Struggling to regain my excess

JP869

Hi,
Around a year and a half ago I was driving through Poland and a person crashed into me. She refused to accept liability, so I had to take her to court in Poland. At the end, the judge deemed the third party to be liable. My car was entirely totalled and therefore scrapped in a garage before I returned to England. I received compensation from my (English insurer), but have been unable to regain my excess. Every time I phone they say that they are trying, but are having trouble with the third party insurer (Polish insurer). My excess was £1500, so a significant sum. I think that the third party insurer is still not accepting that their policy holder was at fault, despite the court outcome, police review, and cctv evidence (which the court used to make a judgement). Any idea of what to do? Thanks

MovingForwards

When you say 'took her to court' was that the polish equivalent of criminal or civil (debt) proceedings as my advice will differ.

Quentin

Your excess is an uninsured loss not covered by your insurance

You normally have to pursue any uninsured losses yourself.

If you have the 'legal expenses" add on with your insurance then that can be used otherwise it's DIY or instruct a solicitor.

uk1

JP869 wrote: »

Hi,
Around a year and a half ago I was driving through Poland and a person crashed into me. She refused to accept liability, so I had to take her to court in Poland. At the end, the judge deemed the third party to be liable. My car was entirely totalled and therefore scrapped in a garage before I returned to England. I received compensation from my (English insurer), but have been unable to regain my excess. Every time I phone they say that they are trying, but are having trouble with the third party insurer (Polish insurer). My excess was £1500, so a significant sum. I think that the third party insurer is still not accepting that their policy holder was at fault, despite the court outcome, police review, and cctv evidence (which the court used to make a judgement). Any idea of what to do? Thanks

You appear to have used Polish solicitors in order to pursue the third party in a Polish court and won your case. Enforcement in Poland is pretty similar to enforcement in the UK. Before doing so you need to further confrim and clarify that there are no other reasons why you've hit a wall. Ensure for example that the TP was fully insured.

Basically if there appears to be no other unkown hurdle you then need to insist your solicitor now enforces the judgement without further delay. That might mean simply them issuing a further enforcement summons at which point the insurers should pay out.There are specialist debt collection attorneys in Poland that might be a better bet if they are happy to work on a cost recovery basis from the third party.

You might want to try

https://www.dudkowiak.com/debt-collection-in-poland/debt-recovery-in-poland.html

[EMAIL="info@dudkowiak.com"]info@dudkowiak.com[/EMAIL]

Good luck.