Just Had A Crash Would Appreciate Some Advice

Cornucopia

My premium with Admiral doubled after a no-fault claim. However, because my NCD was unaffected, I was able to shop around and got back to "normal" premiums with no difficulty.

UnderPressure

OK so, I call the Co-Op and tell them I am withdrawing my claim, if they ask why do I just tell them that:

"I am going to claim directly with the ladies insurer as my car has such a low value if liability is not 100% hers by the time my excess has been paid I will be left with nothing and in the meantime you are going to take my car away and I do not have the funds available to cover transport in the meantime."

I do have some savings but as said if I use them on temporary transport it is going to spoil my plan for the end of the month and the new car which is already planned to the penny!

From here do I contact More Than straight away or should I wait and see the outcome of liability? I suppose if I contact them straight away they will want to come and inspect / write off quite quickly as the Co Op want to which potentially will again leave me car-less, I just need to try and delay the whole thing my side for a couple of weeks.

Thanks

UnderPressure

Cornucopia wrote: »

My premium with Admiral doubled after a no-fault claim. However, because my NCD was unaffected, I was able to shop around and got back to "normal" premiums with no difficulty.

Quite annoyingly I only have 3 years NCD anyway as with me constantly buying at the cheaper end of the market I usually end up with something different before my insurance expires, amazingly no matter what insurance company I am with when I ring them even if the new car is smaller engine etc the premium rockets and for the last few years it has always worked out cheaper to cancel and go with someone else but sadly at the cost of earning NCD for that year!

It is all a con, isn't it, really? Money grabbing bunch of hu hum! The Co Op have already told me if it come down to me being liable or split liability I will lose 2 years so will be left with one year NCD, better than nothing I suppose!

Another question if it is found to be my fault or split liability am I right in thinking the Co Op will expire my policy after they have paid out? If so will they want me to pay for the remaining months owing?

Thanks.

Quentin

No, you are wrong


Your policy doesn't expire/end etc after a successful claim against you.

Strider590

Whilst I do believe the other party was at fault, the truth is if I were in OP position I would have seen the silly cow dithering about and from a distance briefly used the horn before slowing right the way down until I could work out what she was doing.

All she has to do is say that she was indicating the whole time and this won't go well for you. Lets hope the usual army of advisers don't tell her to say this, because the story she has so far given, seems to suggest she was at the very least partially in the wrong.

The fact is some people have funny ideas of what is right/wrong on the roads and in the event of an accident, they'll bury themselves by spewing this nonsense out onto their accident reports.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I think that the OP's problem is that they could see the car in front was behaving erratically and still chose to pass. I had a similar situation arise with a lorry this morning that was neither stopped nor started, crawling at walking pace. I stopped behind them positioned to pass but not passing, the lorry signalled left, and applied brakes, I then passed (quite a narrow gap).

So although it sounds like the person the OP was passing was driving without due care and attention, or without due consideration to other road users, the OP made the mistake of assuming that they knew what the other driver was going to do when they clearly didn't. I'd put it as a 75/25 from the description, but I am not convinced that they can rely on being judged innocent. The problem with not having the cover of the insurer is that if the other party's view is that they were carelessly overtaken, the OP is faced with the other insurer claiming against them personally - and that is why you have insurance, not just to cover your own car.

OP needs to check that they can still go back to the insurers if it goes pear shaped.

UnderPressure

Thanks for the replies so far, spoke to the Co Op who virtually confirmed everything that has been said here apart from if it comes down to split liability then More Than would not deal with me and refer me back to the Co Op to get them to claim on my behalf so the excess would kick back in loss loss

She spoke to More Than to see if they planned on even pursuing the claim and to see what their policy holder had said, she ( mad mad mad) said she was indicating to turn right, as she started to turn into the layby I crashed into her, complete and utter lie! So so so mad about this but I have a feeling no matter what I do or say because these insurance companies are so money hungry they would probably both welcome a split rather than risking either one of them being left with the full bill!

I have withdrew my claim for my car, no point bothering with it, in the "unlikely" event justice is actually done and she is found 100% liable the Co Op will then allow me to reinstate my claim if I want to, which I dam well will along with any expenses I am now going to be open upto until I can replace the car at the end of the month.

Just completely gutted, the garage rang this morning on behalf of the Co Op to arrange to collect the car for examination, great I said so you will be bringing me a courtesy car then? Nope sorry does not work like that with the Co Op we take the car away, you wait for a decision if we repair it we will then give you a courtesy car! The other driver on the other hand with More Than, she spoke to them at lunchtime yesterday and they already have taken her car away and dropped her into a 7 seat hire car with Enterprise! THANKS FOR NOWT CO OP!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it!

Cornucopia

Did you take photos of the scene, post-accident? You *might* be able to discredit the other party's story, based on the position of the vehicles.

UnderPressure

Cornucopia wrote: »

Did you take photos of the scene, post-accident? You *might* be able to discredit the other party's story, based on the position of the vehicles.

We came to a stop still partially in the road, the road is only a 2 lane country road so we both immediately moved our cars out of the way so we would not block the road for other users

I did get lots of pictures of the damage to both cars but not where we came to a stop.

dannyrst

This is the sort of thing that really annoys me. (Below assumes all of the OP's story is correct)

If you are on a 60mph road, it is absolutely dangerous to drive at 5-10mph just because you're looking for someones house. Add to that this person clearly didn't look in their mirror/blind spot before making a move across the road.

If a car is going slower than 60mph and it's clear to overtake, of course it's reasonable to move out and overtake...why should you need to use your horn to warn them that you're overtaking?! Driving at 10mph in a 60mph zone you'd surely expect someone to look at overtaking, so why she didn't take more care is beyond me.

And then the cheek of it to say it wasn't her fault?! A little bit of honesty would be lovely!

(again, I'm assuming the OP's story is correct).