A year since a crash, claiming damages

aj3001

It was last March I was involved in a crash during which I lost control of my vehicle in the wet (was only doing 35mph) and hit a bus stop, police attended the incident and took all my details.

Due to being a young driver, I wrote off to the council requesting that I pay for it personally, yet I never heard back.

Yesturday, I recieved a letter requesting infomation on the incident including who was at fault etc, and informing me they will review the infomation and then send an invoice for damages if appropriate.

I was found by the police to not have been driving dangerously, speeding or driving without due care and attention (A police officer was around during the time the incident happened) and I have since changed insurance companies.

What can the council now ask for? Since it has been a year surely they cannot claim from my previous insurance company, and they couldn't claim from my current one (changed insurers from Churchill to Norwich Union in October)

Would they expect for me to pay for it personally in that case?

Please help!

Astaroth

A third party (ie the council in this case) claims off the first party (which is yourself)... if the first party has insurance at the time of the incident (which for motor accidents they obviously should have) then the first party's insurer will actually be the one that handles the claim on behalf of the first party (and they become the second party though the term is rarely used)

The law of limitations gives a claimant 6 years to initiate a claim for non-injury related damages from the date of knowing (ie when they become aware of the damage having been done). Therefore 12 months down the line is well within their limits.

If you want to pass it to your insurers rather than settling it yourself you will have to tell them the details of the insurers at the time of the incident rather than your current ones. Alternatively you could pay it privately to save your NCD.

Obviously you will have already told both insurers about the incident as you are required to do so but you will have to tell your current insurers that it has now become a claimed for incident and the impact on your NCD if you choose not to pay it privately.