Council Van hit my car

arcon5

To flip that around - what law requires you to go through insurance?

If you are fully comprehensive then the insurance company will try to reclaim costs from the council -- including the excess. If they recover costs your NCB will be unaffected and no claim declarable - but the accident will be declarable now in any case.

A council can be taken to court you know.

How about rather than contacting the council you contact the insurance company for their works van?

curtainsplitter

Well after speaking with them today, the council keep saying that they've already accepted liability of the incident and reported it to their insurance, so now it all has to be dealt with by the insurance. I am fully comp and i do have no claims proteced, however i did not have legal cover at the time. My issue is that I've now paid £30 and added legal cover+courtesy car hire to my policy (as i looked on AXA's site and it states they only chase the matter legally if you have legal cover?) but no doubt as it's only been added from this date today it won't cover me for the date of the incident. I did ask today for the direct insurance companies details and the man from the council said the specific woman who deals with these claims for the council will ring on Monday. But I was going to say simply to her..(1) it's cheaper for the council to settle outside of the insurance (as my insurance will want to reclaim their time and costs+ damage etc etc) (2) I don't want my car to be written off, but if we really must go through insurance then I feel the fair thing is that..the council refund me for the loss of excess+increase in premium caused by their fault. I was also going to ask them if they'll pay the difference of the original value of the car. After all, I was simply parked in a car park..return and see numerous people around my car and found it had been damaged. The council man actually told me that they've spoken with the parking warden and he confirms my story and that he's a witness that it was the council's fault (thus they have disciplined the worker involved.) Just my main worry is a write off of the vehicle. Its a 03 reg peugeout 307. I put the value at £1000 on my insurance. The garage local to me has quoted £600, but states some price parts change per day so maximum £750. Obviously I'm looking at this and thinking from the insurance view it's not economic to them to repair it. Thus they'll offer me the market value which is probably £300 I guess (worst case.) That means I lose £700+excess costs+time off work+car hire (i only have 28 days on my insurance now..but prior to upgrading this i believe it was 7)..and all of this is because of the council. So I was going to say to them if my car is wrote off they need to give me the difference in value. Do you think this is too much or I should push it? I'm not scared to take them to court but I just can't be bothered with the headache to be honest!

arcon5

curtainsplitter wrote: »

Well after speaking with them today, the council keep saying that they've already accepted liability of the incident and reported it to their insurance, so now it all has to be dealt with by the insurance. I am fully comp and i do have no claims proteced, however i did not have legal cover at the time. My issue is that I've now paid £30 and added legal cover+courtesy car hire to my policy (as i looked on AXA's site and it states they only chase the matter legally if you have legal cover?) but no doubt as it's only been added from this date today it won't cover me for the date of the incident. I did ask today for the direct insurance companies details and the man from the council said the specific woman who deals with these claims for the council will ring on Monday. But I was going to say simply to her..(1) it's cheaper for the council to settle outside of the insurance (as my insurance will want to reclaim their time and costs+ damage etc etc) (2) I don't want my car to be written off, but if we really must go through insurance then I feel the fair thing is that..the council refund me for the loss of excess+increase in premium caused by their fault. I was also going to ask them if they'll pay the difference of the original value of the car. After all, I was simply parked in a car park..return and see numerous people around my car and found it had been damaged. The council man actually told me that they've spoken with the parking warden and he confirms my story and that he's a witness that it was the council's fault (thus they have disciplined the worker involved.) Just my main worry is a write off of the vehicle. Its a 03 reg peugeout 307. I put the value at £1000 on my insurance. The garage local to me has quoted £600, but states some price parts change per day so maximum £750. Obviously I'm looking at this and thinking from the insurance view it's not economic to them to repair it. Thus they'll offer me the market value which is probably £300 I guess (worst case.) That means I lose £700+excess costs+time off work+car hire (i only have 28 days on my insurance now..but prior to upgrading this i believe it was 7)..and all of this is because of the council. So I was going to say to them if my car is wrote off they need to give me the difference in value. Do you think this is too much or I should push it? I'm not scared to take them to court but I just can't be bothered with the headache to be honest!

Hah! It has to be dealt with by insurance - yes, their insurers. Their insurance company are now handling the claim. That's what the council pay them for. So contact THEIR insurance company and move forward with the claim.

Sounds like you're getting the wrong end of the stick in having to use your insurance company.

The whole point of writing a car off is they pay you the pre-accident market value - thus, you should in theory be able to go out and by a like for like car with the money. So you shouldn't be at a loss.

Or if they write it off then just go to a breakers yard for the lights and door possibly and treat some scrapes and dents as 'character' if the cars a banger

dacouch

Civil law means you do not have to go through your Insurance, you've suffered a loss due to the negligence of their employee. As the employers of said employee they're liable (They can pass this on to their own Insurers to settle if they wish).

If you wanted to you could send them a letter before action and then go on to court should they not settle the claim irrespective of whether you have insurance or not.

What would they expect you to do if you only had Third Party, Fire & Theft cover eg it did not cover damage to your own vehicle. How would they advise you to proceed with the claim if the damage was not covered by your Insurers.

Send them a letter before action detailing your claim and let it run from there.

Alternatively speak to them off informally (Be polite) and mention what I've outlined above. Advise them your only reasonable actions are claiming directly from them which they're making unfeasibly difficult so could result in court costs or going to an accident management company. Explain that a court case will add costs and so would a accident management company which a local government should be actively avoiding to prevent waste of public money.

Another alternative is to ring their switch board and simply say "Good morning, could you tell me the name of the person who deals with third party motor claims against the council". Most reception staff will give this information out and will often give you their email address if you ask (If not you can normally guess it as it's generally john.smith@london.gov.uk etc) You can then either email them or thank the receptionist and then ring back later and ask to be put through to John Smith.

curtainsplitter

Thanks for the help. Axa state on there website Arcon though that your input estimated value on insurance is not the price they will give?

curtainsplitter

I raised all the points you guys told me with the council today but the 'claims woman' who I was told was sue sci zillion at Gedling council would ring me didn't and it was this same John Taylor from the council. They have given me the insurance details and the firm they are covered with is Zurich and they've given me the policy number and also incident number. The incident occurred on the 7th July but they only reported it to their insurance after the police contacted them and I posted a message to their Facebook on 22nd July. The council just kept yapping on about they accept liability but they don't accept that their driver tried leaving without putting a note on my vehicle. Although they admitted the independent witness (the parking warden who saw the incident) confirmed that the council driver tried to leave the scene without leaving a note. I told th that at the end of the day that's irrevelant as the damage has been done to my car

curtainsplitter

All I was told after that is that that's everything the council will give me from their side and the rest is upto me now . And than at the council said if my car is written off I can always buy it back..when I told him that I shudnt see why I shud when the accident was their fault he just ignored the point and tapped on about the Insurance will cover it. So what do you think is the best way for me to proceed know I have their insurance details and policy and incident ref etc.

redpete

I would contact Zurich and ask how they are going to deal with it. No need to get into whether the driver left without leaving details - it has no bearing on you getting the car repaired. Not sure why you think you will lose your excess. Not sure why you think the market value of the car is only £300 (the market value is of such a car without the accident damage).

SteveJW

Write in to the council holding them responsible for the damage to your car.
Explain that your car was unatended and parked in a designated parking bay and that due to the negligence of their employee (either name of driver or driver of vehicle reg number) your vehicle was damaged.
Quantify your loss, ie what it will cost to put you in the position you were in before the accident.
They will want estimates for the repair
We require three
If your car is undrivable, tell them. Tell them they will be held responsible for any costs incurred in getting to work, shopping etc (keep receipts)
You must mitigate your losses, ie if you run an old banger it is unreasonable to hire a brand new car
I once claimed the return taxi journey to and from Manchester Airport, I told them I was going on holiday and as I could not use my car they would be held liable, they paid
If your car is written off and you agree a value of £1,000, and you wish to keep the car and repair yourself, they will deduct from the £1,000 the scrap value of the car
Yes I do know what I am talking about I am the Fleet Manager for a large local authority, I get maybe half a dozen calls a year from people in your situation, no skin off my nose, I almost dictate the letter to them.
Good Luck
Any problems send me a PM

nobbysn*ts

SteveJW wrote: »

Write in to the council holding them responsible for the damage to your car.
Explain that your car was unatended and parked in a designated parking bay and that due to the negligence of their employee (either name of driver or driver of vehicle reg number) your vehicle was damaged.
Quantify your loss, ie what it will cost to put you in the position you were in before the accident.
They will want estimates for the repair
We require three
If your car is undrivable, tell them. Tell them they will be held responsible for any costs incurred in getting to work, shopping etc (keep receipts)
You must mitigate your losses, ie if you run an old banger it is unreasonable to hire a brand new car
I once claimed the return taxi journey to and from Manchester Airport, I told them I was going on holiday and as I could not use my car they would be held liable, they paid
If your car is written off and you agree a value of £1,000, and you wish to keep the car and repair yourself, they will deduct from the £1,000 the scrap value of the car
Yes I do know what I am talking about I am the Fleet Manager for a large local authority, I get maybe half a dozen calls a year from people in your situation, no skin off my nose, I almost dictate the letter to them.
Good Luck
Any problems send me a PM

Three quotes? I had that, I had a fairly newish car, I told them I'd get two quotes from main dealers, anything else and I'd be claiming my time on top. They settled for the two. As to "ie if you run an old banger it is unreasonable to hire a brand new car", do you know a hire car that rents out old bangers? In my case it was actually more effective for them to go for the 'dearer' quote, as that included a courtesy car, and collection and delivery, so no extra charges later. That, and it was my preferred garage, so they didn't argue much about the 'cheaper' quote.