Insurance Company Recovery Demand - even though insured!

Prycop

Hi, hoping for advice.
My son was involved in an accident on a small country lane in September. We informed his insurance company MoreThan Smart Wheels with the full details.
The other driver acknowledged that because of the type of single track road that he also assumed a 'knock for knock' claim. 
Everything has been quiet for 5 months and we assumed that this was all sorted.
This morning our son received a letter from Lyons Davidson solicitors on behalf of LV insurance (the other driver's insurance) demanding over £6,000 under the trems of Section 152 Road Traffic Act 1988 to recover their costs.
We haven't heard anything from our insurer and nothing from LV.
How has this claim come directly to us rather than dealt with through the insurers? What can we do, we have 7 days to reply.

lisyloo

Pass it onto your insurer straight away. Do not reply direct.

Johno100

Forward it on to your son's insurance company for them to deal with it.

Hasbeen

Send it to your sons insurer. That what he paid them the money for.

Aretnap

Prycop said:

How has this claim come directly to us rather than dealt with through the insurers?

Because that's how these things work - it's doubtless alarming, but it's not uncommon and is actually nothing to worry about.

Basically your son's insurer hasn't paid what the other side is claiming - either because they're disputing liability, or the size of the claim, or because the overworked claims department is just being slow. So to settle the matter the other side feels it has to take (or at least threaten) court action.

Now if they did take court action they would have to take it against your son - he is the person who (they are claiming) caused the accident, so ultimately he is the one liable for the costs. They cannot take his insurance company to court directly, unless they want to claim that his insurance company damaged the other guy's car. Instead they take your son to court, and your son has to ask his insurance company to deal with the claim on his behalf - as his policy says they will do. Hence the fact that he's getting the solicitor's letters - and will ultimately get the court papers if it does end up going to court. It's unlikely to get as far as an actual court hearing and will probably still be settled between the insurers, but if it does end up in court rest assured that it will still be your son's insurance company who put their hand in their pocket at the end of the day, not your son personally.

As above your son should contact his insurance company immediately and let them know he's received this letter, and follow their instructions on what to do next. It won't hurt to call again in a few days and make sure that they're dealing with it. He should NOT attempt to reply or otherwise deal with it himself.

Prycop

Thank you for all the replies, very reassuring. 

Emailed my son’s insurance compant today with a copy of the letter. Seeing the urgency he can give them a call tomorrow.

The_Rainmaker

Prycop said:

. Seeing the urgency he can give them a call tomorrow.

Deal with it in a timely manner but there is no urgency, forward the letter (proof of posting) then forget about it.  No need to micromanage this.

mgfvvc

My approach is to forward the first letter unanswered. If there is a further chasing letter, I respond with a letter telling them that the correspondence has been forwarded to my insurance company and the relevant details, i.e. which insurance company, the policy number and the claim number.
Of course the chasing letter is also forwarded to my insurance.

Prycop

A quick update. Called MoreThan, following a chat with his supervisor they want me to forward the letter to their claims dept. Apparently their records show that a deal has been done with LV and they also assume that the issue was dealt with. Their theory about the letter is that the message hasn’t been passed on to LV’s solicitors.
MoreThan told us not to worry and will update as needed.