Reclaiming excess after court case

Cazzaroo

Hi,

So my husband was involved in an RTC nearly 4 years ago.  The other person was not insured (jumped a red light) and didn't turn up for court case.

Judge ruled in my husband's favour as he had a witness statement.

The solicitors acting on behalf of my husband's insurance company are not very forthcoming, hence coming here.

My question is, is my husband within his rights to have his excess back from the insurance company directly or does he have to wait for all the money to be recovered from the other person?  I mean the excess is based on him being liable up until the ruling but legally, now he is no longer liable.

Anyone know how this works?

Thanks

Aretnap

The excess isn't based on you being at fault for the accident, it's just the part of any claim that isn't covered by your policy. Your fault, somebody else's fault, nobody's fault in particular makes no difference - if you claim on your insurance policy your excess is payable in any event. If the accident was someone else's fault then what you can do is reclaim your excess from the at fault party (or his insurer, if he has one).

So no I'm afraid your insurer has no duty to refund it just because a court has found that you weren't to blame for the accident. If the midnight actually pays the full cost of the claim (a very big if) then you'd be entitled to your share of the money from him. If he only pays pay off it I have to admit I'm unsure whether you or the insurer would get paid first or whether you'd get a percentage of your excess back.

Cazzaroo

Aretnap said:

The excess isn't based on you being at fault for the accident, it's just the part of any claim that isn't covered by your policy. Your fault, somebody else's fault, nobody's fault in particular makes no difference - if you claim on your insurance policy your excess is payable in any event. If the accident was someone else's fault then what you can do is reclaim your excess from the at fault party (or his insurer, if he has one).

So no I'm afraid your insurer has no duty to refund it just because a court has found that you weren't to blame for the accident. If the midnight actually pays the full cost of the claim (a very big if) then you'd be entitled to your share of the money from him. If he only pays pay off it I have to admit I'm unsure whether you or the insurer would get paid first or whether you'd get a percentage of your excess back.

Thanks for responding.

How does it work with the extra insurance premiums he has had to pay?  Can be claim these back?

Car_54

OP, what was the court case?
 

Was it a civil case to determine the claim, or a criminal one with the other driver charged with motoring offences?

Cazzaroo

Car_54 said:

OP, what was the court case?
 

Was it a civil case to determine the claim, or a criminal one with the other driver charged with motoring offences?

It was a civil case.

Aretnap

Cazzaroo said:

Aretnap said:

The excess isn't based on you being at fault for the accident, it's just the part of any claim that isn't covered by your policy. Your fault, somebody else's fault, nobody's fault in particular makes no difference - if you claim on your insurance policy your excess is payable in any event. If the accident was someone else's fault then what you can do is reclaim your excess from the at fault party (or his insurer, if he has one).

So no I'm afraid your insurer has no duty to refund it just because a court has found that you weren't to blame for the accident. If the midnight actually pays the full cost of the claim (a very big if) then you'd be entitled to your share of the money from him. If he only pays pay off it I have to admit I'm unsure whether you or the insurer would get paid first or whether you'd get a percentage of your excess back.

Thanks for responding.

How does it work with the extra insurance premiums he has had to pay?  Can be claim these back?

Not easily. Some people claim to have successfully claimed some money from a third party insurer for increased premiums - usually by making a nuisance of themselves until the third party insurer pays up rather than actually by winning a court case over them. Obviously the make a nuisance if yourself until they pay you to go away approach doesn't work when there's no third party insurer, so the only option would be to chance your arm with making a court claim against the driver for them. However as there's already been a court claim against him for the costs of the accident you can't usually make a second one claiming more money over the same incident. 

If your insurer does eventually recover all of the costs from the driver they should reclassify the claim as non-fault and restore your no claims discount which will bring the premiums down a bit, but it remains to be seen whether that will happen. When dealing with the sort of person who drives uninsured then ignores a court case, winning the case trends to be easier than actually extracting money from him.

Cazzaroo

Aretnap said:

Cazzaroo said:

Aretnap said:

The excess isn't based on you being at fault for the accident, it's just the part of any claim that isn't covered by your policy. Your fault, somebody else's fault, nobody's fault in particular makes no difference - if you claim on your insurance policy your excess is payable in any event. If the accident was someone else's fault then what you can do is reclaim your excess from the at fault party (or his insurer, if he has one).

So no I'm afraid your insurer has no duty to refund it just because a court has found that you weren't to blame for the accident. If the midnight actually pays the full cost of the claim (a very big if) then you'd be entitled to your share of the money from him. If he only pays pay off it I have to admit I'm unsure whether you or the insurer would get paid first or whether you'd get a percentage of your excess back.

Thanks for responding.

How does it work with the extra insurance premiums he has had to pay?  Can be claim these back?

Not easily. Some people claim to have successfully claimed some money from a third party insurer for increased premiums - usually by making a nuisance of themselves until the third party insurer pays up rather than actually by winning a court case over them. Obviously the make a nuisance if yourself until they pay you to go away approach doesn't work when there's no third party insurer, so the only option would be to chance your arm with making a court claim against the driver for them. However as there's already been a court claim against him for the costs of the accident you can't usually make a second one claiming more money over the same incident. 

If your insurer does eventually recover all of the costs from the driver they should reclassify the claim as non-fault and restore your no claims discount which will bring the premiums down a bit, but it remains to be seen whether that will happen. When dealing with the sort of person who drives uninsured then ignores a court case, winning the case trends to be easier than actually extracting money from him.

I can do being a nuisance 

DullGreyGuy

Cazzaroo said:

Hi,

So my husband was involved in an RTC nearly 4 years ago.  The other person was not insured (jumped a red light) and didn't turn up for court case.

Judge ruled in my husband's favour as he had a witness statement.

The solicitors acting on behalf of my husband's insurance company are not very forthcoming, hence coming here.

My question is, is my husband within his rights to have his excess back from the insurance company directly or does he have to wait for all the money to be recovered from the other person?  I mean the excess is based on him being liable up until the ruling but legally, now he is no longer liable.

Anyone know how this works?

Thanks

Was the excess included in the court case? It should have been along with any other uninsured losses. If it wasnt then you have lost the opportunity and a complaint should be made to the insurer.

Assuming it was included in the litigation then it'll need to be recovered from the driver along with the rest of your insurers outlay. Once/if it's all paid back then it will become a non-fault claim and your excess refunded. If the at fault driver has the means to repay is another question, I've seen £100k claims being repaid at £5/month as the person was not working and living in rented accommodation etc with little means