83 Year old accused of damaging property

lorvik

Hi I hope someone will be able to give me some of advice please. my 83 year old mum lives in a park home and on the site they have lamp posts in some of the residents gardens٫ basically she has been accused of knocking one of these down by reversing into it in her car. but there is no damage at all to her car٫ no paint transfer from the lamp post٫ she is adamant she didn't do it as she would have seen or heard it. the only wItness the park managers say they have was supposedly standing beside her parked car when it was supposed to have happened. As my mum said why didn’t she shout or try and let her know if this was the case? The park manager has then given my mum a quote to get repairs done. And told her to go through her car insurance. My mum said she would let them know as she wanted to get advice as she didn’t do it. She came to stay with us for Christmas and upon our return there is an invoice for £750 for the repairs that have been carried out. And now they are demanding the money, she is a widower and a pensioner and certainly doesn’t have this money. And I am worried that them constantly demanding this will make her ill. But not sure of her rights could someone please advise.

FlorayG

Does she have legal advice cover on her car or house insurance? That would be the first thing, to get advice from them

lorvik

FlorayG said:

Does she have legal advice cover on her car or house insurance? That would be the first thing, to get advice from them

Hi Flora I am not sure but will look into this many thanks will let you know 😊

Car_54

FlorayG said:

Does she have legal advice cover on her car or house insurance? That would be the first thing, to get advice from them

No, the first thing would be to pass the invoice to her insurer. That's what she pays them for.

Also. she is contractually obliged to do so.

lorvik

Car_54 said:

FlorayG said:

Does she have legal advice cover on her car or house insurance? That would be the first thing, to get advice from them

No, the first thing would be to pass the invoice to her insurer. That's what she pays them for.

Also. she is contractually obliged to do so.

Hi car 54 but by doing that surely she is admitting to something she didn’t do? 

Keep_pedalling

lorvik said:

Car_54 said:

FlorayG said:

Does she have legal advice cover on her car or house insurance? That would be the first thing, to get advice from them

No, the first thing would be to pass the invoice to her insurer. That's what she pays them for.

Also. she is contractually obliged to do so.

Hi car 54 but by doing that surely she is admitting to something she didn’t do? 

She needs to inform her insurance company that she has been accused of causing damage to 3rd party property but that does not mean she admits that she actually did it. They will then deal with the claim. Whether she actually did caused the damage or not this may still go down as an at fault claim as this is a he said she said situation.

DullGreyGuy

FlorayG said:

Does she have legal advice cover on her car or house insurance? That would be the first thing, to get advice from them

Home insurance excludes matters related to using a motor vehicle

Motor Legal Expenses cover recovering your uninsured losses in relation to a non-fault claim. 

Dealing with someone accusing you of damaging their property is the core of what your motor insurance itself is there to deal with. 

At £750 its highly likely the insurer will just decide to pay it as spending months of asking for evidence etc is going to cost them a notable sum and there's still a reasonable chance of them then having to pay the £750 at the end anyway. 

Mildly_Miffed

lorvik said:

Hi I hope someone will be able to give me some of advice please. my 83 year old mum lives in a park home and on the site they have lamp posts in some of the residents gardens٫ basically she has been accused of knocking one of these down by reversing into it in her car. but there is no damage at all to her car٫ no paint transfer from the lamp post٫ she is adamant she didn't do it as she would have seen or heard it. the only wItness the park managers say they have was supposedly standing beside her parked car when it was supposed to have happened. As my mum said why didn’t she shout or try and let her know if this was the case? The park manager has then given my mum a quote to get repairs done. And told her to go through her car insurance. My mum said she would let them know as she wanted to get advice as she didn’t do it. She came to stay with us for Christmas and upon our return there is an invoice for £750 for the repairs that have been carried out. And now they are demanding the money, she is a widower and a pensioner and certainly doesn’t have this money. And I am worried that them constantly demanding this will make her ill. But not sure of her rights could someone please advise.

Let's try and view this as dispassionately as possible - yes, it's your mother, so that's hard - but it's the only way to get a grasp on the realities of the situation. And, let's be honest, the fact we're talking about an 83yo driver does not make it LESS likely that this happened as described without them being aware of it...

A lamp post has been knocked over by a vehicle.
There is a witness.
The driver accused does manouevre in the area, but says they don't recall it and never noticed it.

This is a straightforward he-said-she-said. What the driver thinks the witness should have done at the time is irrelevant, and a low speed parking impact to a lamp post may well not leave much of a mark on a bumper, especially if the post was not terribly solidly installed in the first place.

Your mother has a straightforward choice:

1. Pay it herself.

2. Give the park manager her insurance details - then tell the insurer she disputes the claim, but has no evidence to support her position.

3. Refuse to pay and wait for a small claim to be lodged against her, then defend the claim in court.

Given this is the manager of the site she lives on, with the reputation that "park home" management have, I would suggest the last is the worst idea for future relations.

Given the size of the claim, it is very unlikely that the insurer will do anything but regard it as an at-fault claim, pay it and then ask her to cover her excess - how much is that?

Aretnap

Mildly_Miffed said:

lorvik said:

Hi I hope someone will be able to give me some of advice please. my 83 year old mum lives in a park home and on the site they have lamp posts in some of the residents gardens٫ basically she has been accused of knocking one of these down by reversing into it in her car. but there is no damage at all to her car٫ no paint transfer from the lamp post٫ she is adamant she didn't do it as she would have seen or heard it. the only wItness the park managers say they have was supposedly standing beside her parked car when it was supposed to have happened. As my mum said why didn’t she shout or try and let her know if this was the case? The park manager has then given my mum a quote to get repairs done. And told her to go through her car insurance. My mum said she would let them know as she wanted to get advice as she didn’t do it. She came to stay with us for Christmas and upon our return there is an invoice for £750 for the repairs that have been carried out. And now they are demanding the money, she is a widower and a pensioner and certainly doesn’t have this money. And I am worried that them constantly demanding this will make her ill. But not sure of her rights could someone please advise.

Given the size of the claim, it is very unlikely that the insurer will do anything but regard it as an at-fault claim, pay it and then ask her to cover her excess - how much is that?

There will be no excess to pay on a third party claim. The excess would only apply if she also claimed for damage to her own car, and by the sound of it there is no damage to her car.