Car damaged by other driver - 3 weeks later he is not responding to insurers

somethingemma

While I was stopped at a red light a car pulled past mine and scratched my car. It's still drivable, no injuries to passengers and I just want my bumper fixing and shouldn't have to pay when it's clearly not my fault as I was stationary.

The driver was really intimidating and made me cry (yes I am a loser) and in the end I called the police because he wasn't cooperating with giving me details.

My insurers gave me the option of having the car fixed and paying the excess and they will try and recover the costs but I don't want to be out of pocket because I didn't trust him to admit fault.

Over 3 weeks later, his insurance company say he hasn't reported anything and they haven't been able to get in contact with him.

Does anybody know what I do? What happens if they never hear from him?

Rather than the damage to the car, I'm more angry about the fact that he goes around driving like an idiot and speaking to people/treating them like he did to me so I don't want him to get away with it but don't want to be completely out of pocket and lose NCB.

magpiecottage

Presumably, the Police made him give you his name and address. If so, then I suggest you write to him telling him that you intend to pursue a claim against him through the county court and remind him that it will be a condition of his insurance policy that he inform his insurers.

Get proof of posting (free from the Post Office) rather than using Recorded Delivery. This may sound counterintuitive but if necessary a court will accept this as delivery two working days later, if sent first class and he cannot simply refuse it to prove non-receipt.

somethingemma

I only have his name and insurance details - not a full postage address.

Quentin

Either keep persevering with his insurer, or if you don't want the hassle put in a claim and let your insurer deal with his insurer.


There is always two sides to the tale, and without witnesses you need to await the other side's version.


If you end up being held in any way liable then you can reimburse your insurer and get your NCD reinstated.

InsideInsurance

Whilst I understand why you dont want to claim on your own policy the issue with that is your insurers are in defence mode only until you do. At most they will write a letter or two to the TP/ TP insurer but cannot take anything any further.

Legally his insurers can be forced to deal with the matter but it takes getting a court judgement against him first. As this adds costs most insurers wont allow it to get this far if their insured is clearly being obstructive but some will. What can be difficult is getting the third party insurers to register the claim so they actually start their own processes properly.

Have the TPI registered a claim? If not then send them a letter of claim enclosing a copy of an estimate for the repair.

An alternative is to go down the credit hire/ repair route which will probably kick the TPI into action much more reliably but can results in subsequent arguments of if you could have afforded to do it off credit/ just waited etc

somethingemma

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Whilst I understand why you dont want to claim on your own policy the issue with that is your insurers are in defence mode only until you do. At most they will write a letter or two to the TP/ TP insurer but cannot take anything any further.

I think you're probably right about that - They'll have much more incentive to chase up the money once they've had to fork out for repairs. I'm going away for 10 days so will leave it and if still nothing has happened I will probably have to bite the bullet.

stator

Check if your policy has time limits on making a claim
Did the police get his full name and address then?

ariba10

If as you say you have his name and insurance details, he can be traced from them.

oscarward

my son had someone run in to the back of him. The other party sort of admitted liability but after checking his car and contacting her she just said 'I don't want to know'. No witnesses.


So he claimed off her insurers who said they would contact her. She wouldn't answer the phone or reply to letters.


It ended up that her insurers made an ex gratia payment as she never replied to them.

InsideInsurance

oscarward wrote: »

It ended up that her insurers made an ex gratia payment as she never replied to them.

Its paid on an ex gratia/ without prejudice basis so that if your son later came back claiming £1m for personal injury there is no admission of liability on file and liability can be disputed.

For a modest vehicle damage case insurers will write/ phone a few times. For a significant PI case they will send people round to their insured's house etc to try and track them down and confirm the accident details etc

As previously said, if they dont then you issue, their customer ignores it so you get judgement, you then go back to court when they dont pay you and their insurers then not only have to pay for your claim but also your two trips to court and associated costs. Its ultimately a business decision on if you do this and hope more dont than do or if you pay up quickly on an without prejudice basis and avoid the legal costs

zaax

If the Police were called and attended they were witnesses. Did the police prosecute for dangerous driving? Maybe he is in jail.