Car Accident- County Court claim defendant

GajaK

I have received a County Court Claim Form I received, dated 11/03/25. This claim pertains to a minor incident involving my vehicle, which caused slight damage to another car while reversing. It is important to note that the bumper of the other vehicle was already damaged prior to our encounter, and my car only left a small mark on it. To my surprise, the claim demands nearly £5,000 for the alleged damages, which I believe is excessively high given the circumstances. Furthermore, the County Court Claim Form did not include any details regarding the repairs made to the damaged vehicle, leaving me with significant concerns about the validity of this claim. Additionally, I would like to mention that I believed I had selected the appropriate insurance coverage for commuting when I purchased my policy, as the incident occurred in a workplace car park. However, when I informed my insurer of this incident the next day, I have been informed that my policy did not cover commuting activities. This revelation shocked me, as I may have misinterpreted the options available during the selection process. Consequently, I immediately acquired the necessary insurance coverage. I am more than willing to address and pay for any legitimate damages caused by my vehicle; however, due to the lack of documentation supporting this claim, I am contemplating defending myself against it. What are yoir thoughts

LightFlare

My thoughts are why isn’t your insurance company dealing with it or did they invalidate your cover when Informed of the lack of commuting cover ?

GajaK

Just to add, the cleimants car was parked. I hit it, then he came out and said 'it's fine.. dont worry, I've got to fix it anyways' I offered him my details but he said no thanks and then came to speak with me the next day and ask for the details.

Brie

LightFlare said:

My thoughts are why isn’t your insurance company dealing with it or did they invalidate your cover when Informed of the lack of commuting cover ?

sounded to me like the insurance already wasn't valid at the time of the incident therefore the insurance company wouldn't deal with this.

Hopefully the OP has photos from when the incident happened in order to substantiate the claim that the damage was minimal.  The only way I was thinking there might be £5k worth of costs was if they insisted on a full car repaint so everything matches something car insurance won't normally do - they would just so the damaged area as far as I'm aware.

So I googled car respray costs and found this on Parkers....



Car respray costs and benefits: Is it worth the expense?

All of which suggests their claim may be really overly inflated.  Likely on the basis that they have discovered the OP wasn't properly insured at the time of the accident.  

Mark_d

You insurance did not cover you for commuting, as per your insurance documents.  You should have checked your documents as it is illegal to drive without insurance.

You say the other vehicle was already damaged and that your car only made a small mark on it.  Do you have photographic or witness evidence to back up these claims?

Does the £5000 being claimed only relate to the vehicle damage or does it include hire car,lost time, personal injury etc.?
If there is no evidence to support the amount being claimed then you may have dodged a bullet

Mark_d

GajaK said:

Just to add, the cleimants car was parked. I hit it, then he came out and said 'it's fine.. dont worry, I've got to fix it anyways' I offered him my details but he said no thanks and then came to speak with me the next day and ask for the details.

If it was an executive car then even a small job would cost a small fortune

DullGreyGuy

Mark_d said:

GajaK said:

Just to add, the cleimants car was parked. I hit it, then he came out and said 'it's fine.. dont worry, I've got to fix it anyways' I offered him my details but he said no thanks and then came to speak with me the next day and ask for the details.

If it was an executive car then even a small job would cost a small fortune

Even a non-small job costs a fortune when you say its to do with insurance... they will replace items rather than repair, spraying will include blending in to all adjacent panels etc.

Add to that its very possible they have had a hire vehicle whilst theirs was in for repairs... if its an AMC dealing with it then the hire will be on credit terms which are considerably higher than the rates for a normal hire car. 

Car_54

GajaK said:

I have received a County Court Claim Form I received, dated 11/03/25. This claim pertains to a minor incident involving my vehicle, which caused slight damage to another car while reversing. It is important to note that the bumper of the other vehicle was already damaged prior to our encounter, and my car only left a small mark on it. To my surprise, the claim demands nearly £5,000 for the alleged damages, which I believe is excessively high given the circumstances. Furthermore, the County Court Claim Form did not include any details regarding the repairs made to the damaged vehicle, leaving me with significant concerns about the validity of this claim.

They do not need actually to have the car repaired.

What they can legitimately claim is the decrease in the value of the vehicle due to the collision. In practice, the courts accept the cost of repairs (whether actual or just estimated) as equivalent to that loss of value.

GajaK

LightFlare said:

My thoughts are why isn’t your insurance company dealing with it or did they invalidate your cover when Informed of the lack of commuting cover ?

they didn't cancel my cover at all, I have added commuting as soon as it came to light it wasn't included. It was a genuine mistake. This was a second car that was added to the insurance, first car had commuting so when I was adding the second one I was convinced I picked the same option.

GajaK

DullGreyGuy said:

Mark_d said:

GajaK said:

Just to add, the cleimants car was parked. I hit it, then he came out and said 'it's fine.. dont worry, I've got to fix it anyways' I offered him my details but he said no thanks and then came to speak with me the next day and ask for the details.

If it was an executive car then even a small job would cost a small fortune

Even a non-small job costs a fortune when you say its to do with insurance... they will replace items rather than repair, spraying will include blending in to all adjacent panels etc.

Add to that its very possible they have had a hire vehicle whilst theirs was in for repairs... if its an AMC dealing with it then the hire will be on credit terms which are considerably higher than the rates for a normal hire car. 

my insurance company paid for the hire car as they accepted the cost, I only had to pay excess of £650

GajaK

Mark_d said:

You insurance did not cover you for commuting, as per your insurance documents.  You should have checked your documents as it is illegal to drive without insurance.

You say the other vehicle was already damaged and that your car only made a small mark on it.  Do you have photographic or witness evidence to back up these claims?

Does the £5000 being claimed only relate to the vehicle damage or does it include hire car,lost time, personal injury etc.?
If there is no evidence to support the amount being claimed then you may have dodged a bullet

It was a genuine mistake. This was a second car that was added to the insurance, first car had commuting so when I was adding the second one I was convinced I picked the same option. I have pictures of the damage I did, there was 2 witnesses there and the victim confirmed which damage I did in front of everybody. I asked the victim if he would like to take my details for insurance and he said that it's fine and he doesn't want them as he need's to fix it anyways. The next day he came to my office (his workplace is opposite mine) and asked me for the details. I have no documentation on of what he is claiming for. The total cost is around £4900 of which £4600 is just for the damage repairs. Shouldn't County Claims include all the history of the repair when these are received?