Car Insurance - Insurance forcing 50/50 split

Discountdude444

Hi All,

I'm with Churchill Car insurance, I had an incident last month where I drove into a Car park, located a empty space, I started reverse parking, I got about 20% in to the bay and the women / car next to the empty bay put her reverse lights on and started to reverse into my car, hitting my rear driver side door/wheel arch.

She then pulled forward, I then pulled foward to get a look at the damage. She got out of the Car and appologised and offered to pay privately for the damages, gave me all her contact details etc.

She then changed her mind after I provided her a quote and said we will need to go through insurance. Now she's refusing liability.

I provided the insurance photos and text messages where she was asking for quotes for damages, which was too much so they went with the insurance.

What rights do I have, or how should I proceed with it?

cw8825

If there is no evidence, it is your word verus hers. both of you were and have admitted to reversing
It is a clear 50/50
her apologising is not an admission in itself, she wont be aware of how these decisions are made
your insurance are giving you the best way to settle this quickly
they are not going to take it to court, refusal to accept is simply delaying the inevitable 

MyRealNameToo

Discountdude444 said:

I'm with Churchill Car insurance, I had an incident last month where I drove into a Car park, located a empty space, I started reverse parking, I got about 20% in to the bay and the women / car next to the empty bay put her reverse lights on and started to reverse into my car, hitting my rear driver side door/wheel arch.

She then pulled forward, I then pulled foward to get a look at the damage. She got out of the Car and appologised and offered to pay privately for the damages, gave me all her contact details etc.

She then changed her mind after I provided her a quote and said we will need to go through insurance. Now she's refusing liability.

I provided the insurance photos and text messages where she was asking for quotes for damages, which was too much so they went with the insurance.

What rights do I have, or how should I proceed with it?

Your policy will state that they have exclusive right to decide how the claim should be settled. You can express your opinion/ register a complaint but ultimately they can go 50/50 if they want to. 

The circumstances as described are unclear however the immediate takeaway will be two vehicles reversing so likely to be 50/50 

Discountdude444

Thanks for confirming. If only their was CCTV in the area... I guess i'll notify the insurance to accept the terms of 50/50 and payout for her inability to check her mirrors 

MyRealNameToo

Discountdude444 said:

Thanks for confirming. If only their was CCTV in the area... I guess i'll notify the insurance to accept the terms of 50/50 and payout for her inability to check her mirrors 

It may be worth having a conversation with them, even if they can accept the 50/50 without your consent a conversation can sometimes give another line of enquiry etc.

In my claims days we had an FNOL team, they took all reports of new claims. Their job was to setup the claim, capture the relevant details and get the ball rolling on repairs to the customer's vehicle. They had 3 lines in which to summarise the circumstances (though could add a file note if 3 lines wasnt enough) and then had 7 simplified scenarios to choose from effectively being PH at fault, TP at fault, Its disputed and its complex which, along with an injury flag, determined which technical team the case was allocated to.

Like all call centres they are targeted on how long calls take and how long they spend between calls unavailable typing up notes. Needless to say they try and be brief and some policyholders add a lot of unneeded details (one started with what they had for breakfast before being sidetracked into how they found out they were gluten intolerant). The problem with brevity is that important details can be skipped. 

I worked in the disputed and fast track team so often would call the customer back to get the full circumstances but not everyone did and if you were in the fault team and the case said PH went into rear of TP most wouldnt waste time speaking to the PH but instead would reach out to the TP to offer them assistance. 

More than once the notes may have lead me one way but the conversation revealed other key facts and ended up going a different way. That may be a better outcome than FNOL thought or a worse one but then they had 1 days basic training whereas we had three weeks training and a further 3 months of every case being reviewed so no wonder the differences. 

XRS200

Did DGG get banned?

chrisw

XRS200 said:

Did DGG get banned?

So it says.

XRS200

chrisw said:

XRS200 said:

Did DGG get banned?

So it says.

And resurrected, again.