"Claims Handling" am I being stitched up?

John_Pierpoint

Late last Wednesday night, I was involved in a very minor road traffic accident.
Picture the scene, a huge lozenge shaped roundabout with 8 entries and exits, built over a dual carriageway trunk road. I had to drive 3/4 of the way round the roundabout to reach the slip road onto the trunk road, so I was in the offside of 2 - 3 lanes on this roundabout in my white estate car, with still 1/4 of the roundabout to go.
On the nearside lane there was a slow moving vehicle in front of me. From my years of experience this car looked "lost"; so I too slowed down.

A small 6 year old hatchback darted round my nearside and swerved in front of me. All three of us were approaching the slip road.
Though it was not indicating the "lost" car was aligned to go down the slip road. Meanwhile the hatchback had positioned itself close to the rear off side of the "lost" car, ready to overtake on the downhill outside lane of the slip road. BUT the slow "lost" car obviously realised it did not want the slip road and swerved to the right to regain the roundabout and accelerated. The hatchback, finding he had made the wrong call, could have carried on round the roundabout BUT forced in front of me and in danger of missing "his" exit, slammed on his brakes. So did I but my front bumper kissed his rear as the "lost" car sped away.

We stopped on the deserted roundabout. Both cars appeared in the sodium light, to be undamaged. I remarked that we could have been in a nasty accident. He said "Did you get his number (ie the lost car)" - no I didn't.
He observed "I'm in a hurry and at that point his mobile rang and he replied "yes yes I'll be with you in a minute or two". We exchanged phone numbers and names made a note of each others registrations and agreed to contact each other the next day, if there was any damage visible in the day light, and off we went.
Oh dear the phone number he wrote down for me did not exist, when I rang to say I definitely had no damage.

Late on Friday afternoon, I got a call in an almost unintelligible Indian accent, repeatedly demanding to know all about MY accident but failing to state who he was. So I told him to put his requests in writing and had the utmost difficulty giving him my address. His problem was very bad English and a total lack of any geographical knowledge (I felt like saying all you need is my name and the post code I've given you and the internet will supply the rest - there isn't another one of me in the street.)

Afterwards, checking 1471 produced a number structured 07xxxx, just like a mobile 'phone. So today I got a friend to call it back. A different foreign voice answered and we managed to establish that we were calling "XYZ claims handling", where XYZ is a foreign unrecognisable word.

Am I being paranoid or is someone trying to cook up some huge whip lash claim and pin it on me?

If there is an established MSE expert to whom this sounds familiar; send me a PM and I will give you the number of "XYZ Claims Handling".

John.

Iamthesmartestmanalive

If I was you Id contact your insurers

Anyone who plans to make a legitimate insurance claim for damages will have done the same and therefore the insurers will probably have been contacted by the third parties insurers to get a version of events

Even if they havent make them aware that this has happened and that you may have to engage your policy

Id also report the accident to the police

Mainly just to cover yourself

Hey_Dude

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

If I was you Id contact your insurers

Anyone who plans to make a legitimate insurance claim for damages will have done the same and therefore the insurers will probably have been contacted by the third parties insurers to get a version of events

Even if they havent make them aware that this has happened and that you may have to engage your policy

Id also report the accident to the police

Mainly just to cover yourself

Good advice - report the claim for information purposes only.

You may find yourself being chased by a Third Party Insurer or Agent claiming either for damage or uninsured losses such as Personal Injury.

Pass everything to your insurer to handle.

Good luck,

Dude

PS - In terms of liability you are on a sticky wicket I'm afraid - hopefully this one will just go away in the fullness of time.

adonis

I always carry a disposable camera with flash in the car to record accident details, whether i would think of using it in an incident like you have had i dont know. i would tell your insurance company that it is a bit suspect and is worth speaking to the police but i doubt they will be interested.

darich

In this instance where there are no injuries and the only damage is to cars (allegedly) then the police will be unlikely to become involved.
Their stance is that one driver hit another and it is one word against another or that after the incident there is an admission and the insurance companies will sort it out.
That's what my sister was told just a few months ago after white van man changed lane on a roundabout and hit her nearside.

As for the camera - good one - always remember that most mobile phones come with one aswell.

i've also made up a spreadsheet of info that should be gathered after a bump - in the heat of the moment it's easy to forget exactly what details are required - it's set up to fit on 2 sides of an A4 page.
Along the same lines always carry at least 2 pencils and a notebook - pens are no good. I work on site a lot and know that when paper starts to get damp in the rain, pens don't work - a pencil graded between hb to 2b is ideal for writing on paper and won't stop working in the rain.

If anyone wants the accident form, then send me a PM with your email address and i'll send it on - it's in microsoft excel format so you'll need excel to be able to open it.

EDIT : if you inform your ins company then they'll probably withhold your ncd until it's sorted - even if you're not making a claim - i did this a few years ago and my company withheld the ncd for 6months. Unfortunately that took me into my next policy so instead of going from 3 years ncd and no claims to 4 years, they dropped me to 1 year and 1 claim - they took 2 years off me. This was years ago but parties have (or at least used to have) a few years to claim - i believe it was 6 years - but realistically, any claim will be made within a few weeks.

John_Pierpoint

I contacted my insurance company and they said they had heard nothing.
I also went round to the address given but could not find "the chancer" or the car. The neighbours did not seem to know anything about their supposed "bloke next door".
The place was deserted and the heating was off.

HOWEVER some two weeks later the insurance company were approached by a firm of lawyers from the other end of the country.
The insurance company seem to be taking the attitude that I'm not entitled to know what I'm accused of and they will handle everything.

What ever it is, the legal and administrative costs must by now be well and truly greater than any legitimate claim for damage.

We will see how this pans out and I will let you know the full grisly details when it does.

John

vickisocks

Just for info - there is a company with a number beginning in 07 who are known for phoning around often with nobody on the end of the phone. When people have gotten to speak to someone they are foreign and some claims company. Best bet is to ingore them as the only info they say is 'Have you had an accident recently' etc etc. I think they are fishing for business. I can't find the link right now but i found a website with loads of complaints about them.


Edit: Just found link: http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/07012212212

John_Pierpoint

The BBC have done an item on "no win no fee" justice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7387796.stm

Looks like this motoring situation is pretty common judging by the remarks people have made below the report.

By the way it transpires that the seemingly illegal claims farming company, that is behind the attempt to extort money from my insurance company is identified here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=755475

mattymoo

Although the circumstances do not sound quite right, their is an ongoing problem with staged motor accidents where the claimant, claims agent, solicitors and medical experts are in cahoots to make money out of staged accidents.

Typically they will cut up an HGV and brake sharply, leaving the HGV driver no chance of avoiding a rear end impact. Other accidents are known to occur on roundabouts but I cannot recall how they are set up. The vehicle with the fake victims tends to be fully loaded with passengers so they can make multiple injury claims.

It is quite a common practice in West Yorkshire and I believe some parts of the Thames Valley.

Any luck with your insurers at all? The description above is very good (most roundabout claims are a right pig to sort out because the descriptions are so vague).

Suggest using Google Earth to get a good clear image of the junction and then use an art program (Paint will do) to overlay the vehicle routes leading up to the collision.

John_Pierpoint

Accidents are well down but Car insurance premiums are up 33%.

In my case I lost 2 years no claims bonus "because an outstanding claim had been made against me"; even though it was eventually never paid.

In the old days, before the computer data base and when I was on third party only, the "aggrieved party" had to get in touch with me and a few recorded delivery letters "without prejudice" demanding discovery sent directly to the "aggrieved Party", rather than their claims management company, would probably have seen off such false claims.

Now it seems we have created another parasitic industry - just like when pensions were privatised.

It seems that everyone in the car accident business is in on the act, while we the punters just pay the extra costs they are generating.

Listen to this week's edition of BBC Radio 4 Moneybox and you will find that there are examples of firms at every stage of the car accident process, dedicated to maximising the punter's loss, using every fiddle you can think of.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zd70b#synopsis

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/9349616.stm

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A few weeks ago my Ford Mondeo diesel died while my wife was driving it - It was coughing and spluttering very unhappy so she paid for a tow to the nearest Ford Main Agent on a Thursday afternoon.
On the Friday the agent managed to get a place in his queue for the diagnostic machine and they decided it was a blocked fuel filter. (I queried that as the fuel filter had been replace 18 months earlier, but they stuck to their diagnosis and told me to collect the car at closing time Friday (a fuel filter is a half hour job maximum).
Emergency phone call - "we restarted the engine but while reparking the car it died again". We will have to keep it in over the weekend.
There then followed a week of farce when it was found to be a small electric pump next to the tank on the off side of the vehicle, called "the lift pump" that was playing up.
The story was "mañana" then eventually was that the only "lift pump" in Europe had to come from Germany but they could rent a car to me at a bargain price (50 pence a day cheaper than I could get on my own account).

So was it Ford main agent c0ck up or conspiracy?

I am now starting to wonder if it was all a scam to maximise the cost of a breakdown caused by a faulty lift pump?

mikey72

Accidenthero, who are

McKeowns Solicitors Limited,

And their proud claim.

"The practice has been built upon a diverse client base, ranging from private clients and families to large institutions and companies such as the RAC, Norwich Union and Endsleigh Insurance."

The compensation culture won't go away while the insurers continue to be their main customers.

And that was just the first one that sprang to mind as the advert was on.