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Is it worth getting a claim management company on the case?

Bit of a weird one for me this. Someone purchased a car from my next door neighbour and when they drove off in their own vehicle, they drove straight over one of my driveway fence posts.

We were in at the time but they made no effort to contact us, just reversed, stood the post up a bit and drove off. 

Honestly if they had knocked and apologised i'd have said don't worry about it, but they didn't, which has annoyed me intensely so I got my cctv footage, did a search on their numberplate for a tenner and contacted their insurer about it, got a reference number and was promised i'd be contacted back.

Since then I have tried chasing the insurer to no avail and they won't respond to my emails at all.

Realistically we are talking about £100 of damage at this stage and i'm purely working on principle. Is there any way to get someone else to do the chasing that won't affect any of my insurance policies/excesses or should I just let it go?

Comments

  • MattMattMattUK
    MattMattMattUK Posts: 10,176 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    It is never worth getting a claims management company involved.
  • facade
    facade Posts: 7,380 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    A claims management company will only be interested if

    1) you have a more than 50% chance of success
    2) the claim involves you "needing" a credit hire car, as they make their money from the inflated hire rate as well as adding their fees to the claim.

    They won't be interested in a £100 fence post claim

    If you have the name & address of the driver you can go the small claims route.

    Small claimsing the keeper will get you nowhere as they are not responsible for the negligence of the driver, and will just say that they weren't driving.


    I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....

    (except air quality and Medical Science ;))
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 15,640 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    facade said:
    A claims management company will only be interested if

    1) you have a more than 50% chance of success
    2) the claim involves you "needing" a credit hire car, as they make their money from the inflated hire rate as well as adding their fees to the claim.

    They won't be interested in a £100 fence post claim

    If you have the name & address of the driver you can go the small claims route.

    Small claimsing the keeper will get you nowhere as they are not responsible for the negligence of the driver, and will just say that they weren't driving.
    or 

    3) The amount or type of claim (ie injuries) means solicitors fees can be claimed

    A £100 fence post won't trigger that though.

    Billco_2 said:
    Since then I have tried chasing the insurer to no avail and they won't respond to my emails at all.
    Tried going old fashioned and phoning them?
  • Billco_2
    Billco_2 Posts: 70 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Sigh. So looks like i'm pretty much boned. I don't have the name and address of the owner as the insurance check only gave me the company they are insured with. 

    When I said I've tried chasing the insurer I did mean by phone, apologies that wasn't clear, but anytime I manage to speak to someone on the phone they tell me they can't deal with 3rd party claims and I have to email the designated address, which is the one they ignore.
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 15,640 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    The DVLA will give you the details of the registered keeper.

    Who is the insurer?
  • Billco_2
    Billco_2 Posts: 70 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    They will? Thought that was only a police thing.

    Admiral
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 20,956 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts I've been Money Tipped! Name Dropper
    Does your neighbour have their details?
  • Billco_2
    Billco_2 Posts: 70 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    At the time he did of course, but he didn't want to give them to us because apparently he was worried that if we made a fuss they would want to return the car they bought....yeah sure whatever.

    I had planned to ask him again a couple weeks later but he got taken into hospital and isn't expected to make it out so that plan got shelved.
  • caprikid1
    caprikid1 Posts: 2,345 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    If it is a company like Direct Line then they will do their best to avoid correspondence and paying. Some companies are exceptionally poor in this regard and cheap for a reason.

    If you really want to persue this issue a letter before action and a small claim, only likely way of moving this forward.
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 15,640 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    caprikid1 said:
    If it is a company like Direct Line then they will do their best to avoid correspondence and paying. Some companies are exceptionally poor in this regard and cheap for a reason.

    If you really want to persue this issue a letter before action and a small claim, only likely way of moving this forward.
    Firstly they have already said its Admiral

    Secondly, the OP doesn't know who the driver is so exactly who do you think they should put as the defendant in that small claim form? The courts have already ruled that you cannot issue on "the drive of the car FE22 ARR" or other such things using the registered keepers address.
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