Car insurance claim - other driver refusing to provide evidence

emeeeh

Hello all,

I was hit by another driver a few months ago. At first he admitted liability (both to me in person and to my boyfriend over the phone) and offered to pay for the repairs (new plastic bumper). When we discovered that the front wing was bent and the cost jumped from £50ish to £400+ he changed his tune so I had to put a claim in to my insurance company.
They put me in touch with their preferred garage who wanted me to sort the details out with the insurance company before carrying out the work (the damage doesnt affect driving, just cosmetic).
I have submitted drawings, photos, a map of the incident and contact details for a witness who agrees that the other driver was 100% at fault. The other driver has said he thinks its not his fault but he will not provide any drawings, evidence or even an explaination, now he is refusing to answer calls from the insurance company full stop.

My insurance company (Swiftcover) have been rubbish at answering my questions throughout the process. When pressed about the status of the claim they say there is nothing they can do as I have not suffered any financial loss (by paying for the repairs myself) so they will not take any further action to settle the claim, they just keep making the occasional calls to him and getting no answer.
In short I'm stuck - the garage would rather I get the liability sorted so the insurance company pay them direct but Swiftcover wont resolve the liability issue unless I stump up the money. That means the other driver has been allowed to get away with causing £400 worth of damage to my car by not answering any calls from his insurance company! It would be a real struggle for me to pay the whole lot up front, especially with no guarantee for when I could get it back. This is the first time I have ever had to claim on my insurance so I dont really know what I should be doing.

Sorry to ramble, what I want to know is - are Swiftcover correct in saying they dont have to do anything unless I pay for the repair or is there further action I should be pushing them to take to get the claim resolved?

Thanks all

Quentin

You need to either claim off your own insurer (assuming you have comprehensive cover) or pursue the third party/his insurer directly (either yourself or instruct a claim handler/solicitor)