Claiming Damages from Other Parties Insurance when Insured TPFT

roger_stone_123

Yesterday evening I was in a motorcycle accident with a car. I was traveling in the left hand lane when I car abruptly pulled out in front of me from the right hand lane causing me to collide with the side of his car.

I was dazed and had minor injuries to my leg. I also only have third party, fire and theft insurance cover. The bike was very badly damaged and unfortunately no witnesses stopped.

I called the police and as I was injured and not 100% with it, I told the other party that I needed to wait for them to arrive before talking. However as soon as he saw them arriving he pulled away and drove off (I'm not sure the outcome or if they were able to find him).

I told the police what happened and they created a police report. I also called my insurance this morning who referred me to 4th Dimension, a company who would evaluate my bike and provide me with a hire. However I declined as it would seem if I couldn't prove the driver was at fault I would be liable for a proportion of the hire costs which at £100 per day could get very large very quickly.

I am now trying to understand what the best course of action is. My plan is as follows:

  - Get evaluated by a doctor tomorrow morning for my injuries

  - Get the repair costs to the bike evaluated (using a nearby garage that can look at it)

  - Get the book cost of the bike (using autotrader or ebay as examples)

  - Likely the book cost will be less indicating it should be written off

  - I then need to find the insurance company of the other party (any idea how to do this? I can find his car using DVLA as I have the registration, but not the insurance)

  - I will then send a letter of demand to the insurance company (need help here, are there any templates I can use?)

  - I assume they will contest in some way at which point I will either have to settle or go to court (I will cross this bridge when I come to it)

Does this plan sound correct?
Any advice on how to get the insurance company details?
Any resources for the letter of demand?

Any other points worth considering?

Any help much appreciated.

MX5huggy

Is the other car  insured ?  

https://ownvehicle.askmid.com/#

DB1904

MX5huggy said:

Is the other car  insured ?  

https://ownvehicle.askmid.com/#

The OP would be better off using the mobile app and obtaining insurance details. 

roger_stone_123

Fantastic, thank you. I was able to get the insurance details of the car.

Is it worth calling his insurance tomorrow to notify them of the accident or should I just contact them with the letter once I have the repair and cost quotes?

Sandtree

MX5huggy said:

Is the other car  insured ?  

https://ownvehicle.askmid.com/#

Cannot use that as it requires you to declare its your vehicle... clue is in the name of the link

askMID- Enquiry this is the one that you need to use, it costs £4.50 and you can add that to your claim. It will tell you who their insurer was on the date of the accident, their policy number and the telephone number for their claims department. 

You could try ringing them first of all, some will take reports from the third party others won't and will require it to be put in writing. If the claim is already registered they may well be able to simply take over and deal with the claim directly.

[Deleted User]

roger_stone_123 said:

Fantastic, thank you. I was able to get the insurance details of the car.

Is it worth calling his insurance tomorrow to notify them of the accident or should I just contact them with the letter once I have the repair and cost quotes?

Yes. Call them, tell them that you are claiming and see what they say. They will likely want to offer to have the bike looked at and repaired if economical. Their goal is to minimise cost.

caprikid1

"Yes. Call them, tell them that you are claiming and see what they say. They will likely want to offer to have the bike looked at and repaired if economical. Their goal is to minimise cost."

They will most likely want to deny all knowledge of it !