County Court Judgement on Hire Car Charges

CallMeBlandy

Hi,

So i was involved in an accident which i was at fault. I put through a third party claim and then heard nothing for months and then at the end of march i got a court summons for for unpaid car hire charges from the other party.

I sent all the documents to my insurance company and then assured me they would deal with it. I then called them multiple times to get an update on the process to be told i couldn't speak directly to the defendant team but that they would email me and i got a generic email saying they had received all the documents and were working on resolving it and would contact me again if they need any more information from me.

Then the other day i got a County Court Judgement on the case saying i had not replied to the claim form (the insurance company were the ones who needed to do something with that i assume?) so i was to pay the outstanding bill which is over £7000. I once again spoke to the insurance company and asked for the defendant team to contact me to let me know what exactly is going on as it seems that no action has been taken at all. I then got another generic email from them saying they were working to resolve the issue and would contact me if they need any more info etc.

I have contacted the insurance company to find out what is happening and they have advised me to put through an internal complaint which would resolve the issue.

I am worried though that obviously all the paperwork is in my name and i have a month to get it resolved before it stays on my credit history.

What i am after is basically some advice on what i can do (apart from just paying the money which i don't have!) to try and make sure it doesn't affect my credit history? Or anything i can do to push the insurance company to act faster?

Thanks in advance!

Quentin

Make the complaint as advised

Then pester them to get this paid!

Benight

CallMeBlandy wrote: »

Hi,

So i was involved in an accident which i was at fault. I put through a third party claim and then heard nothing for months and then at the end of march i got a court summons for for unpaid car hire charges from the other party.

I sent all the documents to my insurance company and then assured me they would deal with it. I then called them multiple times to get an update on the process to be told i couldn't speak directly to the defendant team but that they would email me and i got a generic email saying they had received all the documents and were working on resolving it and would contact me again if they need any more information from me.

Then the other day i got a County Court Judgement on the case saying i had not replied to the claim form (the insurance company were the ones who needed to do something with that i assume?) so i was to pay the outstanding bill which is over £7000. I once again spoke to the insurance company and asked for the defendant team to contact me to let me know what exactly is going on as it seems that no action has been taken at all. I then got another generic email from them saying they were working to resolve the issue and would contact me if they need any more info etc.

I have contacted the insurance company to find out what is happening and they have advised me to put through an internal complaint which would resolve the issue.

I am worried though that obviously all the paperwork is in my name and i have a month to get it resolved before it stays on my credit history.

What i am after is basically some advice on what i can do (apart from just paying the money which i don't have!) to try and make sure it doesn't affect my credit history? Or anything i can do to push the insurance company to act faster?

Thanks in advance!

This is why you should have your own insurance cover.

You should supply the court with a defence if that is your intention. Note the time limit as stated on the claim form.
You may want to consider obtaining legal advice first, as the insurer will have put this in the hands of their own legal advisors (costs not being an issue to them) and will probably just send a barrister to court if the time comes.

Legal costs are not usually recoverable under small claims procedure (hence why you should have insurance), but a smart legal advisor may be able to get around that if they believe you have a good defence.

Oh hang on ... you say you have a month to pay or it remains on your credit file?
Sounds like you've already lost.
Perhaps get a quick loan to pay off the judgement within the month, if you don't have the readies available

[Deleted User]

Wait... You have a CCJ against you, as in there was a court date, you didn't turn up and they found in the claimant's favour?

Maybe you should post the exact wording of the letter, with your personal details redacted of course.

If you have a CCJ it's kinda serious.

uk1

I'm afraid that some of the advice you have received is wrong. You really shouldn't have ignored the communications from the court.

You cannot wait until your insurers pay for this because the judgement is against you personally. As far as the court is concerned, when they wrote to you at the end of March giving you a clearly set time limit, normally 14 days to respond. This was your opportunity to reply either to defend yourself or to accept the claim and make an offer to pay, or to ask for a further 14 days, or accept the claim and ask the court to delay judgement for a further (normally) 14 days in order to let your insurers pay. Ignoring the summons wasn't an option as was made clear to you in the guidance you received with the summons. You ignored this and failed to enter a defence or acceptance of the claim, and so a hearing date wasn't set but instead a deafult judgement was made against you and sent to you simply because you didn't reply.

This default judgement was then ignored and as a result there has been a County Court Judgement against you because you failed to engage with the procdess or pay. You do not want to make matters even worst by also ignoring this. If you do you risk further action, probably bailiffs being employed and for it to be entered on your credit records. Basically you need to contact the claimant and either pay the full amount or arrive at an arrangement to pay over time, which the claimant is entitled at this stage to refuse. If they do, then you need to get a loan and claim the costs of that from your insurers. Asking the court to help you isn't likely to be received with sympathy simply because from their point of view you ignored the summons and the judgement and have waited for a default notice. They are simply likely to tell you to pay up.

You need to some how or other impress on your insurers that this is not a time for them to suggest the complaints route but they should sort this out with you as a matter of urgence. If they are unwilling to do this then as unfair as it may seem then you must follow the complaints route.

garth549

It sounds like your insurance company has simply forgotten to defend this. Were they definitely aware of these proceedings and did they definitely receive the court paperwork ?

You need to urgently chase then up (daily!) and get them to pay it .

I'd have a contingency plan to pay it yourself before the 28 days is up otherwise it'll stay on your credit report whether paid or not for 6 years. You'll possibly be able to recover this outlay from your insurance company either by complaint or legal action assuming they've been negligent in handling your case.

uk1

Reading the tealeaves. As the third party claim is for a substantial car-hire only there is an (unsubstantiated) implication that the car repairs have been settled for but there has been a lack of engagement or resolution with respect to the car hire.

If the treatment by the TP is as inept as they handle their own insured eg "make a complaint to resolve this issue" then there is an impression that the TP has had to pay for the car-hire out of his own pocket and that his letters and communications seeking reimbursement were ignored. MoneyClaim/Court must be only as a final resort when all other avenues have been exhausted. Now the claim via the court has clearly also been ignored by the OP and has clearly not been dealt with by the insurers. In that situation it is hard not to feel some sympathy for the TP who has had a lot of inconvenience. stress, and is substantially out of pocket and perhaps more could have been done to reduce all this by the OP and his insurers.