NO FAULT ACCIDENT & INSURANCE NOT HONOURING POLICY

williamgriffin

JeffMacbeth said:

Thank you for your responses. You’ve been a massive help. I contacted my insurance to let them know of the accident, and the third party soon admitted liability, but my insurance have only just written to me about these new queries, when I queried if they’d cover the contents too and they asked what was in it. If I’d intentionally meant to lie about the changes, I wouldn’t have mentioned my stock and equipment. My insurance company have never offered or suggested that I claim direct through his insurance, and haven’t talked me through the process, so I was unaware of how it worked after an accident. 

The coffee machine can easily be removed, as could the fridge drawer and till. If you took them out, you’d be left with a drawer and a shelf. That’s the modification issue I suppose. 

Did they know you were using the van as a mobile coffee shop or had you just insured it for business use?

JeffMacbeth

I applied for insurance online and so didn’t speak to a person (I realise now this was a mistake) and I opened a van business insurance policy and put for my occupation ‘self employed mobile caterer’ as there was no drop down box for ‘mobile coffee shop’ so I chose the mobile catering box. 

I should also maybe say that my van is a write off. And also, because of my injuries (broken ribs) I also opened a private No Win No Fee case for my injuries, loss of earnings, stock and equipment, so I was only asking my insurance to cover the cost of the actual vehicle. Should I just inform my insurance providers that I no longer want them to claim for me, and ask them to give me 3rd party insurance details? Or should I pass the vehicle compensation part on to the No Win No Fee Law firm too, as they’re dealing with everything else. 

Thanks again. 

williamgriffin

JeffMacbeth said:

I applied for insurance online and so didn’t speak to a person (I realise now this was a mistake) and I opened a van business insurance policy and put for my occupation ‘self employed mobile caterer’ as there was no drop down box for ‘mobile coffee shop’ so I chose the mobile catering box. 

I should also maybe say that my van is a write off. And also, because of my injuries (broken ribs) I also opened a private No Win No Fee case for my injuries, loss of earnings, stock and equipment, so I was only asking my insurance to cover the cost of the actual vehicle. Should I just inform my insurance providers that I no longer want them to claim for me, and ask them to give me 3rd party insurance details? Or should I pass the vehicle compensation part on to the No Win No Fee Law firm too, as they’re dealing with everything else. 

Thanks again. 

If you've employed a solicitor why have you only just mentioned it?

They're being paid for legal advice so take it. 

Aretnap

JeffMacbeth said:

Should I just inform my insurance providers that I no longer want them to claim for me, and ask them to give me 3rd party insurance details? Or should I pass the vehicle compensation part on to the No Win No Fee Law firm too, as they’re dealing with everything else.

Your insurance company may well not give you the other driver's insurance details, citing data protection or similar. However you can get them from here for a token fee, if you want to approach the third party insurer directly.

https://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

However if you already have a solicitor involved, I would speak to them first; they should be able to tag the vehicle damage claim onto the injury claim.

Sandtree

Your insurers almost certainly would give you the other sides insurance details as its readily available on MID. Secondly your solicitors can equally use MID to obtain the details rather than you paying MID for them.

There is no advantage in using the NWNF solicitors to deal with the total loss of your vehicle and your insurers will almost certainly be a quicker route. You could deal with the TPI directly on the vehicle losses and there can be some advantages of doing so but you lose FOS protection (assuming your business is small enough to still be covered by FOS) .

Should your insurers have difficult recovering their outlay from the third party insurers then they would liaise with your solicitors directly

feolojad

Unfortunately insurance companies will use anything they can to get out of a payout so even signwriting the van is a modification in their eyes. And whilst you, I and every other right minded person thinks the signwriting shouldn't make a jot of difference to insurance companies it's just another thing they can use against you.

However that's with your own insurer. When it comes to claiming from a third party who is at fault then it doesn't matter whether mods are declared or not or even if your car is insured, their role is to put you back in exactly the same position that you would have been had that accident where their client was at fault not occurred. So that includes any modifications, declared or not.

williamgriffin

feolojad said:

Unfortunately insurance companies will use anything they can to get out of a payout so even signwriting the van is a modification in their eyes. And whilst you, I and every other right minded person thinks the signwriting shouldn't make a jot of difference to insurance companies it's just another thing they can use against you.

However that's with your own insurer. When it comes to claiming from a third party who is at fault then it doesn't matter whether mods are declared or not or even if your car is insured, their role is to put you back in exactly the same position that you would have been had that accident where their client was at fault not occurred. So that includes any modifications, declared or not.

Maybe the sign writing isn't the issue, they probably are more concerned about the conversion to a mobile coffee shop. 

AdrianC

feolojad said:

Unfortunately insurance companies will use anything they can to get out of a payout so even signwriting the van is a modification in their eyes. And whilst you, I and every other right minded person thinks the signwriting shouldn't make a jot of difference to insurance companies it's just another thing they can use against you.

Perhaps you missed the minor detail that the OP declared the signwriting?