Another accident - liability

captainawsome

Thanks everyone. Yes for what it's worth I reported it on the police non emergency number, who 'done a quick log as they are very busy', suppose I should be great full.

Insurance company are looking for council CCTV which should clear the whole thing up if they can access that. Only trouble their is, they might aswel switch all the cameras off, whenever the footage is needed it's either been deleted or the camera was pointing the other way in my experiance.

Anyway, this morning a letter lands on the mat. A cheque for £2564, no covering letter, nothing. So I ring LV and am told my car was valued at £3900, the cheque I recieved is minus the salvage so I get £2564 and my car. To be honest, this made me quite happy as I really wanted to keep my car and can repair it myself. The valuation was more than I was expecting them to come back with first of all, as I thought I would have to fight to get over 4k for the car (I think it's worth more but with book prices etc etc I had to be realistic). Am I a mug for taking the first offer on this? My car needs a new suspension corner and subframe, plus bodywork/paint but aslong as I get a driveable car back that can wait for now.

JustinR1979

Depends how much you can get it repaired for, any ideas?
Could be on a winner.
Suppose you should get a main dealer quote and see if it's much more.

captainawsome

I work in the main dealer where the car is at the moment. Lol. Their (bodyshop, not my department) quote is what has caused the car to be a cat C write off so I imagine its excessive. I did tell them to quote me as a normal customer, no special treatment as I wanted it repaired properly. I will have to phone tomorrow and see what the actual bill and damage is.

I havnt seen the car on a ramp but am told the subframe is damaged, obviously with the suspension corner. That's the mechanical side of things, theirs also some bodywork to do but thats really just the rear bumper, no excessive panel damage from what I remeber. I can use 2nd hand parts to fix, no need for genuine BMW stuff which is so expensive anyway so will be able to repair cheaper than the quote.

JustinR1979

Only thing is the hit the resale will take recorded as cat C, ignoring that it sounds quite promising
Suppose workmates will be busy doing homers now huh.....!

captainawsome

Yeh the resale value will be hit, but to be honest I have every intention on 'running the car into the ground' as they say. I have no intention to change the car so shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Probably, and if I phoned them after work to talk shop they wouldn't be best impressed, better wait until the morning.

JustinR1979

I know when I worked for a garage and someone hit me I ended up with a few quid in my pocket, imaginary hire car, extra work done etc

captainawsome

Every cloud and all that jazz. Right now I'd just be happy with my car back and him admitting liability if I'm honest.

captainawsome

Just an update on this, I've been paid out on my car last week. I've managed to get it all fixed mechanically and I'm back on the road! Not a minute too soon either I missed my car. Just need to get my bumper painted in the next few weeks.

As far as liability goes I spoke to my case handler today from the insurance company and he confirmed the case is only in dispute as the other driver hasn't responded yet! He hasn't actually said it wasn't his fault, he just hasn't said anything. I took that as good news (must go well for me the fact that he hasn't made contact in 3 weeks?) but how long does he get to respond? And what happens if he never responds?

InsideInsurance

The length of time for him to respond doesnt in any way reflect on the case other than the length of time you have to wait.

How long he gets to respond and what his insurers will do if he exceeds that are down to them. In a relatively minor case, remembering that injurys at times are settled for millions, I'd typically have given 4-6 weeks in total with a number of chases in the meantime. If we simply didnt get any response at all after that and the circumstances/ damage etc all add up we would normally then settle the TP case on a without prejudice basis thus not opening ourselves up to a future injury claim etc without the ability to revert back to our policyholder again.

Other insurers do take different approaches though, they may give their client more or less time to respond. They may say to your insurers that they should issue proceedings against their insured as they cannot get any response etc and hope that your insurers wont bother given the level of their outlay and the fact solicitors fees cannot be recovered in small track cases

captainawsome

Possibly opening myself up here with a stupid question but what is a 'without prejudice basis'? Thanks.