Advice! Third party car insurance want their fee after 5 years 25 May 2022 at 10:11AM edited 25 May 2022 at 10:16AM in Insurance & life assurance 16 replies 315 views

Sam3007

Hi, 

I was involved in  a car accident back in in December 2016 (not my faulty). Both cars were scratched. The other driver called me after the accident and he offered to pay to fix my car and then he changed his mind a couple of days later, so I decided to hire a private solicitors office (no win no fee) and, as far as I remember, did not inform my car insurance company .   The private solicitors office refused to take the matter to Court  when the third party denied responsibility and no further action was taken and I forgot about it after being so upset by the private solicitors office.

A month ago (after more than 5 years from the date of the accident), I received a letter in the post from the third party insurance claiming that they believe I was responsible for the damage caused to the third party vehicle and want me to repay their costs. They asked me to provide my  insurance details!

My questions are:
1- Are they able to file a claim after 5 years ? (status of limitations is 3 years as far as I know)
2- If I am legally required to respond, should I do it directly with them or get in touch with my current car insurance company?
3- What is the expected outcome of this claim and will it affect my NCP? I still have dashcam footage to prove that I was not at faulty.

Thanks 

MovingForwards

1. 3 years is personal injury. It's 6 years limitation for non-PI, 5 years in Scotland.

2. It's your insurer at the time, not current one you need to send info to.

3. Without knowing circumstances and seeing evidence no one can say. 

[Deleted User]

It seems strange that you have dash cam footage proving the fault but didn't use that to win the case. A few scratches is the reason they wouldn't do a no win no fee court case as they wouldn't make any money (vs a PI claim). 

Send to the old insurance company but make it clear you have the dashcam footage (make sure it's backed up on cloud somewhere just in case) and want to defend the case.

You'll probably run into issues though given you said you didn't notify your insurer at the time

Sam3007

MovingForwards said:

1. 3 years is personal injury. It's 6 years limitation for non-PI, 5 years in Scotland.

2. It's your insurer at the time, not current one you need to send info to.

3. Without knowing circumstances and seeing evidence no one can say. 

2. my car insurance is still the same, but I have changed the car.

so you suggest that I should get in touch with my car insurance company and tell them? without responding to the third party letter because they asked me for my insurance policy number?

Do I need to get in touch with the private solicitors office?

thanks 

user1977

You just pass it to your insurers and let them deal with it.

Sam3007

Deleted_User said:

You'll probably run into issues though given you said you didn't notify your insurer at the time

what kind of issues please? 

Sandtree

Sam3007 said:

My questions are:
1- Are they able to file a claim after 5 years ? (status of limitations is 3 years as far as I know)
2- If I am legally required to respond, should I do it directly with them or get in touch with my current car insurance company?
3- What is the expected outcome of this claim and will it affect my NCP? I still have dashcam footage to prove that I was not at faulty.

1) Yes, the insurer will be dealing with property damage and as such the law of limitations is 6 years

2) You would hand it to the insurer at the time of the incident... you could ignore it and hope to run down the clock but your insurers may hold you liable for the additional costs incurred if they do litigate and add interest etc which has been caused by your delays in passing it on

3) Presumably you have been committing fraud all these years and not telling your insurers about the incident? The impact may be much more than just your NCD as intentional false declaration on your current and last 4 years of cover could result in them all being voided.

Sam3007

Sandtree said:

2) You would hand it to the insurer at the time of the incident... you could ignore it and hope to run down the clock but your insurers may hold you liable for the additional costs incurred if they do litigate and add interest etc which has been caused by your delays in passing it on

Thanks,
Any reason why the third insurance company are trying to get in touch with my directly instead of getting in touch with my car insurance? I thought they usually use my car reg number to find my car insurance company details ?

Sandtree

Sam3007 said:

Sandtree said:

2) You would hand it to the insurer at the time of the incident... you could ignore it and hope to run down the clock but your insurers may hold you liable for the additional costs incurred if they do litigate and add interest etc which has been caused by your delays in passing it on

Thanks,
Any reason why the third insurance company are trying to get in touch with my directly instead of getting in touch with my car insurance? I thought they usually use my car reg number to find my car insurance company details ?

Depends

Assuming the TP gave their insurers all the right details then often they will check MID to get the insurance details at the time and will approach both the driver and the insurer at the same time given how little time there is to issue left. 

If you have failed to notify your insurers for 5 years your insurers may have told them they have no claim registered and so go away and hence they have reverted to you. 

The action is always legally you -v- the other driver... insurers act on your behalf and if they repair your vehicle get subjugated (inherited) rights and act against your wishes if they want - some will and some wont. 

It could be that its not an insurance company but a broker or accident management company etc in which case they may not have access to MID and dont benefit from subjugated rights. 

It could be the third party or the insurer have registered the details slightly wrong and so dont get a correct match on MID when trying to trace the insurers of your vehicle. 

After 5 years it could be the details of your insurers/their representatives have changed since they were loaded to MID and so the third party insurers aren't getting a response or the response is that its nothing to do with them etc.

[Deleted User]

Sam3007 said:

Deleted_User said:

You'll probably run into issues though given you said you didn't notify your insurer at the time

what kind of issues please? 

Your insurance terms and conditions require you to tell them about any incident (exactly what is based on the wording of each policy). You had a bump resulting in damage to your car which was disputed. By not informing the insurer you have in effect committed fraud by enjoying cheaper premiums for 3-5 years as a result of not declaring the incident and insurers can void your insurance if they find out. The danger here will be that the old insurer deals with the claim and then comes after you for the money as you breached the terms. At the very least even if you win, showing your footage, they may come after you for more money, though it's probably unlikely your current insurer will do anything given the incident was more than 3-4 years ago which is what they typically ask about.

mgfvvc

Sam3007 said:

Thanks,
Any reason why the third insurance company are trying to get in touch with my directly instead of getting in touch with my car insurance? I thought they usually use my car reg number to find my car insurance company details ?

Unless procedures have changed in recent years, they always contact the driver as it is the driver who is legally liable. The driver then normally passes the claim to his insurer who deal with it on his behalf.