etc but our problem was our ins company not being able to get hold of theirs, went on for weeks until they finally made contact then a pittance was offered to.scrap it, no where near a replacement value although they insisted it was current market price- hubby asked them numerous times to show him where he could buy this van for a few £ quid!! No response on that one surprisingly ?

Upshot of it was kept the van and agreed a payment and repaired it himself, both insurance companies were hopeless and we had to keep chasing so I understand your frustration!! ?‍♀️