Please Help - Car accident - Causee ignoring insurance company

Merson_Tuffers

Firstly, I apologise if this issue has come up before. I have done a search but can't find anything.

My husband had a car prang approx one month ago. 18 yr old lad pulled out of traffic & went rignt into the side of my husbands car. The lad was insured with the AA and gave my hubby all the details. Hubby also had a witness who heard the lad acknowledge the accident was his fault. The police were not called as everything was quite amicable.

We've now been told that hubbys car is repaired & ready for collection. However, the lad has not been in touch with his insurance company to acknowledge the accident. The AA have written to him but he is ignoring their correspondence. My husband now has to pay £300 excess (which we don't have at this time) to get his car back.

Can someone please advise on what we can / should do here? We have the lads address & phone number but we don't want to risk contacting him in case we end up being done for intimidation. But we also can't afford to pay out £300. Surely this kid is legally bound to contact his insurance company in this situation otherwise why bother to have insurance.

ANY advice that can be given on this would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.

SandC

You usually have to pay the excess regardless and then claim it back regardless of whether this lad is ignoring this insurance company.

lowbrim

Have you contacted his Insurance company and sent them witness statements etc? You need to do this and also tell them the circumstances you are in and explain that unless they pay the £300 excess as an interim payment you will have no option but to hire a car and claim this cost back along with costs for inconveniance etc. Normally if there are no issues ie you have wintness statements etc insurance companies are obliging. I know the AA should do this but there is nothing better than ringing the insurance company yourself. I have been involved in 2 similar accidents in the last 8years and in both cases despite being fully comp I have done it myself all it takes is a couple of phone calls whereas insurance companies communicate by letter that takes ages as it is not a priority to them.

lisyloo

It's up to your insurance to chase him to recover the money.
Until that time you have to claim off YOUR insurance and pay the excess.

This might not help your immediate situation but for future planning.
1) Don't take on an excess you can't afford.
2) Save up for an emergency fund. 3 months income is a general rule of thumb.
If you can't afford £300 then you will be in serious trouble if you lose a job.
It's up to you how much you have but around 3-6 months income is considered sensible. This will also cover things like boiler breakdown, car crashes etc. as well as job loss.

If you don't have £300 then you must be runinng your finances perilously close to the edge with no contingency.

Of course you are entitled to get it back, but these things take time, so you do need an emergency fund for this and other scenarios.

MrsKelly_2

lisyloo wrote: »

It's up to your insurance to chase him to recover the money.
Until that time you have to claim off YOUR insurance and pay the excess.

This might not help your immediate situation but for future planning.
1) Don't take on an excess you can't afford.
2) Save up for an emergency fund. 3 months income is a general rule of thumb.
If you can't afford £300 then you will be in serious trouble if you lose a job.
It's up to you how much you have but around 3-6 months income is considered sensible. This will also cover things like boiler breakdown, car crashes etc. as well as job loss.

If you don't have £300 then you must be runinng your finances perilously close to the edge with no contingency.

Of course you are entitled to get it back, but these things take time, so you do need an emergency fund for this and other scenarios.

This may be a moneysaving/advice board but this isn't the issue that the OP was posting about, a lot of people live 'perilously close to the edge with no contingency' because unfortunately not everybody can manage putting 3/6 months salary put to one side for emergencies, in an ideal world we all would do but its just not viable for a lot of people and doesn't actually help the original question at all!

lisyloo

ut its just not viable for a lot of people

I'm not sure I agree with you there, but that's a diferent story.
I can offer some tecniques to help if you like, but I'm now fearful I'll be criticised for going"off topic" even if it's intended to be helpful to someone.

and doesn't actually help the original question at all!

Hence I started the sentence with:

"This might not help your immediate situation but for future planning."

In terms of the immediate situation I would be persuing the insurers and talking to the legal expense firm who take car of "uninsured losses" e.g. the excess.
Another route (if no legal expenses insurance) would be to go via the small claim court, but expect to provide evidence and contact your witness and ask whether they would be willing to attend.
If the lad doesn't live nearby then be aware that you may need to travel to a court near him as I believe the defendant can get the case moved to them.

Be aware that your insurance company will be instersted in getting THEIR money back and this does not extend to your excess.
The excess is an "uninsured loss" therefre you need to use legal expenses or try to oabtain it yourself through the court.
The small claims court is very cheap and does not use solicitors.

cogito

MrsKelly wrote: »

This may be a moneysaving/advice board but this isn't the issue that the OP was posting about, a lot of people live 'perilously close to the edge with no contingency' because unfortunately not everybody can manage putting 3/6 months salary put to one side for emergencies, in an ideal world we all would do but its just not viable for a lot of people and doesn't actually help the original question at all!

Quite. The £300 excess may not have been an option anyway.

MrsKelly_2

lisyloo wrote: »

I'm not sure I agree with you there, but that's a diferent story.
I can offer some tecniques to help if you like, but I'm now fearful I'll be criticised for going"off topic" even if it's intended to be helpful to someone.

Hence I started the sentence with:

"This might not help your immediate situation but for future planning."

In terms of the immediate situation I would be persuing the insurers and talking to the legal expense firm who take car of "uninsured losses" e.g. the excess.
Another route (if no legal expenses insurance) would be to go via the small claim court, but expect to provide evidence and contact your witness and ask whether they would be willing to attend.
If the lad doesn't live nearby then be aware that you may need to travel to a court near him as I believe the defendant can get the case moved to them.

Be aware that your insurance company will be instersted in getting THEIR money back and this does not extend to your excess.
The excess is an "uninsured loss" therefre you need to use legal expenses or try to oabtain it yourself through the court.
The small claims court is very cheap and does not use solicitors.

Whether you agree or not is not relevant is it? This post is about an insurance excess and lecturing people on not having an emergency fund is not what this is about, and no thanks i do not need any advice on how to not live perilously close to the edge, as i already stated that isn't what this post is about!

To the OP unfortunately i think you will need to pay for the excess up front but you should definately be refunded this back, this happened to my Brothers friend a few months ago but his insurance company did help him get the excess back, it obviously doesn't change the fact you don't have that kind of money at the moment though, good luck.

lisyloo

Whether you agree or not is not relevant is it?

Ok, so you are allowed to express your opinions but I am not allowed to reply?
I'm terribly sorry if something has upset you.
I thought this was a friendly discussion board and we were allowed to discuss things.

as i already stated that isn't what this post is about

The bulk of my post that you have quoted is directly answering the initial question.

Perhaps pm me if you want to continue directing comments at me and leave the thread clear for "on topic" stuff?
Perhaps we can agree on that?

I'm sorry if I said something to upset you, there was nothing intentional but please deal with personl issue by pm as it's not really fair on others.

MrsKelly_2

lisyloo wrote: »

Ok, so you are allowed to express your opinions but I am not allowed to reply?
I'm terribly sorry if something has upset you.
I thought this was a friendly discussion board and we were allowed to discuss things.



The bulk of my post that you have quoted is directly answering the initial question.

Perhaps pm me if you want to continue directing comments at me and leave the thread clear for "on topic" stuff?
Perhaps we can agree on that?

I'm sorry if I said something to upset you, there was nothing intentional but please deal with personl issue by pm as it's not really fair on others.

My opinion isn't i'm 'holier than thou' because i have an emergency fund and don't set myself up for insurance excesses that i cannot afford. That is not what the OP was asking for, this is a friendly board where things can be discussed but if OP wanted a lecture on how your finances are better than theirs i'm sure it wouldn't be under the insurance section. And no i do not need to discuss this further with you, i am in no way upset by a little bit of text on a forum dear :j

Incisor

MrsKelly wrote: »

This may be a moneysaving/advice board but this isn't the issue that the OP was posting about, a lot of people live 'perilously close to the edge with no contingency' because unfortunately not everybody can manage putting 3/6 months salary put to one side for emergencies, in an ideal world we all would do but its just not viable for a lot of people and doesn't actually help the original question at all!

The bit in contention was: This might not help your immediate situation but for future planning.
1) Don't take on an excess you can't afford.
2) Save up for an emergency fund. 3 months income is a general rule of thumb.
If you can't afford £300 then you will be in serious trouble if you lose a job.
It's up to you how much you have but around 3-6 months income is considered sensible. This will also cover things like boiler breakdown, car crashes etc. as well as job loss.

Don't forget that as well as the OP's situation this thread is also relevant to anyone looking at the issue of claiming on motor insurance in general terms. So the message is useful. I don't think it is the least bit out of order, even if it is not directly relevant to the OP's immediate situation.