Help! - Can I take insurance company to court?

mrs*84

Hi

I'm hoping someone can offer me some advice

My husband's vehicle was parked in a bay in London and someone who was reversing into a space behind him, hit his van by accident. They admitted they were liable and the van was fixed, no problems.

However, due to the extent of the damage, my husband needed a hire van for the 2 weeks his van was in the repair shop. He specified from day 1 that he needed a van with a roof rack, as he is a roofer and needs to transport his ladders. It took the hire company 3 days to find him a van with a roof rack, so my husband was off work all this time and lost a contract worth £2000 as he couldn't get to the job.

We have been trying to get his loss of earnings and loss of contract back from the insurance company, and have provided everything they have asked for, including letters from the customer who had to go elsewhere and a letter from his accountant showing what he earns per day (as he is self employed), but still they are asking for more. It has now been dragging on for 6 months.

Is this usual practice for insurance companies? Do they drag it out until we get bored and give up?

Also, do we have a case if we took them to court? If we threatened to take them to court do you think this would work?

I was thinking of settling for a lesser amount, maybe half of what we were claiming but not sure if this looks like we're admitting defeat?

Hope you can help

dzug1

You can't take the insurance company to court.

You can take the driver/owner of the other vehicle to court - and the insurance company will pay up if you win.

I'd be mildly dubious about loss of earnings being awarded though - and very dubious about the lost contract.

vaio

mrs*84 wrote: »

......Is this usual practice for insurance companies? Do they drag it out until we get bored and give up?......

I'd say that pretty much sums up the insurance industry these days in a lot of peoples experience.

On your claim, as others have said, you need to sue the driver and his insurance company will take it over.

It’s going to hinge on how well documented the losses are (pretty much covered with the letters you have) but also there is a general duty to mitigate (minimise) your losses and that covers things like what steps did your OH take to find a suitable replacement van or alternative work.

If the lost contract was close in time to the accident then it might well be it was impossible to alter what happened but a note of any steps taken would be useful.

The next step is a letter before action to the other driver holding him responsible for the losses and a warning that unless he pays within 14 days court action will follow.

If he (or his insurance) don’t pay then small claims.

Don’t forget to add on the costs of accountant letters and other out of pocket expenses to the claim amount and remember your loss is not the whole value of the contract but the lost gross profit he would have made less the profit he made on any other work he did when he should have been doing the contract in question.

mrs*84

Thankyou for your replies

The other parties insurance company were responsible for finding my husband a replacement vehicle and, because my husband needs a roof rack, it took them 3 days to get him one. This is why he couldn't work.

We manged to get a letter from the customer who's contract he lost out on, stating what my husband was going to charge and saying that they had to get someone else in to do it. They have also put their contact details on there so the insurance company can phone them to clarify everything, but the insurance company don't seem to want to do this!

I think court may be the only way now. Its more for the principal then for the money. I think its terrible that someone crashes into my husbands parked van, its no fault of his, yet he has to take 3 days off for it and doesn't get any sort of compensation!

dacouch

What is probably complicating the matter, is that in loss of earnings claims, insurers would normally request a letter from the employer (If PAYE) or if they are self employed / a company they would request the accounts for the current year and previous year along with possibly the year before. From the accounts they calculate what the loss of earnings was likely to be.

It sounds like you providing details of the lost contract may have thrown a spanner in the works as the claims staff may not be used to dealing with this situation.

It might be worth a call to the other Insurers, speak to a manager or superviser and be polite, this might resolve the situation. Alternatively do you arrange the van insurance through a local broker, if so they may be able to do this for you. If this is not the case and you have no one else to help you eg a trade organisation it could be worth writing a letter (Send it 1st class) to them outlining all of your losses in a concise way and stating that if you do not receive satisfaction within 14 days you will issue county court claim against their policyholder (Send a cc to their policyholder)

R3negadeuk

if you have a legit claim and it is fully provable, then yes push it, and keep pushing it.

The problem with insurance companies, is that everyone claims for everything in this day and age. Not sure if they are dragging their heels or trying to sort the wheat from chaff.

And however much I am going to hate what I am about to type - you are probably going to need a solicitor to help you. Talk to the insurance company by all means, but they may not help.