Sons m/cycle been hit and the other driver being difficult

sheltieLinda

Last week my son was doing some work for a friend, having left his m/bike parked outside her house. A neighbour from accross the road reversed out of her house and hit the bike knocking it over, causing several deep scratches to the side panels, at the time she admitted to doing it and details were exchanged although she wanted to pay for the repairs and not involve the insurance companies. Over the few days her partner has become very aggressive and intimidating towards my son over the phone, accusing him of exaggerating the damage, and also for working for cash in hand and not paying tax etc! He has offered to pay for part of the damage only, again accusing my son of various things all of which are untrue, and has threatened to take legal action against him. On top of this the man has also made threats towards the people my son was working for (they are witnesses to the accident).

Am i right now to put a stop to all this to get the insurance company involved whether he likes it or not, and let them sort this mess out? I cant help thinking there is a reason he doesnt want to involve the insurance company, ie she isnt insured, or has had several accidents already and they worried about their premiums going up?

Sorry for long post....

Dave101t

it always goes through insurance, never agree to anything else. also call the police for threatening behaviour, that is a crime. watch the boyfriend fade away when he sees your son grew a pair.

Tilt

Whether your son was working on a 'cash in hand' basis or not is of no relevance here. As it has got to this stage, I would put it through your insurers. I'm assuming that details were exchanged. The 'boyfriend' should be gratefull that it wasn't a child that she hit rather than your son's bike.

SaLoGo

Always go through the insurance!!

My sister had a similar issue yesterday morning. She was stationary at a roundabout (waiting to go round it) when she was hit from behind by a young lad. He admits liability at the scene and they swap details. 2 hours later sister gets a call from the lad's dad who screams down the phone at them saying that it was my sister's fault and they are going to the police etc! I think the dad just realised how much his sons insurance premiums are going to rise!!!

Strider590

When it comes to bikes a lot of people think "oh it's only plastic" or "it's only a bike", bigger = more important/expensive in most peoples eye's.

So what's happened is they've realised it's gonna cost a fortune to fix and they're thinking "it's only a bike, it's not as important as my car, why should we pay for this 2 wheel poverty mobile?".
You have witnesses, get them to write a signed statement now before they get intimidated into keeping quiet.
Get in touch with the MIB and find out if she's insured, if not then get your insurance on the case. If so then contact their insurer directly and tell them everything (the MIB have this information).

Friend of mine had a similar thing happen in a car park, I'm not sure if he saw it happen or if someone stopped the driver leaving or what. The driver gave details but later denied everything and the bike was a mess.

Driver got nasty about the whole thing, my friend was later talking to a few mates at a regular bikers bar/cafe up near Bridgenorth, who then called in a few of their mates who happened to be "fully paid up" members of the local Outlaws MC. 2 days later up roll 8 mean looking bikers outside this guys house..... His attitude changed instantly :rotfl:

spiro

SaLoGo wrote: »

2 hours later sister gets a call from the lad's dad who screams down the phone at them saying that it was my sister's fault and they are going to the police etc! I think the dad just realised how much his sons insurance premiums are going to rise!!!

In that instance I would have just said "Fine call the police, I have done nothing wrong" and put the phone down.

fivetide

Hang up, make a note of it. Or even record it and say so just for evidence, then call Plod and have him done for threatening behaviour.

Get the insurance to screw them over for the repair. Decent set of plastics might write the bike off as they'll get brand new from the manufacturer and they are pricey. Mate's bike was written off recently with £4.5k of damage and he was knocked off at just 15mph, damage is all cosmetic but the top box alone was £500 from Yamaha.

5t.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

call the police for the threatning behaviour also get you whitnesses to do the same, get the police incident log number (as of that stage its not a crime number untill he's been formally charged) go to your insurance company explain whats happened and hand over the log number as proof of his intimidation and state it can escallate now insurers are involved. as you whitnesses are infact that everytime your whitnesses are contacted by this idiot he can be charged for harrasment and intimidation. if he's got an ounce of braincell in his ball sack he'll back off and go away.

sb2_2

Definitely would be best contacting the police over his threatening behavior. He will only get worse, especially if you do decide to go through the insurers as im sure he wont be happy. At least if the police are aware of the situation it will be safer all round.

Unless you know the person who hit you and trust them completely, its always best to go through the insurers as he may just stall you for as long as possible which the insurers will question why you took so long to make a claim. You will explain you tried to settle it yourselves but the other person will deny all knowledge of the crash. This may cause problems with the claim.

pogofish

sheltieLinda wrote: »

Am i right now to put a stop to all this to get the insurance company involved whether he likes it or not, and let them sort this mess out? I cant help thinking there is a reason he doesnt want to involve the insurance company, ie she isnt insured, or has had several accidents already and they worried about their premiums going up?

Absolutely!

Involve the insurers and keep all further communication through them only.

And as the others have said, get witnesses and keep a not of any further intimmidation and involve police if needs be.

sheltieLinda

Thanks for all your replies, and the reassurancem, have thanked you all individually.

My son is not a very outgoing or confident person, but to hear him on the phone to his insurerers and also the other partys' insurerers this morning, im proud of him. We will not be bullied!
:T

Linda