Car insurance claim, 3rd party changed his mind

DrPips

Hi All,

My wife and I were involved in a car accident a couple of months ago whereby we were stationary at a roundabout when the driver behind went into the back of us, not very fast, but enough to cause damage to the car, and for my wife to be off work for 6 weeks with whiplash.

The driver immediately admitted liability and offered to pay £20 for a new number plate, as it looked at the time as though that was the only problem and he didn't want to lose his no claims.

I refused that offer, as I was aware that there may be damage underneath the car, and I know absolutely nothing about cars, wanted it to be checked out by a garage, so took his details, and contacted our insurance company.

We had a courtesy car for several weeks whilst repairs were carried out on the car, my wife went to several physio appointments where she was diagnosed with whiplash and treated for it. She also put in a personal injury claim for this.

Last week, we were contacted by Drive Assist who arranged the repairs on the car to let us know that the third party was now denying liability saying that my wife rolled backwards into him and he was willing to accept 50/50 liability.

This is obviously a lie, but I don't know how to go about dealing with this. The roundabout is on a slight backwards slope, but even if we had rolled backwards, we wouldn't have gained enough to speed to cause damage to the car or cause whiplash!!

Has anyone got any advice??

Thanks

dacouch

What actual damage was done to your car

DrPips

dacouch wrote: »

What actual damage was done to your car

To be honest, I'm not actually sure. When they brought back the car, there was paperwork to sign to say it had been delivered, but none to say what work was carried out. As another driver going into the back of someone is so obviously the driver behinds fault, I wasn't really chasing things up as I should have been.

I'm going to contact Drive Assist tomorrow to find out.

mikey72

DrPips wrote: »

............We had a courtesy car for several weeks .............

The one accident we had, the car needed two offside doors, the A pillar, and various bits of trim and respraying.
We drove the car until it went it, it was done in 4 days, during which the garage gave us a courtesy car.
It must have been extensive for several weeks work, but then that doesn't agree with just a visible cracked number plate and a low speed impact.

rs65

DrPips wrote: »

the third party was now denying liability saying that my wife rolled backwards into him and he was willing to accept 50/50 liability.

If you really had rolled back, he would be saying it was entirely your fault so his argument seems weak.

DrPips

rs65 wrote: »

If you really had rolled back, he would be saying it was entirely your fault so his argument seems weak.

Well that's what I thought, but do you have any idea how this will work out?

rs65

DrPips wrote: »

Well that's what I thought, but do you have any idea how this will work out?

You could take him to court. See if he is willing to repeat his version there.

dacouch

mikey72 wrote: »

The one accident we had, the car needed two offside doors, the A pillar, and various bits of trim and respraying.
We drove the car until it went it, it was done in 4 days, during which the garage gave us a courtesy car.
It must have been extensive for several weeks work, but then that doesn't agree with just a visible cracked number plate and a low speed impact.

The repairs were carried out by Drive Assist whose main income is from Credit Hire, the OP was in a DA CH car, as they say in America you do the math

DrPips

dacouch wrote: »

The repairs were carried out by Drive Assist whose main income is from Credit Hire, the OP was in a DA CH car, as they say in America you do the math

I wasn't in a Drive Assist car when we had the accident, we were in our own car. It was Drive Assist that gave us a courtesy car whilst our car was being repaired by Hartwell in S!!!!horpe (possibly through Drive Assist?)

dacouch

DrPips wrote: »

I wasn't in a Drive Assist car when we had the accident, we were in our own car. It was Drive Assist that gave us a courtesy car whilst our car was being repaired by Hartwell in S!!!!horpe (possibly through Drive Assist?)

The "Courtesy Car" Drive Assist loaned you, was actually a hire car which they charge the other Insurer about three times the normal daily rate. It's called "Credit Hire", the CH companies surprisingly have been found to delay repairs when the customer is in one of their credit hire cars, I can't think why especially one with one with such a [STRIKE]bad[/STRIKE] reputation as Drive Assist

DrPips

jizzler wrote: »

All sounds a bit fishy to me, no real visible damage except a cracked number plate but in a garage for weeks & wife claiming whiplash :eek:

Looks like you copo claim has backfired mate.

What are you trying to say?