Son's motor accident - how to settle

motorguy

spadoosh wrote: »

Would you still rather pay the £300?

Yes, absolutely because the biker is happy to take it from the O/Ps son that £300 is handed over to the guy and its closed off.

Telling the guy sure just claim off my insurance would be an open invitation.

Pay the £300, declare it to the insurance company (which the O/P has done already in terms of the accident so its just a matter of letting them know its settled @ £300 and no outlay to them) and you're pretty much home in a boat.

Insurance goes up a few pounds for a year or two.

As i said in the first of my posts you quoted settling it like that will put his insurance up with minimal effect - borne out by that sample quote i ran

motorguy

Programmer wrote: »

Many thanks for all these contributions. I put them before my son then sat on the fence (I'd make a great politician) and said he'd have to decide what to do. And here's what he did....


He decided the biker would be as good as his word. He typed out a very short document, not mentioning the settlement at all, in which each party made mirror statements absolving the other from blame and declaring the matter closed. He invited the biker round and they signed the document (so two signatures each), at the same time as my son transferring the money via his laptop.


Whether he has acted wisely or not remains to be seen. My son did say something which assured me to some degree. The biker conceded he had been travelling at about 20 mph at the time of impact, which is much too fast considering a red light was just yards in front of him. He would hardly have said that if he had been secretly plotting to pocket the money then make an insurance claim. Also, he made no attempt to negotiate the wording on the document.


As someone above has said, it's now a waiting game.

I think hes done all he can at this stage. If the guy has accepted the money and is happy then thats fantastic. He "might" change his mind and submit a claim later but i'd have thought its unlikely.