Lost No Claim Bonus

Jennywren3

We had a bump in the car My husband was driving on my insurance He was reversing and the other driver came in to us whilslt driving in the wrong direction This is part of letter sent to insurance company
We do not accept the account of the accident given to us by the other party and revisited the site of the collision.

One of the main points, among many, is the other party was travelling the wrong way up the road according to painted arrows .

We believe the other party will change their minds about taking us to court when they realise this. After this threat I agreed to knock for knock but withdrew it after the photos where submitted a I realised then it was definetely not my husbands fault

(See attached photos)
Although Supermarket car parks are on private land , in the early 1990s a ruling was made that stated that any private road, such as a supermarket car park, came under the auspices of the Road Traffic Act.
We would be grateful if you could pass on this information to RAC Legal Services Claim Team that we believe are acting on the other
The Insurance Company ignored this and have paid out to the other Party There was no damage to our car
This email has just been received
To mitigate losses we have accepted liability on a Without Prejudice Basis. If you are not satisfied with our decision you can appoint your own solicitors and get a judgement against the Third Party , we will then allow your No Claim Discount. However, if this option is chosen, we will not be responsible for any cost arising out of legal proceedings being issued i.e. solicitors costs, interest costs, court costs and / or any such costCan anyone advise

dacouch

By the sounds of the accident it was either 50/50 or you were at fault unfortunately

Quentin

You say you agreed to "knock for knock", when you had no damage! (In any case, knock for knock is no longer used by insurance companies).

In their advice (which seems to be a standard paragraph), they say that you can use your own solicitor and sue the third party, but as you have no losses yet to sue for, that will be hard! (And you do not need to employ a solicitor for the small claim court anyway).

But they failed to point out that you can appeal their decision, by way of a complaint, then escalate the complaint if you aren't happy with their response all the way to the FOS without incurring any cost. Your policy will have details of their complaint procedure.

prowla

I once reversed out of a space in a car park and ran into the side of somebody who was driving the wrong way (they were nipping around to try and jump the queue).

I told them that I believed it to be their fault for (a) driving the wrong way, and (b) driving too fast, but that I would pay half of their repair costs anyway, but they never got back to me.

vaio

Not enough information to judge who is at fault.

By the sound of it your insurance company don't think it's worth fighting given the damage sustained compared to the costs of fighting

Your options are either to accept it or make a small claim through the small claims system.

If you do this you might well find that the other insurance company have the same attitude as yours ie for a £100 claim it's not worth fighting and sending someone to court to defend.

Quentin

vaio wrote: »

....Your options are either to accept it or make a small claim through the small claims system......

That's what the insurer says! They have a (good) reason for not offering any other options!

But what will the OP claim for via the SCC?

Jennywren3 wrote:

There was no damage to our car

There is another, cheaper option to try, as mentioned in #3. (Though reversing into another car seems there is pretty clear cut liability, even if partial due to the circs, though the reversing driver clearly wasn't looking, or he would have stopped)

JQ.

My understanding of what has happened is that your husband reversed out of a space and failed to look in both directions and therefore hit a car traveling along the road from a direction he was not expecting. Your defense seems to be that the other car should'nt have been traveling in that direction.

Personally, I'd have thought it was your fault, or at a very minimum 50/50. Whilst they may have been travelling against the traffic, such behaviour is commonplace in supermarkets and is to be expected - I certainly look both ways before reversing out of spaces. What if the car had been a pedestrian, would it also have been their fault?

Sorry to be harsh, but I really can't see that your husband is 100% without blame.

Hintza

Does anyone follow the arrows in a supermarket car park? OP unfortunately you need to be checking for cars coming from all directions especially when reversing.

vaio

Quentin wrote: »

That's what the insurer says! They have a (good) reason for not offering any other options!

But what will the OP claim for via the SCC?....

Yep, but their good reason might well be that the costs of not fighting are less than the costs of fighting. They don't take into account the effect that loss of NCB & a fault claim has on the OP.

As for what they claim for, anything, something nominal, inspection fee to ensure there is no hidden damage, just something to hang the legal process on.

Quentin wrote: »

....There is another, cheaper option to try, as mentioned in #3. (Though reversing into another car seems there is pretty clear cut liability, even if partial due to the circs, though the reversing driver clearly wasn't looking, or he would have stopped)

That's a very good point in #3, cost and risk free and should certainly be done first. On the liability side, as I said earlier, there isn't enough info to really judge, more info about areas of contact would help.

If the OP hit the side of the passing car with the back of their car then it's likely down to the OP. If the front of the passing car hit the side of the OP's car then I'd be leaning towards the other car being at fault.The mere fact that the other car wasn't following the arrows doesn't make it their fault

Jennywren3

Thanks for all your help Its made it all a lot clearer !!!