Insurance claim coming back to haunt me

kleapatra

I have exactly the same problem, my car's handbrake failed and it rolled down a hill (very slowly, took about half an hour!) backwards and hit another parked car. For insurance quotes I have to tick the box 'at fault, hit third party stationary vehicle' despite the fact I wasn't in my car at the time of impact! The world of insurance quite often isn't very fair!

societys_child

kleapatra wrote: »

I have exactly the same problem, my car's handbrake failed and it rolled down a hill (very slowly, took about half an hour!) backwards and hit another parked car. For insurance quotes I have to tick the box 'at fault, hit third party stationary vehicle' despite the fact I wasn't in my car at the time of impact! The world of insurance quite often isn't very fair!

Your car has to be insured to be kept/ used on a public road. The insurance is to cover damage caused by your car to third parties and/ or their property.

Whether you were in the vehicle or not is irrelevant. Who's fault was it, if not yours?

If it had been the other way round and another vehicle had run into yours, would you accept the owner of that vehicle saying "it's nowt to do with me, I wasn't even in it"?

Mercdriver

Fault is really the wrong word. The wording should really be changed to liability. You might be liable without being at fault.

dacouch

societys_child wrote: »

Your car has to be insured to be kept/ used on a public road. The insurance is to cover damage caused by your car to third parties and/ or their property.

Whether you were in the vehicle or not is irrelevant. Who's fault was it, if not yours?

If it had been the other way round and another vehicle had run into yours, would you accept the owner of that vehicle saying "it's nowt to do with me, I wasn't even in it"?

Although a hand brake that genuinely failed on a well maintained vehicle can mean the owner of the vehicle whose hand brake failed is not liable for the damage it caused...

societys_child

dacouch wrote: »

Although a hand brake that genuinely failed on a well maintained vehicle can mean the owner of the vehicle whose hand brake failed is not liable for the damage it caused...

If the hand brake fails, it doesn't sound like the vehicle is well maintained. If it's a fault with the vehicle maybe a claim should be made against the manufacturer.;)

Kleopatra says:

I wasn't in my car at the time of impact! The world of insurance quite often isn't very fair!

But that is why third party insurance is compulsory.

And we have no idea if the vehicle was well maintained or even if the brake was applied correctly.

SilverSaloon

if not the OP fault, then who's fault would it be?!

Retrogamer

Funny enough i have a 2006 Ibiza as well and unless i slam the bonnet down, i've noticed it randomly pops up every now and then. A good solid slam down (not excessive) and it's never been an issue. It's only when i place it down gently it pops up usually a few hours / days later.

dacouch

societys_child wrote: »

If the hand brake fails, it doesn't sound like the vehicle is well maintained. If it's a fault with the vehicle maybe a claim should be made against the manufacturer.;)

Kleopatra says: But that is why third party insurance is compulsory.

And we have no idea if the vehicle was well maintained or even if the brake was applied correctly.

Assuming the vehicle is serviced at the correct intervals, has a current MOT and no obvious signs of problems with the handbrake. Also that the handbrake had been applied

Bearing in mind to be able to claim against another party they need to have been negligent. How do you propose someone whose handbrake fails in those circumstances has been negligent?

A handbrake genuinely failing is one of the few situations where your vehicle damages another vehicle and for it to be possible you're not liable

dacouch

SilverSaloon wrote: »

if not the OP fault, then who's fault would it be?!

If that was in response to my earlier post, it may not be the driver of the vehicle's whose handbrake failed. It would just be one of those things where the driver of the vehicle that was damaged would need to claim on their own insurance.

There are plenty of Insurers who will pay out to a third party when a hand brake genuinely fails. But they do not have to as in the eyes of the law there is no liability

jase1

marlot wrote: »

No.

There is the bonnet catch, which is operated by cable.

Then as a fail safe, there is a secondary device.

Both would have to fail for the bonnet to come open.

I guess the question would be, whether or not the primary catch was operational, or if the bonnet had been on the secondary catch for some time.

My Mondeo had a problem where the bonnet had to be really slammed in order to get the primary to latch. So much so that in the week between my noticing the problem and getting it to the garage, I managed to dent the front of the bonnet by banging it against the slam rail.

There was no way I was going to drive on the motorway on the secondary catch!!