County court claim for RTA??

Footy1978

Onto the insurer then. Hopefully they'll deal with it

arcon5

When your friend tells the insurer and passes on correspondance, tell him to phone phone phone until he's confident they are dealing with it! Last thing he wants is his insurers idiocy putting him in to a position whereby a judgement is made against him, he has to pay it to avoid a permanent black mark on his credit file to then have to chase the insurer himself for the money back.

Insurers only ever look after themselves.

Footy1978

I've told her to phone them tomorrow and make sure she gets something in writing. It's worrying getting something from the court especially when the amount they want is not affordable. Any benefit in contacting the court to say its been passed on?

EdGasket

I don't know; I doubt it but it can't hurt to inform them the insurers are dealing with it.

Nessun_Dorma

Footy1978 wrote: »

Hi,

Just looking for some advice for a friend of mine who has today received a county court claim form looking for £1200 worth of costs for car hire from a car accident that happened over 18 months ago.

1. The letter had the surname spelt incorrect, the road name incorrect and the post code also wrong. I'm actually suprised it arrived and on that my advice would be to ignore it, any thoughts? It also has wrong details for the location of the accident.

2. At the time everything was dealt with by the insurers and as far as they knew all resolved. The need for a hire car is very much questionable, the accident was a reverse out of a drive and happened to hit a parked car behind leaving slight body work damage and a flat tyre which could have been easily swapped for the spare. The claim has a solicitor name on who is clearly one of these who calls around looking for accident "victims". . is the claim valid and why would the insurer not have dealt with this?

3. I've advised speaking to the old insurer (if she can remember the details!) And also current insurer to see if legal cover can help. Also suggested contacting the citizen's advice bureau. . any other suggestions?

This came as a real out of the blue shock and has obviously caused panic. Any experience of this or advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Rejecting or ignoring a claim on a mistakenly spelled name and address is not going to make it go away.

The claim is probably that her insures at the time didn't pay all of the costs involved in the other party's claim and the insurers have sent her the whole invoice. It would seem that they are not very good at administration.

Tell your friend to refer the invoice to her insures and get them to deal with it.

Aretnap

Footy1978 wrote: »

It was just the bumper bending into the tyre causing puncture. . but that aside I assumed insurance would cover all this.

Her insurance will cover it, if she's found liable. However if her insurers haven't paid yet (which could be because they're disputing the cost of the hire car, or because they're just not very efficient) and the third party wants to make them pay up then the only way to force them to pay up is by going to court.

For legal reasons the claim is made against the driver rather than the insurance company. Essentially because nobody is claiming that the insurer damaged the other person's car - ultimate responsibility rests with the at fault driver. She then asks her insurer to indemnify her in accordance with her policy. If it does get as far as court (which it probably won't) and she is found liable it will still be the insurer putting its hand in its pocket - not her personally.

As above she should contact her old insurer immediately, pass the papers on to them, then chase them up in a few days to make sure they're dealing with it.

pelirocco

Footy1978 wrote: »

Is there not a risk the court will reach judgement if the insurers don't reply and find her liable in her absence as the claim is addressed to her (sort of)

Yes there is our company received a ccj because the insurers solicitor hadn't dealt with with the ccj claim (it was taken off after the solicitor got a kick up the bum ) she needs to file a defense as well as passing it on to insurers

Quentin

pelirocco wrote: »

.....she needs to file a defense as well as passing it on to insurers

Ignore this.

Do not submit any defence or contact the court.

Leave this all to the insurer to deal with.

Marktheshark

Quentin wrote: »

Ignore this.

Do not submit any defence or contact the court.

Leave this all to the insurer to deal with.

The CCJ will be registered by default.

Quentin

Marktheshark wrote: »

The CCJ will be registered by default.

Only if the insurer were to ignore it.

And as long as this is all left with the insurer to deal with then they will also deal with any issues that might arise due to them.