50 50 Car Accident Settlement

padayapa

The other party pulled out from a parked position when I was driving past and hit my car. Only front wheel of other partys car scratched but the whole side of my car damaged. My insurance paid the £3000 for the repair and referred me to my car insurance legal expenses insurer to claim my excess from the other party. The other partys insurers denies liability but agrees to pay half my repair costs and half my excess (total excess was £150). The accident was not my fault and I do not want to loose my no claims bonus. My legal insurer has told mess there were no witnesses I have no choice but to accept the 50 50 offer. I want to take the other party to small claims court as I feel coincident I will win once the type of damage and road measurements eta are assessed. Do I just sue for my £150 excess? And can my own insurer stop me from doing this as they may risk the 50% of repair costs they have already been offered?

forgotmyname

Drove out forward or reversed out?

I would refuse to accept any blame if they clearly drove into the side of your car as you were passing. Any damage to the front of your car?

What damage do they have?

missile

It is unusual for 3rd party to pay half your excess.


You are suing for 1/2 x £150 i.e. £75?

Quentin

missile wrote: »

It is unusual for 3rd party to pay half your excess......

No.


In all cases of split liability each party pays their share of liability to the other side.


Each side can also get the other side to pay their share of any uninsured losses incurred including excess.


So if it is 50/50 each side claims 50% of their uninsured losses off the other side.

almillar

If it was clearly the SIDE of your car, rather than the FRONT, doesn't this prove that the other party pulled out into OP, rather than OP crashing into the other car from behind? Maybe OP's insurance company don't want the expense of fighting...

straighttalker

IF you feel adamant that you're not at fault, forge ahead and initiate a claim for your uninsured losses. If you have legal expenses insurance, they may take the claim on and issue proceedings for you if they think you have a good chance of success. Remember to include any other heads of loss ie personal injury, out of pocket expenses etc.

The insurers themselves may well have agreed on a 50-50 split on liability without any formal agreements as such to keep costs low and avoid spending any more money on investigations. If you do intend to issue, the insurers may well agree the memorandum of understanding between themselves which means that they keep their own outlays outside of the proceedings to be apportioned in line with any final determination of liability found by the Court.

InsideInsurance

You need to speak to your insurers prior to taking any action. For it to be a non-fault claim typically they need to make a 100% recovery of their outlay which would mean you go to court not only for your excess but their payout too.

If you claim just your excess then their claim becomes statute barred and it then is a fault claim. Insurers sometimes however will agree to exclude their outlay from claims with a "gentlemans agreement" that it will be settled as per the court case split on liability to ensure that the court case remains in the small track and legal fees dont start doubling the costs.

padayapa

Thank you Inside Insurance and all for all the postings. I will talk to my insurers and let them know I want to take the other party to the small claims court. They did refer me to the legal expenses insurer (I took out legal expenses cover with my insurance policy) and they have tried to claim all my excess from the other party but they have only offered a 50 50 split. My legal expenses insurer has advised me that I should accept this offer because there were no witnesses. But I feel confident that I can prove I was not at fault. My car was hit on the side; the only damage to the other party was a part of their front tyre/wheel that was scratched when it had turned right into my car when I was going past. I would gladly forego the excess but it is the non fault I am looking for as this will affect my car insurance premium for a few years. I was not sure whether I should just sue for the uninsured losses (ie the excess) or for the whole amount of damage and then of course of successful reimburse my insurance company for what they have paid so that they can record a non fault for me. I wil phone my insurance company tommorrow and find out what they say.

Quentin

As your legal expenses aren't prepared to take court action then you either accept the 50/50 or fund your own court action.

Bear in mind that if you pay for a court case against the third party it will actually be passed to the insurer to defend. If you lose in court you pay all the court costs as well as your own expenses and any allowable expenses for the other side.

OnanTheBarbarian

You also need to make sure your own motor insurers will indemnify you for any third party counterclaim and any costs they may have.

EdGasket

I had the exact same thing happen; someone pulled out without looking into the side of my front wing. In this case we were both with the same insurer who initially wanted to go 50/50 (I suppose so that we'd both lose our no-claims bonus) but I stuck out for it being 100% the TP's fault and in the end the insurer agreed.

Ref. small claims - I'd go for it if you have to. It will probably be settled before it gets anywhere near court. In the couple of cases I initiated, one was settled after a preliminary hearing and the other on receipt of court papers. If you do go to small claims court then costs should not be much even if you lose which is unlikely unless the TP starts telling convincing lies.