Car written off -can I continue claim from previous accident?

A_little_stressed!!

My car was written off on Sun is an accident that wasn't my fault. The damage is to the front.
I'm still chasing a claim against someone who reversed into the side of me in March, the damage is £600 and is completely untoched by Sundays accident.
Can I continue chasing this? That will obviously put down the value of the car so I will get less for it.

Surely they can't get away with the damage caused just because someone else has written it off.

My insurers (not the 1s dealing with the current accident as I've changed) say they are going to speak with the 3rd party insurers on Mon to see if I will get a cheque, or if they will just pay repairers 2 fix it. The car has already been squished now, can I not say I already had the repairs done??

I wouldn't be so keen on revenge if it wasn't for the fact they hit my car, then drove off! They knew they'd hit me coz they had to manouver round me, and the damage is to my back door that my 3month old baby was in. They drove off in their swanky BMW thinking they could get away with it. I probably would'v accepted £50 (ono!) at the scene & left it at that rather than getting it repaired.

Do I have to tell my old insurers that my car is no more? Or keep quiet as long as possible!

Astaroth

These types of claims are always a pain to deal with.

Yes, the person who caused the damage in accident 1 (TP1) is still liable for the damages they caused. Given the vehicle is now a total loss they are liable for the reduction in the total loss settlement due to the damage rather than to actually repairing the vehicle.

Given you will now have 4 insurance companies involved it is understandably not going to be particularly quick or easy to settle.... as a rough guide, the total loss should be reduced by between 50-75% of the repair cost for pre-existing damage subject to how old your car is (the older the vehicle generally the less it knocks off as people "accept" more damage to older second hand vehicles)

A_little_stressed!!

My old insurers phoned me to say the TP is denying the accident ever happened!! Why was this not found out sooner! They want a description of the driver, I didn't see him coz he drove off, but I got his number plate & the address of the house the reversed out of. I reported the accident to the police, they told me the number plate & address matched & she said the car belonged to a MR & I overheard her say to another officer his name, which I can't remember as it was foriegn.
My IP are going to speak to the police to get information, I did report it and do have a crime number.
I have said to tell the TP if he does not admit the accident happened & liability & will take the matter up with the police (failing to stop, driving without due care & attention etc) I'm not really interested in doing this, I don't see the point of him getting a record etc for his mistake, no one was hurt, I just want to point out I could, but I'm a nicer person than that. But am I too late to do anything as it was March (there is no point threatening with something that can't actually be done!)

Astaroth

Your insurers will have to request a copy of the report from the police... the police typically will not release these until they have decided they wont prosecute or the prosecution has completed - if there is to be no prosecution then unfortunately the reports can be nothing more than 1 side of A4 giving the name and address of allegedly involved parties.

I am unaware of any law of limitation on criminal offences but this isnt my area of experties

A_little_stressed!!

Surely the police must have contacted him about the accident therefore he would have had to of admitted it to them then.
Why an earth has it taken Albany Assistance (I'm naming and shaming!) so long to find out so little? I have rang them& rang them, at one point they were chasing up an Audi that hit me! It was a BMW, no wonder it never got resolved sooner!
Should I write him a polite but firm letter explaining the situation, maybe giving him the opportunity to settle for less? I wouldn't include any personal details which could lead to a confrontation from him, just a different mobile number so we can discuss it!

tom188

is this the same accident as this thread a fortnight ago?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=303510

A_little_stressed!!

No, its the same person Little Miss Lucky!, but this is a previous accident that happened in March which I'm still chasing up! Nothing much is happening with the latest accident, I guess their doing paperwork!

Astaroth

A_little_stressed!! wrote:

Surely the police must have contacted him about the accident therefore he would have had to of admitted it to them then.

Perhaps he didnt admit it to them? Perhaps he did but the police decided that they and the CPS had higher priority cases to deal with so gave an unofficial warning.

In my claims days the police we a law unto themselves charging over £100 for a report, refusing to say what the report would contain until we had paid for it and then sending a single sheet of A4 simply having the name, address, vehicle reg and insurer of each party allegedly involved - in some cases they didnt even have all the parties/ witnesses that we had found. 9 times out of 10 when we tracked down the individual officer who did have more information their superiors wouldnt allow them to write a statement for us as they didnt want to "run the risk" of the officer having to take time off work to go to court etc.

A_little_stressed!!

Still nothing back from the police. I asked Albany why it had taken so long to get to this point, they said they didn't find out which insurance he was with till Sept!! I think I can say bye-bye to even 10p!