Insurance Accident Issues

matimage

Hi All,
About a year ago (just after my wife renewed her car insurance) A guy drove into the back of her. Fortunatly it happened right outside her place of work and she had loads of witnesses.
The guy gave her details and asked to not go through insurance. Wifes car was brand new so she wanted to do everything by the book so she contacted her insurance.
She got car fixed and had to have a hire car for a week.
Turns out the guy was not insured at the time of the accident. Wifes insurance company told us this but said that they had contacted guy and he was happy to pay.
Fast forward over a year and this is still not sorted. Wife has just had to pay inflated insurance premium even though she got a letter saying the case will not affect her premium.
This guy still hasn't payed up. Wife is understandably pee'd off. She does everything by the book and pays for it and the guy who has no insurance seems to get off scot free. She didn't originally go to the police because she believed the guys story that the renewal had slipped his mind.
Is it too late now to report him?
Several phone calls to wifes insurance seem to get fobbed off by them saying they are in the process of getting the money off him.
Is there a ombudsman I can get involved because its about £200 my wife is owed?
I told her to log all my hours and miles and time off work driving her to mechs and rental place as well but she didn't! :mad:

Cheers
M

markelock

I'm surprised the insurance company didn't inform the police as he was driving without insurance?

matimage

Me too!
I think they gave him the benefit of the doubt because it was only expired by a few days...
Like I say though, it seems to be like getting blood out of a stone getting any info from them...

raskazz

The only action you can take is to call the insurers to ask them exactly why the matter has not been resolved. Could be that the third party is repaying them by instalments and has not completed repayment yet. If their answer is unsatisfactory then raise a complaint with them - the process will be in your insurance documentation.

If a repayment plan has not been agreed, and the insurer thinks that he is rich enough to pay, then they should really be looking to commence court proceedings against him to recover their outlay. On the other hand, if they think that he is already in debt or is in a low-paid job then there is no point in spending money taking him to court over it as he won't have the means to pay anyway, even if they obtained a judgment.

Are you sure that you got a letter stating that the incident would not affect the premium? That would be very unusual.

Edited to add: The insurer won't report the other driver because there's no benefit in doing so. The outcome would be cost to the insurer in preparing witness statements, and if the police hit him with a fine it would merely delay the insurer's recovery of their costs as he would be using money that would otherwise go to the insurer to pay the fine for the conviction!

matimage

Sure about the letter but apparently that came from the motor legal dept, not the premiums dept or something, but there is def a letter stating the file is closed and the premium shouldn't go up. Wife spoke to someone yesterday and they assured her she would get back the extra cost of the premium but as she is still owed £200+ I don't hold much hope.

hewhoisnotintheknow

You say it happened outside her place of work and lots of people saw it? I assume they didnt know her?

matimage

Have just checked with wife and the letter doesn't say the premium shouldn't go up. The letter simply says case is closed and she spoke to someone on the phone and they said it shouldn't go up.
Apologies for my error.

matimage

They all know her. Its a school, drop off morning time.

hewhoisnotintheknow

matimage wrote: »

They all know her. Its a school, drop off morning time.

they can not be witness's then

vaio

hewhoisnotintheknow wrote: »

they can not be witness's then

Nonsense, of course they can be witnesses

hewhoisnotintheknow

vaio wrote: »

Nonsense, of course they can be witnesses

i was involved in an accident, some friends were in a car behind me, the police at the scene told us that my friends could not be witnesses as they could be biased