Driver refusing to admit blame

ILW

naz101 wrote: »

So if they choose not to pursue him then it won't affect me? This is what I am worried about. Will it increase my premium or cause me to lose my no claims bonus? This is what worries me.

You could well use your no claims, it happens all the time and your insurance company are not going to spend thousands chasing someone when they have little chance of winning. It sucks at times but that's life.

Mojisola

naz101 wrote: »

I'm not quite sure if you think I am fibbing. The damage to the van was minimal as it was his rubbery plastic bit on the side of the car that hit me. I have pictures of where the damage was to his van showing a silver / white colour paint on then black. The height of the damage on his van corresponds to mine.

I guess the only other thing might be that he tried to get rid of the paint on his van before someone.saw it?

Quite the opposite because a bump usually leaves evidence as in paint colour transfer and matching heights of scrapes, etc, just as you say you have evidence of. It's possible he has been able to clean up the van but your photos should be sent to the insurance company.

Try not to worry about it. Your finals are so much more important than this. Good luck with them.

naz101

I'm trying very hard to concentrate but its just so difficult with this hanging over me. If I had known this was going to happen I might have just got it repaired myself.
The one thing I'm beating myself up about is I didn't take a full picture of his van, just where the damage is and I didn't take a picture of him.

He did give me a company card on which he wrote his name at the back so don't know if that will help or be of any use.

vaio

As others have said, get the academic bits out of the ways first and then, fuelled up by the delightful thing that is post exam euphoria, get this sorted.

You’ll find that your insurance company, despite cheerfully taking your premium over the years, don’t really care about you and will generally (invariably?) take the route of least resistance even if it means you paying when you shouldn’t, their ethos is maximising profits not looking after their policy holders.

Probably the easiest thing for you to do is write to the driver & his employer saying you hold them responsible for the damage and if you don’t get a cheque within 14 days then you will issue a claim in the county court. If you don’t get the cheque than issue the claim including any out of pocket expenses you have incurred plus say £50-100 on top for hassle & general inconvenience.

Whether they choose to involve their insurance company is up to them, claims & liability is between the individuals involved (although often taken over by insurance companies on behalf of the individuals)

Belinda22

Firstly, you should off reported him to the police as driving from a scene of accident without exchanging details is a crime.
The police will then contact him and made him to report the accident to his insurance.
I don't know who is your insurance but don't cearly not doing much to help you.
I am assuming you have his registration number ? if so your insurance will run search on his plate and can get his full address and full insurance details as well. They then have to log a claim with his insurance company, then his company has to investiage if necessary inspect both your cars.
Simple idea, just go to one of the solicitors firms "no win , no fee" ( I must say hate them big time, but in your case they might be bit usefull) and they will do the claim for you. Once solicitors threaten to issue his insurance company will do their best to settle, otherwise the court judgement goes against their policy holder and then it costs them even more in court costs, so really they don't want that. Threating to issue usually speeds up the process of their investigation.

naz101

I'm not quite sure how good they will be but in all fairness they only received the info that the man was denying in mid week and I got my letter in yesterday.
That's why they are asking for all details. I called them and asked them what the next.step would be if he continued to deny it and they day that small claims court will be next.

If it doesn't go this way would it make a.big difference for me if I waited.a month before starting the court proceedings?
Also my car has been repaired but there will have photos.of the damage as do I

rev_henry

This doesn't add up for the van driver. If he didn't have an accident with you why on earth would he give you a business card with his name handwritten on? Or is he now going to say you called him out for some work!? If your insurer is saying small claims court next then that's good that they're not giving up on you...

naz101

thats exactly what I was thinking. The only theory I have is that he was going to say that I was parked illegally and he had no choice but to hit me as he was adamant about this. Maybe somebody told him later on that this was a stupid thing to say?

I mean he even went with his disposable camera to the yellow box and took pictures "to show his boss where I was parked on the box when it happened so they knew I was at fault....."

vaio

At the risk of sounding like your mother……..

“stop stressing about the bloody car and messing about on the web and go and do some revision”

naz101

vaio wrote: »

At the risk of sounding like your mother……..

“stop stressing about the bloody car and messing about on the web and go and do some revision”

Haha you really did get it exactly right. Made me.laugh out loud.
I am just going to email them all of the details and photos then back to the studyingv it is!

Just before I do all of that I really want to say thank you very much for all of your helpful, supportive ....And mothering comments!