Taxi passenger opens door into my car.

JoeN1988

Hi all,

I was driving my girlfriends car yesterday down a one way street in town yesterday. There was a taxi pulled up on the right, parked on double yellows. I was driving past slowly, when the passenger opened her door into the front wing of the car I was driving.

The damage to my car is not awful, a couple of dented panels behind the headlight. Taxi door is mullered.

The taxi company are saying that they wont accept liability and have contacted their insurance. I too have spoken to their insurers and been stonewalled. The passenger says she is happy to be a witness for me, for what thats worth.

I'd rather not have to call my insurance, because even though I believe i am not liable, i'm worried the insurance might take the easy way out and just go knock for knock. Even if the claim does go towards the taxi company, it will still affect my premium,

Any advice?

Quentin

You are bound by your policy conditions to inform your insurer about incidents like this.


As the taxi is blaming you and have already reported this to their insurer then you do need to put your insurer in the picture now before they find out from the other side and take a dim view of your breach of the policy conditions

JoeN1988

Thanks Quentin, I've spoken to my insurer and told them what happened, that I am not prepared to accept liability etc.

I don't know if the taxi company are denying liability, or simply not admitting it at the moment, or weather there is any difference between the two!

OnanTheBarbarian

I have a similar claim at the moment where a taxi passenger opened the door into my client's passing vehicle. The insurers (Haven) are being obstructive saying they do not cover or indemnify the actions of the passenger. I am about to issue proceedings.

the passenger should be covered under the terms of section 149 of the Road Traffic Act. The RTA generally does not generally allow terms within the policy/certificate to vary the cover required under the RTA.

However, RTA cover only actually kicks in at the point of judgement as per section 151

As such, an insurer could deny the claim and force you to obtain a Judgement against the passenger which they would then be obliged to satisfy but would give the insurer a right to recover the money back from said passenger