Going it alone

emmathe37th

Afternoon!

A bus scraped my car a few weeks ago (it was tight, I stopped, he ploughed through). I reported it to the police as failure to stop. I contacted the bus company (nice local firm, not any of the big ones). They were all willing to pay for the damage, then they decided they wanted to do it through insurance. I started putting in a claim through the insurance...they declined liability (surprise surprise) and my insurers said chances were it would end up split liability as there was no hard proof.

Going through insurance was going to cost £850 (recommended garage quote...or I'd have to pay some fee for not using a recommended garage), so even 50/50, I'd have to pay my £350 excess. I decided it would end up cheaper to not go through insurance.

So I cancelled the claim, paid for the work (£250). My insurance company have said as far as they are concerned, the claim is closed. I know I'll end up paying a higher premium anyway just for informing them and being honest, but I'm resigned to that now.

I have abrupt emails from the bus company that say the driver did not know he had hit me, then one to say the driver was stationary at the time. Not quite sure how both of those can be true. Blatantly clear he is lying in my opinion.

Anyway, my questions are...

1. Does anyone have any experience in going through small claims with this sort of thing?
2. How likely do you think it is that a Letter Before Action would prompt them to just pay up?
3. If it did end up going to court, how likely is it I will win? There is no hard evidence, but I'm inclined to believe the judge would side with me since I reported it to the police, and from our email conversation.
4. Anything else I should be wary of?

I know most of you will probably think 'oh it's £250, just let it go' but I'm an honest person and it really annoys me that people get away with stuff like this.

Thank you!

forgotmyname

2. Send one and see.
3. 50/50 ?
4. Wasting more money?