Accident with foreign driver

PedroMig

Back in November 2012, a Romanian HGV collided with my car.
Basically, as I finished a left hand bend, I was faced with the third party driving in contraflow, and I took evasive action, steering to the right, at which point the other driver was moving to the correct lane, hitting my car on left hand side, leaving it with severe suspension and body damage.

Given that they didn't speak any English, I called the police that arrived 30 minutes later, and managed to get their details and of their insurance.
Since my policy is only Third Party without legal protection, the onus of recovering uninsured losses rests with me. So on the same day I got in contact with the representatives of the third party's insurers in the UK with supporting evidence of the third party's liability. To this day, I've only had confirmation of third party cover, car inspected on behalf of the third party's representatives and it was deemed a write off and a valuation supplied.
It has now been more than 90 days since the accident and there has been no statement of the third party's liability, and my patience is running out.

Should I take them to court, and if so how do I do that.

Any thoughts on this.....:mad:

BertTheRaccoon

Call the UK representatives and tell them you have had enough and are going to commence county court proceedings and ask them if they will nominate UK solicitors to accept service of proceedings.

This will

a) hopefully get them to use an invention called the telephone and phone the useless foreign insurers and get this speeded up

b) make life a lot easier for you if you do have to issue county court proceedings as serving someone outside of the UK jurisdiction is a pain in the !!!!.

Were you supplied with a copy of the engineer's report or did they just advise you of the valuation?

I would offer to help you but that's against forum rules.

PedroMig

I was indeed supplied with a copy of the valuation report, although I do not agree with the valuation...

BertTheRaccoon

How much was it valued at, net of the salvage? How much do you value it at?
The fee for an independent inspection report would be around £100 which you would have to cough for.

Alternatively, get examples of same make, model, mileage, spec vehicles for sale and send copies of classified or email links to adverts to the UK representatives and ask them to have the independent engineer they had inspect your vehicle to review their valuation. But give them an ultimatum of reverting within 14 days or you'll be instructing your own independent engineer at their eventual expense as you cannot continue like this any longer.

You can claim for compensation for "loss of use" the usual starting point for this is £10 per day, so tell them the meter is running on that also.

PedroMig

It was valued at £1105 net and I'll be asking for no less than £1350.
Is there normally a time limit which the insurer has to settle the claim?

dacouch

Do you mean net of the salvage value, if so how much is the salvage worth?

PedroMig

It was valued at £1140 by the engineer and the insurance company is saying that the value is £1105.00 with a salvage value of £35.00.

PedroMig

As expected they are denying liability, but strangely enough they said and I quote:
"However in an effort to agree quantum for your loss we are prepared to agree £1200."
Having looked up what this means to a layman, I found the following:
"An expression used to mean the amount of money a successful claimant will receive in a court action. Also used to refer to the assessment a lawyer (usually a barrister) will make which guides a claimant on whether his case is worth pursuing."
So.... how do I start Court proceedings and and against whom?

BertTheRaccoon

Yeah they are valuing your claim at £1200, subject to liability being established, so it is not and "offer" .

You need to sue the third party driver, so what you need to do next is ask the UK reps for the name & address of the solicitors they wish to nominate to accept service of proceedings within the UK.

Hopefully they will agree to give you some solicitor details for service, rather than have you try to effect service on the foreign driver out of the UK jurisdiction.

When you have that report back.

You need to get a county court claim form N1 to issue the proceedings out of Northampton County Court or you could do it online at the moneyclaim website.

PedroMig

Just an update on the situation.
I've started court proceedings and things started to unravel at much faster pace.
Just received a letter from the third party's insurance solicitors accepting to pay damages but denying liability.
Does it mean that if I accept the money than I'm liable. That doesn't make sense.
Comments will be appreciated.

BertTheRaccoon

No it just means they don't have permission from the Romanian vehicle operator to admit liability, but realise they are going to get a hiding, so they are dealing with your financial claim, but without formally admitting liability.