Should I Pay Up?

jackieb

I was quite chuffed that I managed to slide in a straight line. I'm glad I didn't go into the other side of the road as there was traffic coming in the other direction by then.

MORPH3US

mattymoo wrote:

No such thing as knock for knock these days. Abolished in the early 90's. The location of the incident has no bearing on it either.

Think you will find you are wrong on that mate. If it is in a private car park then insurance companies will not admit liability and will not pay out for other drivers!

A few friends have been caught out like this in the last 2 or 3 years!

M

Andy_L

MORPH3US wrote:

Think you will find you are wrong on that mate. If it is in a private car park then insurance companies will not admit liability and will not pay out for other drivers!

A few friends have been caught out like this in the last 2 or 3 years!

M

The only exclusion on location I've ever seen on my polices is on airfields. I think it unlikly that if I kill someone in a car crash in Sainsbury's car park Churchill are going to be able to get out of paying.

Andy

MORPH3US

Andy_L wrote:

The only exclusion on location I've ever seen on my polices is on airfields. I think it unlikly that if I kill someone in a car crash in Sainsbury's car park Churchill are going to be able to get out of paying.

Andy

OK, fair point but not quite what I meant. In terms of written exclusions in the T&C's you are right but in reality you have to think about what Insurance companies are going to behave (usually lazily!!! :rotfl: )

With 2 cars reversing out of car parking spaces its difficult to define who has rights of way because normal road rules don't apply.

Same with people going too fast in a car park and hitting someone that is reversing out, most car parks have 5mph speed limit but is it legally enforcable - no!

:beer:

mattymoo

Car insurance policies do cover you against incidents on private land including car parks. A problems does occur when you have one persons word against another - like 2 vehicles reversing at same time in car park - although this can apply on the highway as well.
The insurers may decide to settle 50/50 but this is not the same as knock for knock since 50% of the money moves around. eg. one car cost £1k to repair, the other £500. 1 pays the other £500, and the other £250 although they probably make the payments net in order to do it with the one cheque.

One situation where car parks can be an issue is uninsured and untraced motorists. If someone is insured but has not met the terms of the policy - e.g. premium paid, car unroadworthy or driver not named, the insurer will act as "Road Traffic Act" insurer only.

If there was no insurance full stop, the Motor Insurers Bureau will act instead.

In each case, they need to determine whether the accident occured on a road or not. The definition is quite wide. For instance, a car park with an entry on one street, exit on another becomes a road. So does a garage forecourt. Even a beach has been held to be a road for the purpose of the act if there is a history of vehicle movements from point a to point b on the beach.

It is a complex area but the upshot is, if you are hit by an uninsured motorist, hope that it is on a road of some description otherwise the normal channels of compensation may not be available to you.