Insurer wants me to settle 50/50 for accident

FutureGirl

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!!!8217;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!!!8217;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.

No tax and being aggressive at the scene is irrelevant to who is at fault for an accident. The other insurers probably only agreed to deal with your claim because they had no contact from their insured (which the insurer has the right to do). So not really comparable to the OP's circumstances.

In any event, if it's one party against another, and no one has any independent evidence, then it will go as a 50/50 split no matter whether you claim via your insurers, or via an accident management company.

I mean, seriously, why would your insurer want to settle on a 50/50 basis rather than find you not at fault? Financially that makes no sense, and would be a terrible business model if any insurer 'preferred' to settle on 50/50.

2357

Seriously, I agree it’s ridiculous! You’d have to ask Aviva about their business model. I was equally as surprised as you at the way they conduct their business which is why I said I felt let down by them, I certainly won’t ever insure with them again. Maybe insurance companies make more money from increased premiums by having two at fault parties for every incident, who knows?

As I said in my previous post there was an independent witness in my case and yet they refused to repair my vehicle unless I agreed to 50/50. They were the ones who obtained the statement from the independent witness and yet they refused to act on it. I wonder what the circumstances would have to be in order for them to fight their clients case if a witness statement obtained by them isn’t considered adequate.

The only useful thing they did was to provide me with a copy of the witness statement to pass on to the accident management company. Witness statement said the other driver was at fault and could have prevented the crash if he’d been driving at an appropriate speed, it also gave my speed as 0 mph (because I was stationary) and the other vehicle as 30 mph at impact.