Car Insurance, how can a company not be able to reach an agreement with it's self?

Jon_01

Morning all,

My daughter had an accent at the end of last year. She was on the slip road of a motorway and a car stopped on the hatches suddenly started up, pulled in front of her and slowed right down... Bump.  (Cash for crash maybe?)
Everyone of the four people in the other car put a claim in over the next few weeks (including granny, who had the front passenger seat almost horizontal for some reason?).
She been getting letters from her Insurance company for months now, on Friday she got one saying that they had not been able to come to an agreement and that it might go to court.  The things is, the other parties Insurance company is the same as my daughters?  Which seems to imply they can't come to an agreement with themselves??

Has anyone any advice or is it best to just let it go to court?  The company say they will supply legal representation for her...

Thanks...

chrisw

It may be that they can't agree to pay the amount of claims the other vehicle's occupants are making and are therefore being taken to court and sued.

Just leave everything to the insurance company. It is unlikely your daughter will be involved in any court case beyond providing a witness statement. If she does get called to court it will only be as a witness to give her version of events. There is no risk to her at all other than potentially losing her no claims bonus if the insurance company has to pay out.

eddddy

As above, it will be your daughter's insurer who cannot reach agreement with the owner of the other car and/or the occupants of the other car.

Possibly because the insurer thinks the other parties are inflating the value of their claims, for example:

• They are exaggerating the extent and impact of their injuries
• They are exaggerating the extent of damage to their car, the cost of repairing their car, or the write-off value of their car 
• They are exaggerating some other aspect of their claim - e.g. loss of earnings, cost of replacement hire car

Or maybe the insurers don't think it was an accident at all (so as you suggest - a crash for cash)


So your daughter might have to provide evidence about the circumstances of the accident, to help the court decide whether the injuries and damage being claimed for are credible.

Or to help the court decide whether it was a 'crash for cash'.

TELLIT01

I suspect it's more a case that the insurer is questioning the amount of the claim from the other vehicle, and whether is it a 'crash for cash'.  That can take a long time to resolve, particularly if they decide to prosecute those in the other vehicle.

davidmcn

TELLIT01 said:

I suspect it's more a case that the insurer is questioning the amount of the claim from the other vehicle, and whether is it a 'crash for cash'.  That can take a long time to resolve, particularly if they decide to prosecute those in the other vehicle.

That's possible, though even with a legitimate claim I would expect a bit of haggling rather than the claimants to accept the first figures offered by the insurers.

[Deleted User]

First buy a cheap dashcam. Doesn't have to be a top notch one just to show their bad driving in cases like this.

For this claim your daughter shouldn't accept any liability and should be arguing that she was not at fault at all.

dunstonh

..plus, when the insurer is the same on both, they have to deal with it at arms length.  So, the people within the insurer dealing with claimant 1 will not be dealing with claimant 2.