car crash not our fault but no witnesses and other driver lying!

Nenen

Don't know if anyone here can help with a disputed car insurance claim.... in October my dh had just parked our car in an NCP multi storey car park and turned off the ignition when a woman reversed her car into him. Her bumper caught the door trim on our car and snapped two of the little plastic pegs that held it to the metal. There were no witnesses anywhere to be seen but the woman immediately admitted it was all her fault, apologised to my dh and he (being the kind, honest, good hearted soul that he is) made sure she (and her car) were alright before even looking at our car! He told her he could probably get a new piece of trim and fit it himself to save her money if she didn't want to go through the insurance and lose her no claims discount. She was keen to do this, gave him her telephone number and told him to ring her when he knew how much it cost and she would send a cheque to cover it.

DH ordered the part (£75 for a piece of plastic :eek: ) and telephoned her... no answer, left messages on her answer phone that she didn't return. Fast forward two weeks... eventually (with me nagging him coz he's too nice to be unkind to anyone) he left a message saying if he didn't hear from her within 7 days then he would contact the insurance company and make a claim against her. Six days later she phoned apologising, still admitting full liability but saying she had decided she wanted it all to be dealt with by the insurance company and gave him her details. We thought it was a bit odd she was prepared to lose her no claims bonus for £75 but my DH rang our insurers (Direct Line) and gave them all the details. They said he must not fit the part himself (which had been delievered to us by this time) but he must take it to an approved garage and get them to estimate them fitting it, which he did.

When they saw it they noticed that there was a slight bump in the door where the trim had been ripped off which might mean that the little plastic studs wouldn't hold. They said the door would need to be repaired and it would take 5 days. No problem we thought, as she had admitted full liability her insurance would pay for car hire to cover the five days without a car... we live in the middle of nowhere and need car to get to work.

Then a couple of days ago we got a really lovely Christmas present :rolleyes: a letter from our insurance company saying that she has now told her insurance company that my dh was half to blame as he and she had both been reversing at the time of the accident!!!!! :mad: This was a blatent lie (he was stationary having just pulled into in his space and turned the engine off) but of course we have no witnesses. Our insurers were really good... have said they believe us and will not lose any no claims or have to pay any excess but that as there were no witnesses they will have to go 50:50 with her insurance company for the damages. Apart from my fury at her lies and deceit after my husband's kindness to her (which I can't understand as I can't see what she gains by this) this means we are not able to hire a car as our insurance do not provide for this when there is deemed to be any fault on our side! We asked the garage if they would provide a courtesy car but they refused and then got very shirty with us when we said we would have to go to another garage that would do so as it had already been booked in for next week.

I did ask the insurance company if they could see if NCP had any CCTV footage of the accident but apparently we have to do that ourselves and of course this time of year it's hopeless trying to contact anyone before Jan 2nd! One thing the insurance lady did imply (very subtly) is that maybe the woman was trying to delay everything in the first place to ensure CCTV had been wiped!!!!:mad:

Is there anything further we can do? Anyone have any other clues why this woman suddenly decided to lie and change her story... i.e. what she hopes to gain when she will lose her own no claims bonus anyway????

catz747

That's terrible! You might be right about the CCTV though, 3 months is a long time to keep CCTV. I bet she went home or wherever, told whoever else about it and they advised her not to cough up

Mrs_pbradley936

It is very common to change their version after they have spoken to someone else because insurance companies do not want their clients to admit liability. I think if it is disputed you both have to draw a plan of where you were , where the other car was, how fast you were going and all relevant details then the insurance companies sort it all out.
I think if it undisputed (because someone was doing something dodgy like undertaking) then you just make a statement but I am not positive and am just going by personal experience.

kat1311

my parents had a similar situation a few years ago when someone reversed into us and cause £500 worth of damage. The person who caused the accident denied reversing said we were speeding (we were parked) and that the damage had not even been caused. In the end our insurance company took her to court and represented us. She had a witness (a friend who lied) who 'backed up' her story. In the end she was found guilty and forced to pay. I would suggest you check if you have legal assistance included in your insurance and if you do suggest to your insurers that you take her to a small claims court and recover the cost that you will have to pay for car hire.

mattymoo

I used to deal with motor claims in the early 90's. The procedure back then was to ask the policyholder (the OP) to draw a plan and full statement with as much detail as possible.
You should show the two cars, direction of travel and points of impact.

This would then be passed to the other persons insurers for comment. When the shoe was on the other foot we would send this info to our policyholder saying we intended to deal with the third party claim unless new evidence came to light in 14 days.

The points of impact in this case weigh heavily in your favour but I fear that in the modern age where everything is dealt with by phone, it becomes a bit of a game of chinese whispers. I suspect the woman would be hard pressed to explain how the same areas could have been damaged in her fictional version of events when shown a detailed picture.

As for the CCTV, a lot of firms now use digital systems with hard drive recorders (like Sky+). Just tell them date, time and area of car park and they can call up the images pretty quickly. However, I bet they hide behind the good old Data Protection Act and refuse to help you.

stellagypsy

I also used to deal with insurance claims. We had a set of toy cars in the office and used to "recreate" the acidents as described on the claim forms - very illuminating, it soon becomes clear who is telling the truth and who isn't.

Stick to your guns, take pics of the damage and the place it happened or better still reconstruct the scenario by parking in the same spot again and taking pictures BEFORE the car is repaired. If she doesn't back down (or if it looks like you will lose your NCD as a result if the claim) bang it in the Small Claims Court - you can do it yourself for about £30, which you get back if sucessful. It will then be up to her to defend the claim or admit it, and the Judge will decide the outcome on the basis of "balance of probability" - ie who is most likely to be telling the truth in all the circumstances? I have had to defend myself on one of these ALMOST SIX YEARS after the accident and - luckily for me - I had kept a wad of notes and photos of the car, accident scene, etc - they changed their story as they went along (fyi, someone ran into the back of me and wrote off my car, accepted the blame then changed their mind and said it was MY fault!!!!!), I never changed my version of events and I was exonerated by the Judge.

HTH, Stella xx

UK007BullDog

You might be lucky, maybe they still have the tape of digital file of that accident if the camera was working and pointing in the right direction. Due to legislation a lot of Car parks keep their tapes now for 3 to 6 months or even longer.

My experience was that I did run into a car slightly and dented the wing of the other persons car. It was a very slight dent the size of a 2 Pound coin. Both cars were very old. The other driver said not to worry etc. It was a very bad day for me I had my birthday, my kids and I were ill (just came back from visiting the doctor for cold medicine for all of us) and around those days the 1st Gulf War had started. I was in a real state and should not have been driving but all of our Army mates were "busy" and their wifes were all in a state themselves.

Anyway I had a good mind to go to the Military Police in camp right after, showed them the scratches on my car, told them of the damage of the other car. Then I went home. 3 days later I got a call from the other party saying I fled the scene of the accident and that the damage to the car was extensive. They were banking on the knowledge that the whole Regiment was gone and the wifes fair game.

The whole wing was smashed up and they expected compensation. I called my insurance and told them about it and also quoted them the MP case number. The insurer sent a caseworker out to look at my car, the damage of about an inch and took scrapings from my car. In the end the guy and his son got done for insurance fraud as the paint on the car was not mine but that of his sons car who was nearly the same as mine but even older. Little did they know that the colour looks the same but the "makeup" of the colour is different. Also if his wing was smashed up my car would have been smashed up as well. But this was not the case.

Both cars were older than 10 years at that time and the sons car was a wreck they got from the scrappy. But some persons greed got the better of them. Literally.....:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

jacklia

Bit off topic but it might give you a laugh! I was parked with the ignition off when the lorry in front of me started reversing and hit the front of my car. After telling the driver how careless he had been, he admitted that he hadn't seen my car and told me that the firm he worked for would just chuck any insurance claim in the bin, he then offered to fix the car himself. I let him do this and the car was fine. The driver and I have now been married for 14 years - how's that for a way to meet your future partner!!!! (Not recommending that it works for everyone though!!!!!)

Hope you get your claim sorted out successfully.

Jackie

deanos

Nice story :T

shelly

Whatever goes through peoples minds that they would rather lose their NCB than pay £75 and possibly see a price hike come renewal time???

I hit a car a good few years ago now and the owner said that if I paid him £100 that would be the end of it. At the time £100 was a fortune to me but I chose to pay it than lose hubby's NCB.

cannyscot_2

Someone tried to claim I hit them in a car park I was not in and I just stuck to my guns and they went away.