Vehicle insurance (other persons fault)

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 !

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?

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 thought I'd seen a poster somewhere saying that if you drive without insurance you risk having your car confiscated. Did I dream that?

Check this out:

www.gov.uk/vehicle-insurance/driving-without-insurance

Hope you get a satisfactory solution soon Gillybob and your man can get back to his jobs and you can relax again.

My car was wrote off in August 2016 still not been paid out for it. Again, someone drove into the back of mine at speed. Whats the point of having insurance??

Email the CEO of her insurance company and cc in the chief constable of the police force covering the area... you will get a reply from their PA(s) and passed to a named person who will push people into action to appease you. Works every time... attitude is that if they ignore you long enough you will give up. All info is available online.
Just give your story and contact details. Good Luck.

What i can't understand is why our insurers (so called reputable company)are not doing all of this "detective" work ?
Nor would ours at first when someone went into the back of my car when DD was driving.

DH got very firm with them and told them they had to chase this up; he expected them to pay our bills then seek recompense from the other driver's insurers, which they then did.

Gilly I was so sorry to read this. What a lot of hassle just to get what you’re owed. There has been a lot of good advice on here so I really hope this gets sorted soon. It’s not as if it was a car you used once a week to go shopping in!

gilly
I would make my local Facebook my friend. I would put all the details I have and ask if anyone knows where this woman lives.

I have been on and off the phone nearly all day about this . Insurance company are diabolical ( A*i*a) and say it’s a waiting game and they will write to her at the address they have ( I tried telling them I don’t think she lives there and now it appears she has had her phone cut off as I have tried it on and off all day ) they don’t seem to give a sh*t ! To say I am fed up is an understatement ! I’m supposed to have the DGC tomorrow again but it looks like I’ll be spending another exciting day at work with them fighting with bl**dy idiot insurance company . Why do we have fully comprehensive insurance I ask myself ? In fact why have insurance at all ? I can’t be bothered any more just feel like throwing the towel in as it’s just the straw that broke the camels back ! Feeling tearful now .

Note to all . If you have a crash where it’s your fault just don’t report it, ignore all calls from insurance company and you’ll get off with it all .

If it’s a no fault of your driver your insurance company may well pay for a hire van until your van is repaired. Also there is an app Vehicle Smart where you can check out the offending vehicles status’s including MOT / Tax / Insurance free of charge.

Our insurance will not authorise a hire vehicle until they know who will pay for it (either the other insurance or us if she refuses to admit liability ) . Her car is insured and MOT’d . It just looks like we have been given a false (???) address and she has had her phone cut off to avoid ours and insurance companies calls .

Some years ago I was insured by Nor***h Uni**. Sane as your I believe until they changed their name.

It was horrendous. I was hit by an uninsured driver....even so insurance offered courtesy car....I couldn't take advantage of that because I was injured and by the time I could drive again that offer had gone...but it had been there!

The service I received was terrible and ended up taking 5 years to get pay out from Motor Insurer's Bureau. A friend had a lesser accident a month later and possibly because the police were called her claim was just totally different. People were contacting her for physiotherapy, courtesy car, claim handling. She also received a fast pay out within a few months.

Good luck xx and I too think you should make the police do their work. They can get you the correct address......although have you looked at census books at library for her?

Keep at them gillybob, that's what we had to do and in the end our insurance paid to repair our car then chased her and forced her into reporting the accident to her insurance company so that ours could reclaim the money. That was a long while ago, though, and was P*u*d***ia*.
Giving a false address and perhaps not being insured should be reported to the police, even if it is 5 days since the accident and they can threaten her with further action (even if they do nothing it could frighten her into doing something).

If you are fully comp then your insurance company needs to step up - ask to speak to someone higher up the chain or email the MD. Go to the top.

My husbands car was totalled by a stupid teenage girl who piled into his car actually parked outside the house at 4am it seemed she was on the phone having a row with her boyfriend! Although the insurance paid up it only covered the book value of his second hand car which due to bring old was very low but obviously didn’t take into account the fact that this was a reliable car and in good condition! So he ended up out of pocket by a considerable sum in the end?

I would definitely ascertain who was driving the car. I worked in personal injury law for 6 years and its amazing what people will do to try and get away with liability. The MIB will get involved if damage is caused by an uninsured driver but that would take a long time. GreenGran78, I can back up your praise of AXA. My husband and I were involved in an accident in Holland. AXA were amazing, even paid for an air ambulance to fly us back to the UK. There are some good insurers out there!

gillybob, Mr Hildegard is giving good advice. The call centres are staffed by civilian staff who in my experience, have limited understanding of the law. Like all civilians who these days run (cheaply) the call centres for our public services, they seem to see their key task as gatekeeping.
I went into our local police station, asked to see a police officer and saw one. He was immediately concerned I'd been lied to, that when I called at the address he gave me, to try and get a response to the letters from my insurance company, I was told he'd gone away. The police went round that day and Mr X then responded to my insurance company, it was that quick.
I hope you can get something sorted but as Mr H says, go to the cop shop.

Our insurance company expected us to take half the blame when it was obviously 100% the Polish lorry driver. Luckily we had legal cover so my husband said he was prepared to go to court. They paid up very quickly after that, though the whole process took 15 months and put up our premiums. Always have legal cover, it is so worth it.

Just read this and it may help others in similar predicament...

m.askmid.com/mt/www.askmid.com/mobile/

The call centres are staffed by civilian staff who in my experience, have limited understanding of the law. Like all civilians who these days run (cheaply) the call centres for our public services, they seem to see their key task as gatekeeping.
Yes, they just have a standard format and do not have the authority to advise on anything other than standard procedure. You need to insist on speaking to someone higher up, someone who has the authority to act.
And Mr Hildegard's advice is excellent.

Don't worry - be persistent.

Insurance company/claims handler are talking crap! Go to MIB and enter details of other vehicle and you will get third party insurance details. send the claim to TPI Insurance company. If your claims handler is not up to the mark, get another! There's plenty out there who can do a decent job!

I had a claim where the TP tried belligerence but I stood my ground and eventually won! he even searched my social media!

Update..........

After lodging an official complaint with our wonderful insurance company Avv (and asking them what the hell we pay our insurance for ?) we seem to be getting somewhere, albeit quite slowly. They have agreed that considering we pay an additional amount to them for legal cover, it should be them doing the detective work and not me ! They have agreed we can break the doors of the van to access the tools and equipment inside, we have taken the van to their recommended repairers and it looks like its going to be written off (a whole new hassle I would imagine). We have arranged a hire van in the hope that they will eventually catch up with the other person via her own insurance company (who, considering it was a rear end smash, will be obliged to accept liability if she refuses to play ball) . This whole thing has been (still is) a nightmare and I am still very bitter that we could be left to deal with this ourselves. I sincerely hope they do catch up with the lying, cheating b*tch soon or we will lose our no claims discount and our insurance will go through the roof, not to mention the cost to us for the hire van etc.

Angry? you bet I am.

I was rung up after a minor accident, which was 100% the other car drivers fault and asked to put on the accident form that the husband was driving and not the wife because she wasn't insured to drive his car. I refused.

No advice from me gilly as you have lots here, but huge sympathy and a gentle hug. You don't flipping well need this!!