Best course of action?

waribai

Hi,

This morning at 7am, a car  that had been parked overnight on the road infront of my house, u-turned and  reversed into the front wall of our garden and damaged a large section of the wall. My sister in law who is staying with us saw it happen and jotted down the VRN and the incident was also picked up on our ring camera but not the VRN as the resolution was not good enough. An independent witness on the road saw it happen too. He didn't note the VRN but he remembered the driver's reaction of shock and gave a godo description of the driver.

Unfortunately, possibly through panic or being late for work the driver left the scene. I was hoping that they would return this evening and come clean but nobody turned up. So, I went for a walk. I deduced that they were possibly residing in some nearby flats hence why they parked in front of my house as they only have one parking bay and probably had a visitor last night. So, I went for a walk in the adjacent roads to ours  to see if I could find the car and  lo and behold this evening, I found the car in the car park of the flats. We took photographs of the car including the damage to their rear bumper and I looked up the registered keeper's insurance details on askmid. 
Would it be advisable to contact the 3rd party's insurance company (Admiral). My home insurance is with Admiral too but if I contact them I will have to pay an initial excess of £500.

HHarry

The first thing I’d do is report it to the Police.  They may pop round and give the owner a little reminder about their responsibility to pass on their details in the event of an accident.  They may not if they’re busy.

WellKnownSid

HHarry said:

The first thing I’d do is report it to the Police.  They may pop round and give the owner a little reminder about their responsibility to pass on their details in the event of an accident.  They may not if they’re busy.

We had a very similar thing happen to us.  In our experience the long arm of the law doesn't stretch too far... especially if the vehicle has been sold and the driver hasn't updated the DVLA where the matter is immediately placed onto the too-hard tray.

DullGreyGuy

HHarry said:

The first thing I’d do is report it to the Police.  They may pop round and give the owner a little reminder about their responsibility to pass on their details in the event of an accident.  They may not if they’re busy.

It's not bad to have a formal record with the police but the OP shouldn't be disappointed if they say just leave it to the insurers to deal with. Ultimately if the vehicle has been seen parked up outside a residence after the incident they may decide to swing by if they are in the area but probably not. 


There is no harm in contacting the Third Party Insurer, different insurers have different approaches when it comes to taking first notification of loss from someone other than their insured. Insurers are always keen to deal with other motorists directly, there's a whole industry around it trying to inflate claims costs that they want to avoid, but not always so keen for those with non-vehiclular property damage both because there are less accident management companies and secondly there are less synergies with their motor claims systems.

waribai

Thanks. I actually left a note on their windscreen with words to the effect of "We know it's you, we have the footage". They came round this morning and tried to say that they thought they had hit a bin and didn't realise the damage they caused.  After insisting on seeing the footage, they have now filed a report with Admiral (their insurer) and supplied me with the claim reference. I have also reported it to Admiral (home insurance) but just as a notification. Is there anything else I need to do to achieve a satisfactory outcome?

ButterCheese

When this happened to us, we were told we had to deal with the driver's insurance, assuming they have any.  Our home insurance would not get involved.  BTW, this was drunk/drug driver who was arrested on scene.  We eventually got the payout to repair the wall but it took over a year

DullGreyGuy

waribai said:

Thanks. I actually left a note on their windscreen with words to the effect of "We know it's you, we have the footage". They came round this morning and tried to say that they thought they had hit a bin and didn't realise the damage they caused.  After insisting on seeing the footage, they have now filed a report with Admiral (their insurer) and supplied me with the claim reference. I have also reported it to Admiral (home insurance) but just as a notification. Is there anything else I need to do to achieve a satisfactory outcome?

Speak to their insurer to discuss making the claim... they may ask you to provide estimates or they may say they'll send a loss adjuster. 

Make sure you have clear photos of the damage and measurements of both what's actually been knocked down and what's damaged but still standing. The most common contention on this kind of claim is that a 3m of a 6m wall is knocked down but the claimant then submits quotes for building a 6m wall so the insurer just offers 50% pointing out they are only liable for the damaged portion not the undamaged elements. 

Whilst they are the same company, by claiming off their insurance you dont have any rights to go to the Ombudsman if you are unhappy with their settlement etc.

ButterCheese said:
BTW, this was drunk/drug driver who was arrested on scene.  We eventually got the payout to repair the wall but it took over a year

Many insurers exclude cover if the driver is over the drink/drug limit. They still have responsibilities under the road traffic act as the RTA Insurer but how insurers deal with this does vary. Technically the RTA required an unsatisfied court order against the driver before they are legally obliged to respond but most will act before this but it does significantly slow things.

ButterCheese

DullGreyGuy said:

waribai said:

Thanks. I actually left a note on their windscreen with words to the effect of "We know it's you, we have the footage". They came round this morning and tried to say that they thought they had hit a bin and didn't realise the damage they caused.  After insisting on seeing the footage, they have now filed a report with Admiral (their insurer) and supplied me with the claim reference. I have also reported it to Admiral (home insurance) but just as a notification. Is there anything else I need to do to achieve a satisfactory outcome?

Speak to their insurer to discuss making the claim... they may ask you to provide estimates or they may say they'll send a loss adjuster. 

Make sure you have clear photos of the damage and measurements of both what's actually been knocked down and what's damaged but still standing. The most common contention on this kind of claim is that a 3m of a 6m wall is knocked down but the claimant then submits quotes for building a 6m wall so the insurer just offers 50% pointing out they are only liable for the damaged portion not the undamaged elements. 

Whilst they are the same company, by claiming off their insurance you dont have any rights to go to the Ombudsman if you are unhappy with their settlement etc.

ButterCheese said:
BTW, this was drunk/drug driver who was arrested on scene.  We eventually got the payout to repair the wall but it took over a year

Many insurers exclude cover if the driver is over the drink/drug limit. They still have responsibilities under the road traffic act as the RTA Insurer but how insurers deal with this does vary. Technically the RTA required an unsatisfied court order against the driver before they are legally obliged to respond but most will act before this but it does significantly slow things.

Just to add some more detail - the drink driver was too violent to get a blood sample from.  The Police did not have any evidence to prove he was driving (even though a neighbour tackled him and got the keys off him).  So he was not charged.  His insurers wanted a quote; no-one wanted to do the work so they quoted a stupidly high price like £7k.  His insurers said this was too much and wanted to send their own contacts to survey the damage and provide an estimate.  They then said it would cost £9k so the work was done and paid for by his insurers.  This is why it dragged on for so long.  My partner had to constantly chase them (I did not live with her at the time) and had it not been for that, it would have taken longer.  I wish you all the best

waribai

Ok. I don't think they were drunk as it was 7:15 in the morning. I did though have to track their vehicle down. The driver herself was quite apologetic but her partner seemed to be surprised that reversing into a low wall could have knocked down such a significant section. I have all the ring footage though although the actual point of impact is obscured by our porch pillar. But you can clearly see my child running back 1 minute later (she was on her way to school and thank god she was a minute later than usual otherwise she could have been behind the wall or on the pavement) after she sees the impact and the wall is clearly damaged in that video. My photos are also timestamped 5 minutes later. My only concern is that I have not heard from Admiral motor insurance (their insurer). How long to leave it?

Hoenir

waribai said:

 My only concern is that I have not heard from Admiral motor insurance (their insurer). How long to leave it?

You should report the matter to your building insurers as well. 

user1977

waribai said:

My only concern is that I have not heard from Admiral motor insurance (their insurer). How long to leave it?

You're concerned, even though it was only reported to them earlier this morning? I would give them more than a couple of hours...is there any particular urgency about it?