Car reversed into OH car, refused details

alice_kate_2

Hi

My OH got a new car about two months ago (company car) and today someone reversed into it whilst trying to park and scratched/dented the front. Even though it's company car it is insured privately by us. The person that hit the car refused to provide details however OH got his number plate.

Rang the insurance and they said that with only the number plate the claim wouldn't go against the other drivers instance but it would instead go against ours.

Is this right? OH has spoken to police and needs to report it and they said it should be his insurance that pay not ours.

Not really sure what to do from here?

sinizterguy

Other party is at fault.

Report to police. Get crime reference number.
They should be able to assist you in getting the other party's insurer details - provided they are insured.

If you claim via your insurance company
- They will pursue the other party for the claim if they can
- You will need to pay excess to get your car repaired
- Attempt to claim excess from other party later
- Have a claim registered (no fault) on your record

If you pursue directly
- You arrange with them for repair to be carried out
- You do not pay excess
- You have to report to your insurance - Recorded as an incident, but not as a claim - I am not sure whether there is a significant difference.

Your insurance will go up next year regardless of which method you follow.

If they tell a different story to you/your OH, and there are no other witnesses, the claim may also end up going 50/50.

bod1467

At least it has been reported to the police. THEY should now pursue the other party for failing to stop after an accident. (Well, they may have stopped, but if they didn't exchange insurance details then it amounts to the same thing).

What does AskMID say about the other vehicle's insurance status?

http://ownvehicle.askmid.com/

Q. Is your OH paying for car insurance? Or is that covered by company insurance?

BeenThroughItAll

Use www.askmid.com to look up the insurer's details for the other driver.


When I was hit on my motorcycle back in June '14, all I got was the plate for the other driver as he didn't know the insurance details for his company van. My insurer just looked them up when I rang them to report the collision and told me immediately who the insurer was. They pursued the claim and recovered all costs, no impact on my no-claims or excess payment required.

alice_kate_2

I thought that the insurance company should look it up but they won't. Are they just being awkward? Seems strange that they refuse to do anything. I'll look at that website too re his insurance.

Quentin

Ignore any insurance advice given to you by a policeman. They are not experts in insurance.

You need to report to the police that the third party refused to give their personal details.

Hopefully the third party is legitimate and had a good reason for refusing and instead went and reported this to the police themselves.

Their insurer can be traced via askmid so you can contact the insurer and pursue your claim with them if you don't want to claim off your policy

BeenThroughItAll

alice_kate wrote: »

I thought that the insurance company should look it up but they won't. Are they just being awkward? Seems strange that they refuse to do anything. I'll look at that website too re his insurance.

Sounds like you got a difficult or inexperienced call handler. Have you tried ringing the insurer again and telling them what you want them to do?

Pincher

alice_kate wrote: »

The person that hit the car refused to provide details however OH got his number plate.

Sadly, that is why I have a dash cam, and carry a camera in the car with me.


Leaving the scene of an accident without exchanging details is an offence, but if you can't prove it the other person will get away with it.


If you are not under threat of physical violence, you should take pictures of the other driver and vehicle. The pictures should have enough back ground to establish the location. If you can, get witnesses. Even better, security footage. I tried to get TESCO to get security footage when my aerial was stolen, but they couldn't be bothered, though.


You need to take pictures of the damaged vehicle, with location identifiers in the picture, as well as the damage. The other insurance company can claim you were not even there, and just made it all up to get somebody else to pay for your damage.


The more concrete evidence you have, the quicker they will back down.

InsideInsurance

Did you actually call your insurance company's claim department and not a broker or accident management company instead?

Based on the circumstances ambulance chasers/ credit hire etc are not going to be interest at this point and so it will initially go against your policy.

Your insurers will do a MID check to get the insurer and a DVLA check to get the owner of the car and then approach these to attempt to recover their outlay. Assuming they admit it and pay up then it becomes a non-fault claim. If they deny it was them then there may be a fight depending on what evidence, if any, can be provided by you and them.

If you dont want to go ahead unless you know liability will be in your favour, eg if the damage is small, then you may have a bit of a problem as without an outlay your insurers will only go so far in investigating the claim and really will be in defense mode incase the TP actually approaches them saying you've lied and it was you that hit them.

Car_54

bod1467 wrote: »

At least it has been reported to the police. THEY should now pursue the other party for failing to stop after an accident. (Well, they may have stopped, but if they didn't exchange insurance details then it amounts to the same thing).

Since no-one was injured, they don't have to give insurance details. Just reg. no. and names & addresses of driver and owner.

Strider590

alice_kate wrote: »

The person that hit the car refused to provide details however OH got his number plate.

Elderly driver by chance?

I say this not because elderly drivers like smashing into cars in car parks, but because only an elderly driver could easily get out of giving their details without a fight, probably by acting all dithery and going for the sympathy vote.