Third Party changed their mind about acceptance of liability

Simon328

Hello all, new to forum for this post.
Was sleeping on the night 30/09/17 and someone driving a hired audi Q7 crashed into my car parked out on the road, which shunted mine into another car, and that into another. The driver fled the scene as witnessed by someone driving behind them. Police came, and took down details and arranged vehicle recovery. Now, I was given the hired Audi's insurance details (Ins A), and they eventually told me that the claim was nothing to do with them as the driver was driving under his own insurance (Ins . Contacted Ins B and they said they accept liability for the accident, I don't know what they based that on, based on the next communication from them, which stated their driver is ignoring contact requests. After a final warning apparently he responds and claims he wasn't driving. Ins B have contacted Ins A for proof he was driving the vehicle. I am guessing it's possible this could go down the "someone stole the hire car" scenario.

My insurer has scrapped my NCB because the other parties are not accepting liability. I have been offered £1300 for my BMW 328i which is way less than i would need to replace with a similar car as mine was deemed a write off and is already in a pile of scrap. I exhausted my insurers complaints, where they literally didn't budge at all despite the amount of evidence i supplied to suggest my car was worth much more (£3500+). They just kept quoting the glass guide. I've been to the Ombudsman for 2 decisions and they both sided completely with the insurer and said they don't have to prove my car is only worth £1300, but yet i do have to prove that it's worth more.

At the end of the day, I've got fully comprehensive insurance and was in a 100% non fault accident (as i was asleep at the time). I want to be indemnified as per my insurance policy but not even my insurer is fighting my corner (I am well aware it's in their interest to not help me)

I wanted to take the third party driver to small claims court, and was willing up till them now saying he wasn't driving. If he just denies it, and Ins A doesn't provide proof he was driving, where does that leave me in being able to take anyone to small claims?

Quentin

You would need to identify the driver to get anywhere with court action - and then be sure they could pay you!


You look to be at the end of the road as far as complaints go, but could still try court action against your insurer - but get legal advice on your chances before starting that

Simon328

I did think that would be the case. The hired car insurer did tell me who was driving and gave me their details and their insurers details, but obviously now it is that guy who is claiming he wasn't driving. So if can be proved he is driving, could take court action against him.

Sparx

Was there a police report which confirmed the driver's details who fled the scene?