Partner hit by foreign driver, insurer not properly dealing with it.

Xefan

Hi all,

My partner was hit about 5 months ago by a foreign lorry here in the UK, it cut into her lane and clipped the front of her car with it's rear putting a dent into the front left side of it. It could've been much worse as he just changed directly into her lane without paying any attention, at which point she braked, but unfortunately she couldn't slow fast enough hence how he hit her front end.

The driver didn't stop, and carried on driving, my partner had to pursue him for over 3 miles flashing him to try and get his attention.

When she finally got him to stop she took pictures, and asked for his details at which point he put her onto his boss in the Czech republic. She also phoned the police, but as no one was injured they did not attend. The driver admitted fault at this point and said the reason he didn't stop is that he thought she would be angry. Yes. Really.

We provided all information to her insurer including a detailed statement with diagram, and pictures of the damage, and the driver and so forth. The insurer said his insurance company was UK based, Red Star or something.

We got the repairs done by our insurer, and had to pay the £300 excess.

Of course once they've got your money that's when the trouble happens because they have no reason to care at that point, but there's not much you can do. We had to keep chasing them as they simply did not get back to us, at one point the lady at the insurer told her she might have to accept 50/50 but my partner was adamant that she would not under any circumstances accept responsibility because she simply was not at fault by any measure.

The insurer said it was taking so long because they couldn't track him down for a statement, they said his insurer had 3 months to respond but they couldn't get hold of him, and at that point it would go to their litigation team.

The 3 months finally passed, without response, so she contacted the insurer again today, the insurer has now decided that he's denying all responsibility, that it never happened. They're saying therefore that she has to accept a 50/50, they're also saying that they have the right to accept responsibility on her behalf even if she disagrees even though she explicitly told them previously she would not accept responsibility under any circumstance.

I'll be honest, given the timing and the fact the onus is on them to use their legal team to resolve it at this point I'm skeptical they even did get hold of him and are just fobbing us off. We have however asked for a copy of his statement.

So I have the following questions:

1) I assume I need to speak to the insurance ombudsman, and to send a formal complaint to the insurer, but viewing other threads across the internet it sounds like this is basically fruitless. Should this fail, am I within my rights to file a small claims track court claim? Should we file it against my insurer? his insurer? him personally? Presumably we would need to file against our insurer to also prevent them unfairly harming her no claims?

2) If we can and have to go down the small claims route, how does that work with someone from overseas involved. If we have to file against him then does that mean he would have to attend court in the UK or face a default judgement against him?

3) When her insurance renewal comes up in September if this isn't resolved then she will obviously have to declare the accident, but do we have to put at fault/partially at fault simply because that's what the insurer has decided? Given that that's simply not true, we would effectively be having to lie on our insurance form which is in itself a crime and according to their own terms could make our new insurance void if the new insurer felt like voiding it. If it is resolved after the fact then can we get the new insurer to pay us back the difference? would we need to chase our old insurer for the difference?

4) Given that had she not braked he could've killed her, and he also committed a hit and run by not stopping at the scene of the accident and admitted such. Can we get the police to pursue him in any way? As the police didn't attend I assume not as they similarly have little evidence, beyond the phone call she made at the time when he finally stopped.

I understand there are a number of things not in our favour, i.e. no witnesses and so forth, but similarly I'm at a loss to understand how our insurer can let him get away with claiming it never happened as if that were true then how would she even have gotten hold of his phone number, name, insurance details and so on and so forth? Why would she have photos of him and him pulled over with the car damaged and his lorry there? That'd take a hell of a setup and as this is a civil issue I was under the impression we just need balance of probabilities here - his argument and actions make no sense in this context and I'm confident that our version of events is the only one that makes any sense. Whilst my partner did have a sore neck and minor concussion after this as she hit her head on the side window we're not even after any injury claim, we simply just want back our excess and a declaration of not at fault because that's the honest truth of it.

We're getting married in 5 weeks, so the last thing we wanted was to be dealing with this crap, yet thanks to the great insurance scam industry in the UK, here we are Any help or advice appreciated.

maninthestreet

A foreign driver and no witnesses to the accident?

tykesi

maninthestreet wrote: »

A foreign driver and no witnesses to the accident?

Exactly, this is going 50-50. Her saying "she explicitly told them previously she would not accept responsibility under any circumstance." means nothing.

dannyrst

There is no evidence (video), all you have is photos. You have no chance of this going any way other than 50-50. Your partner should have called the police whilst following the driver advising them of a hit and run incident and that she was in pursuit of the vehicle involved.

I'd recommend investing in a dash cam.

Johno100

Xefan wrote: »

4) Given that had she not braked he could've killed her, and he also committed a hit and run by not stopping at the scene of the accident and admitted such. Can we get the police to pursue him in any way? As the police didn't attend I assume not as they similarly have little evidence, beyond the phone call she made at the time when he finally stopped.

As there were no injuries and the police did not attend at the time, I would be highly surprised if they would be interested now. You can also bet a penny to a pound that the HGV driver will say that he wasn't aware there had been a collision until your partner caught up with him and there is a fair chance that might have been the case.

Astronaughtwannabe

Whoooah, slow down....

Naysayers are getting ahead of themselves here. Credibility is the key and you've said it's a UK insurer, so that simplifies things (a little).


Let's go one step at a time.

Astronaughtwannabe

If your insurer is not prepared to reconsider then yes, your option is small claims court. Given that it seems unlikely the driver will attend (and you are skeptical that there is even a statement in existence) this puts the third party in a weakened position.

Your claim is against the third party's insurer, Red Star I think you said. Strictly speaking it's against the driver but it matters not.


As you've said, there are issues such as the contemporaneous photos and knowledge of his insurance details for the defence to explain. The damage to your vehicle, whilst not evidence of certainty, will tell its own story coupled with your wife's credibility.

Tenacity is the key and you seem to have the right approach.


Now wait for some knowledgable posters to add to this.

dacouch

Did this happen on a bend or where the hgv was making a turn or on a roundabout?

rs65

Xefan wrote: »

Of course once they've got your money that's when the trouble happens because they have no reason to care at that point

Have you even considered that your insurer wants their outlay back too?

Xefan wrote: »

yet thanks to the great insurance scam industry in the UK, here we are

A driver denies hitting you and you're blaming the insurance industry?

Quentin

Your insurer is allowed to deal with your claim as they think fit.

You do have the right to complain about the way they have handled your claim and to escalate to FOS if you are unhappy with their reply.

Ultimately if you are unhappy with the FOS answer then you are left with the courts.

On a slightly brighter note now that liability has been accepted by the other side at 50/50 you can now pursue the third party insurer for 50% of your uninsured losses including 50% of your excess.

Aretnap

Her insurer is right to say that they are entitled to accept responsibility on her behalf. If you read the policy it will say this. The reason being that the insurer has now paid for her repairs, and it's their money, not her's,my hat they're trying to recover. Obviously that does give them a strong incentive to recover it (if they don't they end up out of pocket, as well as probably losing a customer next year), but there are also costs and risks to recovering money through the courts, and if the insurer decides that those costs and risks outweigh the potential benefits then that's a decision they're entitled to take.

Telling them that she won't accept responsibility under any circumstances is fairly meaningless. The time to say that was before she agreed to a contract which gave the insurer the right to accept responsibility on her behalf.

"Fault" in the insurance industry is a technical term which classifies claims according to whether the insurer made a full recovery of their outlay. It had nothing to do with the normal meaning of the word, or with The Truth (TM) of the circumstances of the accident. If it does end up as 50/50 then it will need to be declared as a fault claim in future, and no you won't be breaking the law,or voiding your insurance by doing so.