Liability

DesperatHousewife

I was hit by a driver on a single lane road.

Regardless I wasn't moving and he admitted fault at the scene.

No witnesses to accident but 2 that heard him admit fault.

I am 3rd party and the insurer says 50/50 yet the driver says he told them he was liable.

He's a liar as we asked him to provide that on paper and he refused.

Here's my issue.

My insurer won't pay as we are third party.

His insurance refuse to pay because we can't prove he was liable and they won't accept the witnesses statements that heard him admit it.

Neither company are offering anything towards the damage.

I get no gains from convincing anyone here but a can assure you 1000% we are not liable.

Insurance logic atm is:

nobody is paying anything for our car.

Can anyone advise where I go from here?

We have been without our family of 5 car since February.

Thank you.

Aretnap

There isn't an easy answer I'm afraid. 

As you are third pay only the damage to your car is not your insurer's problem in any way, shape or form I'm afraid. Their only job is to defend or pay any claim that the other driver makes against you. Unless and until they do get a claim from him there is literally nothing for them to do.

As far as the third party insurer goes, they work for the other driver, not for you, and if they won't deal with your claim then the only way to force them to do so is court action. You would have to issue a court claim against the other driver, and prove in court (on the blames of probabilities) that he was to blame for the accident. If your own insurance comes with motor legal protection then your insurer may be able to provide a solicitor to help with the process (though they would have to be convinced that you had a reasonable prospect of winning, which might be a problem without witnesses to the accident): if it doesn't then you would have to do it yourself or pay your own solicitor. 

It's a bit late to say it now but insuring your car third party only is something that you should only do if losing it is a risk that you feel you can afford to take.

Mildly_Miffed

And this is where your decision to "save money" by only buying third party insurance comes back to bite you...

Your insurer won't take it on, because they have no skin in the game at all.
Their insurer are saying "Not our policyholder's fault".

If you were insured comprehensively, you'd claim from your insurer. They may or may not, depending on how convincing your story was, then pursue the other insurer right up to court action. Without that, it's down to you persuading the other driver's insurer. You can, of course, take court action yourself.

In practice, without dashcam footage or independent witnesses to the collision itself, it's very unlikely it'd go totally your way.

DullGreyGuy

Is the vehicle repairable or a total loss? 

Assuming it's a total loss you'll need to get an engineers report on the car that will determine its pre accident value. This would be your claim against the third party however at this point the third party insurer is only going to pay out 50% of the net value as they are saying it's 50/50. So your choice is either to accept that or take the matter to court. 

If its economical to repair the car then you really need to do that, you could get a pro forma invoice instead but then there is always a risk further work is identified after the car is stripped and you won't be able to claim for that. Once repaired then you proceed as above.

TPO/TPFT gives you no cover for your vehicle or pursuing the third party in the event of an accident. Its also often more expensive than Comprehensive due to the negative selection of the types that typically buy it 

Mildly_Miffed

DullGreyGuy said:

Is the vehicle repairable or a total loss? 

Assuming it's a total loss you'll need to get an engineers report on the car that will determine its pre accident value. This would be your claim against the third party however at this point the third party insurer is only going to pay out 50% of the net value as they are saying it's 50/50. So your choice is either to accept that or take the matter to court.

And, in return, they'll hand you a bill for 50% of their policyholder's damage.

I know the usual answer is "knock for knock doesn't exist", but...

DullGreyGuy

Mildly_Miffed said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Is the vehicle repairable or a total loss? 

Assuming it's a total loss you'll need to get an engineers report on the car that will determine its pre accident value. This would be your claim against the third party however at this point the third party insurer is only going to pay out 50% of the net value as they are saying it's 50/50. So your choice is either to accept that or take the matter to court.

And, in return, they'll hand you a bill for 50% of their policyholder's damage.

I know the usual answer is "knock for knock doesn't exist", but...

They'll hand the OP's insurer the bill but at least that would then trigger their insurer to get involved in the debate on liability as their role in defence. 

Aretnap

Mildly_Miffed said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Is the vehicle repairable or a total loss? 

Assuming it's a total loss you'll need to get an engineers report on the car that will determine its pre accident value. This would be your claim against the third party however at this point the third party insurer is only going to pay out 50% of the net value as they are saying it's 50/50. So your choice is either to accept that or take the matter to court.

And, in return, they'll hand you a bill for 50% of their policyholder's damage.

That does get paid by your insurer though.

daveyjp

If you weren't moving the other party hit a stationary object so you can't be at fault,  the problem is proving it.

born_again

Mildly_Miffed said:

And this is where your decision to "save money" by only buying third party insurance comes back to bite you...

Not always the case. 

baser999

Any legal cover? As a separate policy or part of your household cover that you could perhaps refer to

Aretnap

baser999 said:

Any legal cover? As a separate policy or part of your household cover that you could perhaps refer to

Legal cover on a home insurance policy will not cover recovering losses relating to a road accident - it's designed not to overlap with legal cover on a motor policy.