Car insurance dispute gone messy - advice?

Lumos28

Hi all

About 7 weeks ago my boyfriend was driving down a narrow road with cars parked either side at night. It was bonfire night and so the road was very busy. He reversed to allow a larger vehicle through and accidentally hit an open car door on the roadside whilst reversing.

My boyfriend stopped driving and got out of his car to check the driver of the car he hit was ok. She was swearing and shouting abuse at him...he apologised (although he believed both he and the other driver were partly to blame) and he told her all of his details (insurance, name, registration number). She told him her name. In shock and as a new driver, my boyfriend did not note down the registration number and only got a few photos of the damage. His rear bumper is dented and the other driver’s door has folded inwards slightly in the corner.

My boyfriend told the driver he was a new driver and asked if it would be ok to deal with the problem privately...outside of insurance. She said that was fine and that she would only want £50-100 maximum as she had an old car (2003 Nissan micra) and had a family garage. They exchanged phone numbers and conversation continued by text the same evening.

After a few general messages, the woman said she would need a new car door as it would work out cheaper than fixing the repair. She asked my boyfriend to get quotes and contact her once he had done so. He rang round a few garages and told her he would give her £200 (a quote he got) and could he meet her that night. She did not respond for 17 days. After 17 days she asked for £260. My boyfriend had been in hospital this day for a small operation, which he explained to the woman and said he needed time to speak to someone about the scenario and may instead go through insurance.

The woman got very aggressive, and said he’d left it too late for her to go through insurance as the time she had to claim had lapsed. She then told him she would take him to court over the matter. My boyfriend ignored the messages she then sent (which included swearing at him and harassing him).

Last week by boyfriend receives a county court order through the post demanding £325 be paid. The statement she offered was not completely true - she claims my boyfriend refused to pay money and that there had been constant communication between them (she ignored him for 17 DAYS after he offered her £200). She says she has 3 witnesses (she had 3 children...a toddler, a 10-11 year old and a young adolescent with her)...are these worthy witnesses? And there is no mention that she had a wide open door on the roadside unattended in the dark.

The question I have is....how is best to deal with this?

A) pay the £325...even though the woman could try to claim again in some way (another court order or via insurance)

defend the court order - there is more to the story. She was abusive too.

C) my boyfriend notifies his insurance and lets them deal with it...after all that’s what he pays them for! He surely can then respond to the court order by telling them his insurance will investigate and act on his behalf. However, he hasn’t told his insurance company yet and it’s been 7 weeks - is this ok?

Please - any advice would be much appreciated!

angrycrow

As she has issued court proceedings her maximum claim is the £325 listed in the court documents. Uk court process only alows you to claim once for an incident. The issue is you could pay the £325 and then receive injury claims for the three children in her car.

Liability wise your bf is clearly 100% at fault because he reversed into an open car door. What he should have done is to report it to his insurers who would have sorted it out. Even though he did not claim he still needs to declare the claim to his insurers at renewal.

Lumos28

Thanks...but hejust isn’t sure what to do now. He knows that in the eyes of the law he will probably be liable.

He doesn’t know whether to pay the £325 or let the insurance company deal with it...this is the main part of the issue

McKneff

Your boyfriend should have informed his insurers about the accident, indeed he still needs to do so even at this stage.
Further down the line, he may need to claim for something and his claim which may run into thousands
can be denied because of non disclosure of this accident.

He will have signed a document when taking out the insurance that he had read and agree to all terms and conditions, and disclosure of any incidents is one of the conditions that he got the insurance.
He needs to ring them soon and ask for advice as well as declairing this incident.

arcon5

What was he expecting when he started ignoring the victim. The amount will include court fee automatically added when she filed a claim. Pay the amount and move on. But pay by bank transfer and enter something in ref column as proof of settlement... but your suggestion she'll file another court claim is a bit far fetched

Crabman

Did she send a letter before action via recorded delivery before issuing court action?

Puzzled as to why this didn't get settled between the parties when the difference was just £60.

arcon5

Even if he didn't send a lba a judge will just not award costs or split between both parties

pinkshoes

Was a letter before action sent?

If not, then respond to it stating that this is being dealt with by his insurance, and he has already given the insurance details at the time of the accident so she needs to contact the insurance company or supply him with her insurance details so he can contact them instead.

It is not too late to go through insurance.

He also needs to notify his insurance, but state that he does not have the persons details, and he was hoping they she contacted them.

Car_54

But (1) it is NOT yet being dealt with by insurance, and

(2) he does have the person's details.

It's not a good idea to start telling porkies once court proceedings have started.

Lumos28

Arcon - he only ignored the other driver once she messaged him saying “F*** you” and got very abusive. He offered to give £200 to her on the 11th November, she did not respond at all until the 28th November and asked for more.

And no, he received no formal warning about the county court claim. He received a text message from an unknown number saying they had started court proceedings. Then he just received the county court forms requesting £325.


He has her name, address and she said her insurance company is Go Skippy. The only thing he doesn’t have is her registration number, although he knows the make, model and year. I assume he can contact his insurance company with this information? But what should he say exactly on the form - that his insurance company will deal with the matter?

Lumos28

He only has her details (name and address) from the court order btw...he only had the make and model of the car before. The letter contained those details so he didn’t know them before!