Insurance company wont pay on 3rd party damage

kahocking

Earlier this year, a lady drove into my from behind car whilst it was parked outside my house and pushed it 6 metres down the road. 
We have a witness who saw the accident (although she is a friend).
My car was in perfect working order prior to this, I had driven it half an hour before and I have witnesses that I had driven it. 

Initially we thought there was very little damage, a small scuff on the bumper but when we tried to start the car it wouldn't start.
The lady was aware that it wouldn't start and her PA (who was also in the car) even helped push it onto our drive. 
She admitted liability and gave us her telephone number (and we made a note of her Reg no). 

Initially we thought it would be simple to fix and so we called a mechanic and then an auto electrician.  The auto electrician told he thought the timing belt had probably slipped because the car was in gear whilst being pushed (my car is a 2006 mini worth around 2k).  Once we established it was not going to be a quick fix, we contacted the lady who called her insurance company who then contacted me.

After months of me being without a car and going back and forth to the insurance company they have now told me that because my bumper only has a small scuff and because the lady said there was 'minor impact' that they don't believe that my car was pushed and that they wont pay for any engine repairs.  I believe this is because she didn't accurately explain the situation to the insurers.  The insurers have offered my 500 for the cost of the bumper repair but I am now without use of my car (and have been for the last 3 months) due to an accident that was absolutely no fault of mine.  This seems very unjust.

Can I take the lady to the small claims court?

Any help much appreciated.

Hasbeen

Did you contact your insurance company at the time?
If so what are they doing.

What does your mechanic advise regarding not starting?

Aretnap

Do you have comprehensive insurance of your own? What do your own insurers say?

You can take the woman to court, and ultimately if you don't have a policy that you can claim on yourself that's the only way to force the issue. Be aware that she will (or should) pass the claim on to her insurance company to deal with on her behalf, so you still end up dealing with the insurance company (and their lawyers). It would be down to you to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the engine damage you are claiming for was the result of the accident. 

Alternatively making the claim on your own policy (if you have one) would give you a chance of a quicker resolution, and if your insurer didn't pay you would have the option of complaining to the Financial Ombudsman rather than taking things to court. The Ombudsman service is free (to you), but you can only use it to complain about your own insurance company, not the third party's. 

Sandtree

kahocking said:

Can I take the lady to the small claims court?

Yes, as long as you follow due process with letter before action etc, but it will be her insurance company that is on the other side of the table from you.

You will need to prove that the mechanical issues are collision related, this would normally be done by commissioning an independent engineers report that will assess the damage, draw conclusions on what did and didn't get caused by the accident, opinine on reasonable repair costs and a total loss valuation if the repairs are close to the value of the vehicle.

Assuming the report supports your position you can add the cost to your claim, if the engineer says its not accident related or there is no evidence then you are left just claiming for the bumper and the engineers fee is your own loss.

kahocking

Thanks all. That’s really helpful. 

I haven’t contacted my insurance company because my husband told me that if I did my insurance premiums would increase. 

We did have an independent assessor visit from the 3rd party insurance company. In person he told us that it was ‘completely plausible‘ that the engine damage was as a result of the accident but the insurance company have told us that in his report he said that if the car has been moved 6m there would be greater damage to the bumper. 

I saw what happened and this is all very frustrating that the system isn’t working. It seems so unfair that I am going to be out of pocket for something that is completely not my fault.

Sandtree

kahocking said:

I haven’t contacted my insurance company because my husband told me that if I did my insurance premiums would increase. 

Either way you have to report the incident to your insurers and failure to do so is fraud. The fact you are claiming from the TP Insurer is likely to leave a record on the CUE database making non-declaration easy to find.

Ultimately it matters what is in the written report rather than what they may have said on the day to avoid confrontation. If he as an independent then the best you can hope if you commission your own report is for it saying it certainly caused the mechanical damage so its 50/50 which the judge believes.

mgfvvc

kahocking said:

I saw what happened and this is all very frustrating that the system isn’t working. It seems so unfair that I am going to be out of pocket for something that is completely not my fault.

Unfortunately you tried to game the system by not reporting the accident. I understand that. We've all asked ourselves if a minor bump is worth reporting, but if you had used the system as intended and reported the accident to your insurers, your car would probably have been sorted, even if liability was still being disputed. If you report it now, they may ask why it wasn't reported at the time, or at least when it became clear that the damage was significant.

If the third party insurers pay, it will be on the claims database and will need to be reported anyway.

I think at this stage, you may need to call your insurers, explain that you've got yourself in a mess and ask them nicely to help.

Can anyone else offer a better solution?

csgohan4

OP not reporting to your insurers is likely a breach of T+C. Some do bend the rules such as minor scraps or scratches which involved no other parties and don't report.

But an accident rendering your car unusable AND is not your fault, is something that needs to be reported and preferably I would use my own insurer as they would have my interests.

Using the TP would be reasonable to not pay premiums and getting things sorted quickly, as it would be in their financial interest. However if there are disputes you are on the back foot. 

Marvel1

kahocking said:

I haven’t contacted my insurance company because my husband told me that if I did my insurance premiums would increase.

It would anyway as it's a claim regardless.

Your husband gave bad advice and has now screwed you up in this mess.

kahocking

Thank you everyone.  I have now reported to my insurance company.  Lets see how I get on.

kahocking

Hi, So finally, yesterday, after months of back and forth my insurance company finally agreed to pay for the repairs to my car.  They have given me  £250 to compensate for the delay but shouldn't they pay m some more?  I have been without a car for 292 days and the cost of a hire car at say £30 per day would have been £9k!! Many thanks