Insurance Claim

sassy_one

Hi,


I'm after some advice if any of you can assist.


A family member has been contacted by their insurance company stating that an incident involving their vehicle has been reported to them, involving name 'Policy holder has nudged parked vehicle' this apparently happened on May 9th - a month ago.

Insurers are stating that due to the low value of the claim, unless contact is made urgently with them they are going to go ahead and admit liability to the incident and proceed with the third parties 'alleged allegationsl'.


Relative has a clean driving licence, not claimed in over 8 years.


Relative was in said road and did park, they got close to the car, even got out and checked how close they were (car has parking aid - front/rear parking sensors).

They are 99.9% sure they did not make contact, they got out, checked how close and then got out of the space and slowly moved off, waited to leave junction for a few minutes after due to congestion. 


What do they do? As so far they've tried posting on another forum and didn't get any replies.

Since the letter was received they've been back to the road, checked said car and there is nothing on the bumper as claimed, a small few marks here and there (car is on a 2000 plate).


The car who is claiming on this is only worth £450 on Ebay, so unsure what the intention here is.


This claim has really upset relative.


I've said check nearby CCTV, but not sure if they'll allow access due to GDPR and also won't look great them getting out, checking then getting back in and leaving.


Relatives car has no damage.


Reading online it seems the claim will likely be upheld, as there own insurer are stating its alleged the driver is that of the policy holder, and they have been made aware they are at fault for the 'accident'.


I initially suspected someone trying to scam them, advised them to verify the matter and they checked the policy online and the claim is pending on the insurance account.


I will add that relative is that upset over it they've said they want to go and speak to the person but I've said not to do this.


I will add due to no accident happening they didn't leave details, and the Police have no made any contact, far as I'm aware that's the only way they'd of got the insurance details of relative, but the letter is definitely genuine as I've also checked it, and they've a copy in their online insurance account.

They've only got 24 hours left to contact insurer as the letter dated 1st June only has been received now.

I add the third party has taken 3 weeks to make this claim, surely that rings alarm bells?

Devongardener

Surely the first thing to do is ask for photographic evidence of the damage claimed and ask for evidence that it was their car that caused the alleged damage.  Your insurance company must provide you with this, otherwise anyone could claim for damage against any random driver.
You say your relative has been back to the road and seen the car for themselves, did they take photos, to compare?

Car_54

sassy_one said:

I add the third party has taken 3 weeks to make this claim, surely that rings alarm bells?

Not really - they have three years!

Hoenir

sassy_one said:

They are 99.9% sure they did not make contact, they got out, checked how close and then got out of the space and slowly moved off, 

Despite having parking sensors they did get extremely close to the other vehicle and got out to take a look. Is your family member being totally honest? 

facade

As they are not 100% sure that they did not make contact, probably best to let it go.

 If they were absolutely sure that no contact occurred, then they should say so, but from what you say, if this ever got to court, the balance of probabilities would likely be that there was contact, so they got out to check for damage, saw none and drove off.

sassy_one said:

Police have no made any contact, far as I'm aware that's the only way they'd of got the insurance details of relative

The DVLA will sell keeper details to anyone with money & who can claim a legitimate reason to need them, such as a "hit 'n run"

The MIB will sell insurance details on the same basis.

Aretnap

Devongardener said:

Surely the first thing to do is ask for photographic evidence of the damage claimed and ask for evidence that it was their car that caused the alleged damage.  Your insurance company must provide you with this...

There's no "must" about it. It's the insurance company's money at stake, not yours, and you agree when you sign up for the policy to allow them to settle third party claims as they see fit. They don't have to provide you with anything. The wishes of the customer might be one thing they take into account in deciding what to do, but ultimately if they judge that it's more cost effective to settle very small claims immediately than stage a thorough investigation, that's their call to make.

All the OP's relative can really do is call their insurer, give their side of the story and see what the insurer has to say. Try not to take it personally if the insurer decideds to pay for a scratch on the bumper rather than get into a long and possibly doomed fight over the bill. These things happen occasionally. Such is life.

Hoenir said:

sassy_one said:

They are 99.9% sure they did not make contact, they got out, checked how close and then got out of the space and slowly moved off, 

Despite having parking sensors they did get extremely close to the other vehicle and got out to take a look. Is your family member being totally honest? 

The fact that they have a clear memory of the event raises a couple of alarm bells as well - who remembers parking a car a month ago unless something pretty noteworthy happened? As is the fact that they're only "99.9% sure" that there was no contact - in other words, they think that maybe there was some contact...

To an outside observer it does rather sound like they knew they'd made contact, got out, checked for damage, decided there was none, then drove quickly off realising that they'd made a bit of a fool of themselves. Maybe there was some damage and they just didn't look hard enough. Or maybe there wasn't and the owner of the other car is trying to claim something for a different scratch that was already there. Either way I imagine the insurance company would think they were on the back foot if they tried to defend any claim.

sassy_one said:

I will add due to no accident happening they didn't leave details, and the Police have no made any contact, far as I'm aware that's the only way they'd of got the insurance details of relative

If you have the registration number of a car (through dashcam, doorbell camera, curtain twitching neighbour etc) then you can get the insurance details for a small fee from ASKMID.

DullGreyGuy

Car_54 said:

sassy_one said:

I add the third party has taken 3 weeks to make this claim, surely that rings alarm bells?

Not really - they have three years!

They have 6 years @car_54, it's only reduced to 3 years if there is an injury claim. 

Devongardener said:

Surely the first thing to do is ask for photographic evidence of the damage claimed and ask for evidence that it was their car that caused the alleged damage.  Your insurance company must provide you with this, otherwise anyone could claim for damage against any random driver.
You say your relative has been back to the road and seen the car for themselves, did they take photos, to compare?

No "must" at all @devongardener as the law allows an insurer to settle a claim as it sees fit without needing the consent of their insured. Were that not the case then innocent victims may never receive anything if the at fault driver could bind their insurer not to settle. 

In practice most insurers will share materials for their insureds comment, they dont want to pay out on something they dont have to however they may take an economic view... there is no point spending £2,000 in claims handling fees, barristers etc to defend a claim for £50 as these fees are unrecoverable in small track cases. 


The OP should ask for evidence and I'd suggest also how much the claim is for and if the claim is coming directly from the third party or via their insurer or another representative. 

If the claim really was for £50 then it could well be cheaper to settle it personally than have the fault claim on record. I personally dont know who gets out to check if they've parking sensors unless there is a reasonable prospect contact was actually made. 

BEBELUCA2017

Car_54 said:

sassy_one said:

I add the third party has taken 3 weeks to make this claim, surely that rings alarm bells?

Not really - they have three years!

Six years actually. 

caprikid1

There really is little they can do, I doubt this is a scam, the fact that they got out to check tells you everything.

The insurance company is not going to waste money fighting a claim with no PI associated, they will give balance of probability to third party I suspect. 

By all means fight and deny it but it sounds a classic example of I nudged it got out to check, looked at my car could see no damage therefore any damage on the other car must be pre existing.