Daughter's car accident and letter from Helphire re claim

jimmerjammer

My 21 year old daughter had an accident on 13th Jan - she was turning left onto a dual carriageway and the other driver was in the central reservation turning right to go the same way as my daughter. He says he thought she was turning into the bus lane when she turned into the second lane and they collided. She had no damage to her VW Polo but he said he had damage. She was upset and didn't really check. He rang to say he had to take half a day off work to get an estimate and then rang again to say it would be £500. My daughter said that it needed to go through the insurance company.
So we heard nothing - until today - when she has received a letter from a company called Helphire who says they are recovering uninsured losses for their client!!!
She has not heard from anyone up until now. Surely this letter implies that it has gone through insurance companies when it clearly hasn't.
My immediate reaction is to get her to write to them stating that he was in no way responsible for this accident and as they hardly touched each other and she merely had a small scratch she fails to see what claim could have been made.
My sensible head says she should keep out of it and just get her to pass it onto the insurance company, but I am loathed for them to win in any of this as I feel he is taking her for a mug - when he didn't know she had a rottweiler for a mother!!!!
Any thoughts or suggestion greatfully read!
Thank you

ariba10

Did your daughter inform her insurance company of the accident at the time?

If she did then let them know and let them sort it out.

mattymoo

Helphire are pursuing his uninsured losses. Knowing them, this will be his policy excess and the cost of the hire car they have provided him with. His insurers will probably be writing to your daughter as well to pursue the cost of repairs.

Your daughter needs to pass everything on to her insurers. They will deal with the claims and argue with Helphire etc about the liability and quantum of the claim.
Liability = who is at fault.
Quantum = amount of the claim.

As to liability, it is not clear cut and one I suspect the insurers may settle 50/50. Hate to admit but I am a bit rusty on the old Highway Code and cannot recall who has priority here. They both emerged from a minor road (classing central reservation as minor part of the main road) onto the main road. He turned right, she turned left. Instinct tells me he should have given way to her but it seems he thought she was going to break the law and enter a bus lane. Your daughter's ins co will argue on her behalf though.

Do not be tempted to get into correspondance with Helphire etc. They are not interested in what you have to say (let your daughters insurers do the talking) and you may say something you regret.

jimmerjammer

thank you ariba10 and mattymoo

My daughter did ring her insurance company, when it first happened and when he rang to say it would cost £500 but they said that there was nothing to be done until he made a claim.

That is what is so surprising - we haven't heard anything from either insurance company that a claim was even being made - I would have thought that a claim form would at least have had to be filled in before anything like this starts?

I just feel it all sounds a bit suspicious to me and would be very angry if they paid this company just because it's easier.

I will ring her this morning and get her to send it on to her insurance company and we'll see what happens.

Thanks again.

lisyloo

I just feel it all sounds a bit suspicious to me and would be very angry if they paid this company just because it's easier.

I am afraid that I think you are going to be dissapointed.

The insurance companies are run as a business.
They simply aren't going to spend thousands employing lawyers to "clear you daughters name" when there is £500 at stake.
Some insurance companies even have "automatic" arrangements to go 50/50 in cases where it isn't clear and the amounts are small.
The amount they would have to pay to go to court would be massive compared with the £500 at stake.
Unfortunately this is something that the unscrupulous can take advanatge of.

I know this isn't what you want to hear but you may simply have no choice in the matter.
You cannot tell the insurance company what to do.

Let's put it this way.
If there was a choice of cheap premiums and a bit of unfairness or much more expensive premiums but every case was argued fairly in court then I think most people would go for the former.

I don't think this is what you want to hear but you need to appreciate that they are running a business and justice for your daughter is some way down their priority list.

Sorry, but I think that's the way it works.
If you don't like it then you could not go through insurance (not sure if you can stop it at this stage) and say to the bloke "SUE US".
Of course there are some risks in this strategy as he (helphire) may well do so and you may lose.

The problem is that in cases like this it can be very difficult to prove blame.
You daughter will have one recollection and he may have a different one which will almost certainly be biased. Neither may be lying they just may recall it different. Often both parties carry some blame.
Just because her car wasn't damaged does not mean that his was not. It may be a completely different type of construction with something like "crumple zones" that are designed to absorb impact so get easily damaged (I'm not ean expert in this area but I really don't think you can draw conclusions about his damage).

mattymoo

Be careful if you decide to go it alone. Helphire are tricky devils, charging inflated hire car costs of over £60 a day. The longer they hire the more they earn. Your insurers will negotiate lower rates and shorter periods as they deal with Helphire (and other similar firms) many times a day.

lisyloo

Just to clarify.
I wasn't suggesting you "go it alone".
On the contrary I don't think the options are good apart from going with your insurer.

You should hassle them (in fact I think it's essential that you do) to try to get the best outcome, but at the end of the day you're not in control.

Astaroth

At the end of the day, as your daughter has no damage to claim for it will make little to no difference if the TP claims £500 or £500,000 as very few insurers will even ask what the outlay on claims against you were.

Hassle them if you want, alternatively pass it over to them and just let them deal with it as they see fit as other than the "morals" of the situation it doesnt impact you.

lisyloo

But if they claim doesn't go against her 100% it makes a difference as no claims will be retained.

Astaroth

No, even if the claim is only 1% her fault it has the same impact on the NCD as if it was 100% her fault.

Obviously if it is just 1% then it may be worth "buying back" the claim but if you didnt the above is true

lisyloo

Sorry I meant if it is 0% her fault (didn't word it well).
I would presume this is what the OP would like even if it's not realistic in practice to get this result.