Car insurance advice

rocksteadyeddy

Looking for a bit of advice regarding car insurance. I was involved in a car accident in 2013 (no party was injured) I paid my £400 excess at the time and my car was repaired. I now received a letter from a solicitor acting on my Insurance Companies behalf, looking to progress with the case and try and claim back the cost of the repair from the other party. They have also intimated that I will have to attend court and give an account of what happened. After 27 months I do not feel comfortable at the prospect of attending court and giving evidence as I cannot recall specific details. The insurance company are putting pressure on me by saying that my premiuns will go up and I may also have to pay for the 2 years when my insurance NCB stayed the same. Can anyone advise me what I should do?

maddogb

rocksteadyeddy wrote: »

Looking for a bit of advice regarding car insurance. I was involved in a car accident in 2013 (no party was injured) I paid my £400 excess at the time and my car was repaired. I now received a letter from a solicitor acting on my Insurance Companies behalf, looking to progress with the case and try and claim back the cost of the repair from the other party. They have also intimated that I will have to attend court and give an account of what happened. After 27 months I do not feel comfortable at the prospect of attending court and giving evidence as I cannot recall specific details. The insurance company are putting pressure on me by saying that my premiuns will go up and I may also have to pay for the 2 years when my insurance NCB stayed the same. Can anyone advise me what I should do?

write them a nice letter reminding them that blackmail for financial gain is a criminal offence, then also request an upfront payment to allow you to take legal advice on this matter.
Punitive punishment of the type they are threatening you with is probably illegal as it constitutes a fine, companies do not have the power to fine you.
As far as I know if they become insistent you can be called to testify by the judge but again it would be best if you were legally advised.

Johno100

I take it you had/have a protected No Claims Bonus at the time?

You do understanding that a court hearing (if it even gets that far) won't be like Judge Judy or Judge John Deed on the tele, but most likely you'll just be sitting around a conference table and they'll be no gowns and wigs.

Bottom line is you do need co-operate with them to the best of your ability. Perhaps you could ask your insurers about drafting an affidavit / affirmation, effectively a statement setting down what you recall happened in the crash and that would form the basis of your evidence and make things in court a bit less daunting.

neilmcl

maddogb wrote: »

write them a nice letter reminding them that blackmail for financial gain is a criminal offence, then also request an upfront payment to allow you to take legal advice on this matter.
Punitive punishment of the type they are threatening you with is probably illegal as it constitutes a fine, companies do not have the power to fine you.
As far as I know if they become insistent you can be called to testify by the judge but again it would be best if you were legally advised.

Don't do this, the advice is complete nonsense.

Silver-Surfer_2

maddogb wrote: »

write them a nice letter reminding them that blackmail for financial gain is a criminal offence, then also request an upfront payment to allow you to take legal advice on this matter.
Punitive punishment of the type they are threatening you with is probably illegal as it constitutes a fine, companies do not have the power to fine you.
As far as I know if they become insistent you can be called to testify by the judge but again it would be best if you were legally advised.

Where is the blackmail for financial gain here?

rudekid48

This is where insurers can't win.


From what you have said, they have allowed your NCB to stand on the basis that they believed that you were not at fault and also believed that they could make a full recovery from the TP insurer. They could have stepped back your NCB by 2 years until the claim was settled which would have meant that you had to pay higher insurance for the last 2 years.


If insurers take this route and step back the bonus then people cry foul and say it's not fair because it wasn't their fault. If they do what they have done here and attempt to do the "fair" thing they then get accused of blackmail when they can't recover their outlay.


This is not blackmail, you are obliged by the conditions of your policy to assist the insurer in all ways to recover their outlay. If they fail to recover their outlay then you are not entitled to the NCB that you have been given for the past 2 years and so they are entitled to charge you the correct premium for the cover provided.


The vast majority of these cases never actually end up in court and proceedings are issued as a last resort to force the issue. All you need to do is go along with what you are asked to do and you should have no problems at all. It's unlikely that you would actually have to attend court.

Aretnap

maddogb wrote: »

write them a nice letter reminding them that blackmail for financial gain is a criminal offence, then also request an upfront payment to allow you to take legal advice on this matter.
Punitive punishment of the type they are threatening you with is probably illegal as it constitutes a fine, companies do not have the power to fine you.
As far as I know if they become insistent you can be called to testify by the judge but again it would be best if you were legally advised.

Must say, I do like the phrase "punitive punishment".

Comedy value is the only good thing about this post, however.

rs65

rocksteadyeddy wrote: »

After 27 months I do not feel comfortable at the prospect of attending court and giving evidence as I cannot recall specific details.

Just agree to go. Saying 'I can't recall' is a perfectly valid response. You will not be expected to give specific details after this time. It probably won't get to court anyway.

Norman_Castle

rocksteadyeddy wrote: »

Looking for a bit of advice regarding car insurance. I was involved in a car accident in 2013 (no party was injured) I paid my £400 excess at the time and my car was repaired. I now received a letter from a solicitor acting on my Insurance Companies behalf, looking to progress with the case and try and claim back the cost of the repair from the other party. They have also intimated that I will have to attend court and give an account of what happened. After 27 months I do not feel comfortable at the prospect of attending court and giving evidence as I cannot recall specific details. The insurance company are putting pressure on me by saying that my premiuns will go up and I may also have to pay for the 2 years when my insurance NCB stayed the same. Can anyone advise me what I should do?

If needed go to court and if you cannot recall specific details due to the timescale say so. Your insurers are presumably defending a claim against you so you should do what you can to help them.

rocksteadyeddy

I think you have hit the nail on the head. Many thanks

Rolandtheroadie

Remember to get your £400 excess back once the other side has settled.