Insurer wants me to settle 50/50 for accident

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  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,037
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    stator wrote: »
    None of this is relevant to the question at hand. Who MSE posters think is at fault is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the witness.

    Of course, it is relevant. Since when have road markings not been relevant to how you should drive? Witnesses are not always reliable. Helpful but only if what they say and the road markings match up.

    And the only thing that matters is how the insurers see it.

    ----

    If the other driver was in the left lane and the OP was in the middle then it was the other driver that crossed lanes. However, as glentoran99 has indicated, you need to clarify as you changed lanes in your post.

    Simpss, did you give a picture of the roundabout and where the incident happened? Some of the lanes on that roundabout do allow the left lane to go past the junction. The one you indicate does not. Don't assume a busy claims handler will spend the time trying to work out which was yours. You want to hand it to them on a plate as much as you can.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • stator
    stator Posts: 7,441
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    It's completely irrelevant. The other party is lying. Your personal need to tell everyone who was right and who was wrong will not affect the insurance claim in one slight way. Nothing the OP says will matter since it's a "he says/she says" situation. The witness is all that matters. Get her on board or forget about it and let the insurers settle 50/50. That is what is going to happen.
    Changing the world, one sarcastic comment at a time.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,037
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    Your personal need to tell everyone who was right and who was wrong will not affect the insurance claim in one slight way.

    Your personal need to provide rubbish is not helping the op
    It's completely irrelevant. The other party is lying.

    Oh my goodness. What a shock. The insurance company must believe the op without any evidence to support that because stator has said that the other party is lying.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • stator
    stator Posts: 7,441
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    dunstonh wrote: »
    Your personal need to provide rubbish is not helping the op



    Oh my goodness. What a shock. The insurance company must believe the op without any evidence to support that because stator has said that the other party is lying.

    You're completely missing the point.
    They won't believe the OP, they won't believe the other party. It will be 50/50, regardless of what diagrams you draw or links to google maps you provide. Two sides, only one of them is right, no evidence which.
    The WITNESS is all that matters in this case.
    MSE armchair critics matter not. So it doesn't matter who you think is at fault. It doesn't matter who I think is at fault (I haven't said). All that matters is that the OP gets the witness to provide a statement.
    Changing the world, one sarcastic comment at a time.
  • Superscrooge
    Superscrooge Posts: 1,171
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    Simpss wrote: »
    . There was also a witness to the accident, who stopped to make sure we were ok and I believe was also the one who called the police to the scene of the accident. She agreed on the phone with my insurers to give a statement of events, but they say they haven't received anything back from her. Having text her myself she made out that she had replied to the questinnaires they sent out and that she had a copy and would resend, yet still they claim not to have received anything from her, and that she hasn't responded to calls and voicemail since. My insurance company is saying that they can't prove anything without her and that 50/50 is the best they can do.

    Insurance companies seem to prefer settling claims 50/50 even when the evidence points to one driver being at fault. I guess the costs of disputing liability are often greater than just splitting the costs 50/50

    I was witness to a two vehicle accident a few years ago where one vehicle caused the accident by going for a crazy overtake. I agreed to be a witness for the innocent driver insured by Aviva and assumed it would be a formality that the other driver would be found at fault.

    Aviva sent me a witness form which I completed and returned to them. They acknowledged receipt but then a few days later told their insured driver I hadn't returned the form and they were going to settle 50/50! He kicked up a fuss and eventually they sent me another form which I returned. But even then they still wanted to settle 50/50. Eventually Aviva accepted their driver was innocent, but it was hard work!

    The experience made me think if this is the way Aviva look after their customers then I'm never going to use them for insurance. But maybe they are no worse than other insurance companies?
  • Nasqueron
    Nasqueron Posts: 8,631
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    Insurance companies seem to prefer settling claims 50/50 even when the evidence points to one driver being at fault. I guess the costs of disputing liability are often greater than just splitting the costs 50/50

    I was witness to a two vehicle accident a few years ago where one vehicle caused the accident by going for a crazy overtake. I agreed to be a witness for the innocent driver insured by Aviva and assumed it would be a formality that the other driver would be found at fault.

    Aviva sent me a witness form which I completed and returned to them. They acknowledged receipt but then a few days later told their insured driver I hadn't returned the form and they were going to settle 50/50! He kicked up a fuss and eventually they sent me another form which I returned. But even then they still wanted to settle 50/50. Eventually Aviva accepted their driver was innocent, but it was hard work!

    The experience made me think if this is the way Aviva look after their customers then I'm never going to use them for insurance. But maybe they are no worse than other insurance companies?

    I was a witness to an accident last year where I actually had head camera footage of it as well as my view, I was contacted by the insurer of the driver who was hit and sent them a response detailing what I saw (corroborated by the video footage which I provided) and I never heard anything from the insurer or either of the 2 parities involved so I figured they were dealing with it all - unfortunately I can't remember who it was
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,037
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    stator wrote: »
    You're completely missing the point.
    They won't believe the OP, they won't believe the other party. It will be 50/50, regardless of what diagrams you draw or links to google maps you provide. Two sides, only one of them is right, no evidence which.
    The WITNESS is all that matters in this case.
    MSE armchair critics matter not. So it doesn't matter who you think is at fault. It doesn't matter who I think is at fault (I haven't said). All that matters is that the OP gets the witness to provide a statement.

    You've completely missed the point and context. Never mind.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • Simpss
    Simpss Posts: 6 Forumite
    Insurance companies seem to prefer settling claims 50/50 even when the evidence points to one driver being at fault. I guess the costs of disputing liability are often greater than just splitting the costs 50/50

    I was witness to a two vehicle accident a few years ago where one vehicle caused the accident by going for a crazy overtake. I agreed to be a witness for the innocent driver insured by Aviva and assumed it would be a formality that the other driver would be found at fault.

    Aviva sent me a witness form which I completed and returned to them. They acknowledged receipt but then a few days later told their insured driver I hadn't returned the form and they were going to settle 50/50! He kicked up a fuss and eventually they sent me another form which I returned. But even then they still wanted to settle 50/50. Eventually Aviva accepted their driver was innocent, but it was hard work!

    The experience made me think if this is the way Aviva look after their customers then I'm never going to use them for insurance. But maybe they are no worse than other insurance companies?

    I think this may be what's happening in my case as well. The witness went out of her way at the accident, agreed to give details on the phone to my insurer which they say they never got, and then replied to me personally to say she had sent the documents and would re-send them, which again my insurance company say they never received. At this point I'm much more inclined to believe her than esure, who have made no effort to try and get anything other than a 50/50 settlement. Maybe this is just some standard shady practice all insurers use, but I'll be making sure to avoid esure and Aviva in the future anyway.
  • 2357
    2357 Posts: 48
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    No help to OP but wanted to add that I also had difficulty with Aviva after an incident last year. Long story short they wouldn’t repair my vehicle unless I agreed to 50/50 despite a witness statement obtained by Aviva confirming that I was stationary when hit by the other party at approx 30mph, the other driver was speeding, his vehicle wasn’t taxed, he was aggressive at the scene and then refused to respond to his insurance companies request for contact.
    I refused the 50/50 offer and ended up going through an accident management company and his insurance company paid up in the end but they were obstructive for several months before that happened.
    Felt let down with Aviva.
  • Simpss
    Simpss Posts: 6 Forumite
    2357 wrote: »
    No help to OP but wanted to add that I also had difficulty with Aviva after an incident last year. Long story short they wouldn’t repair my vehicle unless I agreed to 50/50 despite a witness statement obtained by Aviva confirming that I was stationary when hit by the other party at approx 30mph, the other driver was speeding, his vehicle wasn’t taxed, he was aggressive at the scene and then refused to respond to his insurance companies request for contact.
    I refused the 50/50 offer and ended up going through an accident management company and his insurance company paid up in the end but they were obstructive for several months before that happened.
    Felt let down with Aviva.

    I've used an accident management company in the past and it was a much better experience than the current one with esure. I think if I should find myself in a situation like this again when I am 100% not at fault that is the route I will be taking as I don't want to have to deal with this nonsense again.
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