Insurance - warning and help needed! (a sorry tale)

dacouch

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

Times are a changing I'm afraid and I get all manner of requests for proof of ownership, insurance, even get requests for proof of ownership of the hire car supplied by the credit hire co (as sometimes a hire company cross-hire in a vehicle from another provider and the insurers get excited when they see a hire car belongs to say Enterprise, yet the hire invoice is from a different company).

Probably due to me helping friends of friends out who are uninsured resolve non fault accidents that are small / straight forward so probably handled as "normal" cases. Against yours which will probably be a lot more expensive and have your fees as well.

I would hate to think an Insurer would make it hard work for a claims management company to get their claims settled.

longers1

dacouch wrote: »

I tend to find the other Insurers do not even realise there's no insurance as they often don't check and as you mention it doesn't really absolve them of being liable.

Thanks for all of this help. It's really appreciated. So being a little naive, I can call the insurance of the other person involved myself and make a claim without needing an insurance company myself to do it? Will it be a complicated process as obviously I'm not a legal mind?!

Quentin

Assuming no argument from the third party over liability it should be straight forward.

dacouch

longers1 wrote: »

Thanks for all of this help. It's really appreciated. So being a little naive, I can call the insurance of the other person involved myself and make a claim without needing an insurance company myself to do it? Will it be a complicated process as obviously I'm not a legal mind?!

If you're worried you can always send a short concise letter basically stating why you hold them liable eg

Your client turned left into my path without checking their mirrors, I have witnesses to confirm this.

I wish to claim for repairs to my motorbike, damaged clothing and minor injuries.

Yours faithfully.

Although I would try ringing them first as a letter will take ages, be friendly and polite, the staff get a lot of rude customers and they won't go out of their way to help rude people. People with Insurance often go direct to the other Insurers when they have an accident so it's quite likely they won't even ask who you're insured with as it makes little difference to them.

If you're not confident, just right out the bullet points and what you're claiming for as a prompt for the call. If you're friendly and polite there are not many claim staff that will not help if they know their client is not at fault.

It's worth throwing into the start of the conversation that you've had a few claims management companies offering to help you and lend you a bike but you thought it best to keep the costs down and deal direct. Insurers like this as it saves them a fortune in extra fees so often ensures the staff go the extra mile for you

vaio

vaio wrote: »

yep, but when they get round to commencing the new rehabilitation of offenders times the rehab time for offences resulting in a fine drops from 5 years to one year

longers1 wrote: »

Sorry Vaio. I'm not quite sure I understand you.

Insurers can't ask about convictions older than 5 years because they are regarded as "spent" under the rehabilitation of offenders act.

There are new times (which haven't yet come into force) which will reduce the current rehab time of five years for offences resulting in a fine to one year.

It's not all sunshine because there is an argument that the points you get might mean that you still have to tell insurers for three or four years