Claim help please

alyssa_liss

posted elsewhere but reccomended to post here aswell


my partner has just recieve a letter (claim form) against him for just over £9000

he has no money is still living in his overdraft from when he was made redundant for 5 months, ive just managed to claim some ppi insurance back which has made him a little bit closer to becoming out of his overdraft.

sorry ill start from the begining

at the begining of 07 he was involved in a car crash, he was driving his brothers car for him as his brother had ,had a drink . on the way home the car infront suddenly turned into a side road (car + ice + sudden movement etc... CRASH)

my partner genuanly thought he was insured under his own insurance for driving other cars... he wasnt.

he got points and a fine ..... he understood this was annoyed but it was his own fault he is not denying that .

the motor insurance beurea paid out to the other party involved and then started asking my partner for the money back ( roughly £3000)

he started to make enquires about how to pay this because at the time he had the money. whilst he was doing this his brothers insurance interviened and made the repayment to the MIB.

the brothers insurance then told my partner he had to repay them.. fair enough , this was still at £3000, he was then waiting to here from them about how to repay it as he had used the £3000 to pay a loan off he had.

he did not here from them for about 6 months and as this point he had not long been made redundant. (didnt recieve a redundance payment) he was living on about £30 JSA a week, (which was ridiculas) he still had to pay rent,food,bills.

when they got intouch they told him he then had to pay £7000 not £3000. he replied to them and told him he was out of work and didnt have that type of money. he then asked about repayment options.

they got back intouch saying £350 a month ( he was still looking for work and only recieveing about £120 a month JSA ) obviously he couldnt afford this as by this point he was working his way into his overdraft.

he got back intouch with them saying as he was out of work he could only afford £50 a month untill he got a job, they said this wasnt good enough.

he got back intouch asking what the minimum amout he could pay was, they never replied untill this letter we have just recieved asking for £9000.

he could roughly pay £200 a month now but this is going to take about 4years to pay off and we were just about to start saving towards a house etc...
im so upset as we wanted to get a house,married kids. and at this rate it doesnt look like its goiing to happen.

the letter says he needs to accept the claim
part of the claim
dispute the claim
ask for 28days instead of 14
or nothing and a jugment may be entered against him

sorry for the long thread but we are nice normal people, hardworking and only young and have never been in anything like this

can someone please help or suest what to do ?

alyssa_liss

right found letters and a few emails

first the amount was £3614 this was in Feb 08

i then have a letter of my OH saying that the brothers insurance should not be dealing with it. the brothers insurance then send a letter saying that they are obliged as they were the insurance on the car even thought my OH wasn't insured.
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then we have a letter from the people on behalf of the mib saying he needs to sign a form for the brothers insurance to carry on so its been signed at £3614 this was in feb 08
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then nov 08 we now have a letter from brothers insurance saying OH now owes £6283 in accordance to the signed paper work (but this was for a much lower amount a few months previous)

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on the 14th jan 09 ive found an email from my OH (im glad he never deltes emails lol )
I have attempted to contact your offices by phone on many occasions and get left on hold for hours, i also wrote to your self's after receiving your last letter, but i received no response.

With Ref to your letter dated the 13th nov 2008, please could send me a break down as to were the £6283.88 has been allocated and also the options for payment of this balance.

Please could you acknowledge this email by way of an email and written response and update your records to show that contact has been made

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they then replied 2 weeks later
Further to your recent e-mail, as we had not heard from you since our previous correspondence we have passed our papers to our legal department to pursue you for the monies owed.

The Motor Insurers Bureau settled the third party claim under the uninsured drivers agreement, however as we are the principal insurers and you were not covered under our policy, we have an obligation to deal with the third party claim as Road Traffic Act Insurers.

We paid a total of £3000 of the injury, £505 for NHS charges and £2778.88 for the solicitors costs.

Your recommendations as to how you wish to reimburse us are waited in view of the delay in responding to us we trust you will revert to us again shortly.

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then we get a email asking for the £6xxxx from the solicitors on behalf of the insurance.
my OH replies asking Please could you explain to me what the claimant legal fees as imunsure what this is, please could you give me the options for payment as I do not have that kind of money available.

Also could you tell me if HSBC have contacted the brokers to tell them that the claim is not being paid by the policy.

I would also like in writing confirmation that this is the final amount to pay with regards to this accident.

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we then get a reply saying that it will be 17 monthly payments of
£350 and a final of £333

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my OH replieys Please could it be put in writting that "The sum of £6,283.88 was a final figure once all third party claims and costs had been settled by the MIB".

Also as I am currently out of work the £350 a month is more than I can currently afford.
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they then ask how much my OH could affor to pay a month , which he replies At the moment until I return to work the most I could pay would be £50 a month.

Please can you tell me if my request from my previous email will be carried out.

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we then get a reply saying the letter will be drafted and sent out that night this is 19/02/09
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my OH recieves a letter a month later 10th march saying that £50 is unacceptale

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he then emails them saying he has recieved the letter and why has it took so long to tell him that £50 was unacceptable
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they then tell him they will accept £100 a month minimum .

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at this point they have still not confirmed that the debt wont increased and my OH could not afford £100 because he had no job, bills going out and was in his overdraft

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that is the last we heard untill this court letter thing arrived

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sorry for the long post but hopefully it will help, i am planning on going to the CAB on monday with all the documents and see if they have any advice ? will they talk to me about it as my partner has to work. if i get mt partner to write a letter stating they can talk to me about it will this help.

Quentin

There are bound to be confidentiality issues, so to be on the safe side ring them first before going to see if they will discuss this with a partner (and what is required by way of authority from your partner if they are able to deal with you).

In any case ring them to see if an appointment is needed to discuss this with one of their specialists.

alyssa_liss

thanks will do that in the morning

andyd

I'd get your partner to sign a letter saying he gives you full authority to discuss all aspects of the case with a legal advisor otherwise the CAB or a solicitor won't be able to deal with you.

The CAB will likely advise that you negotiate a payment schedule with the insurers as IMO your OH is unfortunately liable for the sum claimed from the info you've given.

They would probably accept a substantially lower lump sum if your OH could possibly borrow the money from family, a bank etc. Obviously that may not be possible for him.

Sorry I can't be more optimistic but hope this helps, a little.

dacouch

I agree with the backing of someone like the CAB a creditor is far more likely to accept a payment schedule that you can afford that is put forward by the CAB.

As I mentioned on the other post you made on this subject there is a forum on MSE for people in debt, there may be some people who can help you on this matter there

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf