Liability Denied

Gareth19

Hi there, a bus scraped into my parked car back in January. I witnessed it myself as i was walking back from the car to my house at the time. After many letters between myself and the insurers, the insurer has decided they are not liable and will not pay. They have come out with all these little technicalities to wriggle out of paying. They say that I couldn't have seen the accident as I walking away from it at the time and also they say the manager of the bus firm spotted blue paint on my car when it was a white bus (of course he spotted white paint, my car is blue!). My question is where do I go next? Is it even worth pursuing? The damage to my car is small dents on the driver's door and scrapes down the door and the front wing.

BoGoF

Do you have legal cover on your policy....what are your own insurers saying about it ?

Quentin

Without independent witness(es) you are a bit stuck.

You need to decide whether its worth pursuing - you would now have to move to the small claims court (send a lba first, that only costs a stamp and that might get a result), though if you then issue a claim that will cost a court fee, and if you take it to a hearing there's another fee to pay. (And if you lose, the other side can claim expenses off you). If you win, the other side will be ordered to pay your court fees on top of your damage claim (plus your expenses for attending court).

Gareth19

I do have legal cover. I am fully comp and I informed my insurers at the time of the incident so they do have it on file that the accident happened. I informed my insurers that the bus company were going through their insurers and my firm told me there wasn't anything they could do if the other insurers were dealing with it but they'd heep it on file. Now after months of letters and diagrams they have said they deny liability. Strangely about a week before this letter I had a phone call from their insurers saying that they had sanctioned the claim and they'd be in touch with info about repairs. Bloody insurance companies!!

Quentin

Your legal cover will usually only help out in pursuing a claim for uninsured losses. So you would need to make a claim off your own insurance, pay your excess, then see if your "legal cover" can recover the excess.

If they are successful, then your insurer should reclaim their outlay and reinstate your NCD.

foggytown

Quentin wrote: »

Without independent witness(es) you are a bit stuck.

You need to decide whether its worth pursuing - you would now have to move to the small claims court (send a lba first, that only costs a stamp and that might get a result), though if you then issue a claim that will cost a court fee, and if you take it to a hearing there's another fee to pay. (And if you lose, the other side can claim expenses off you). If you win, the other side will be ordered to pay your court fees on top of your damage claim (plus your expenses for attending court).

LBA? Not familiar with that term.

Quentin

Letter Before Action