So SWMBO has had a little bump with the neighbour. She was reversing off our drive in to a little side road that feeds 4 houses and someone coming up bumped her. She was far enough out that the other car has hit the rear passenger side bumper/wheel and damaged bonnet and passenger light on other car.
Got CCTV of it and yes the missus should have looked to see her coming but argument is neighbour should have seen a large black 4x4 with reversing lights on as well. There were some workmens van parked badly at end of road so suspect both had half an eye on that so just unfortunate.
Fastforward and our insurace says they will accept liablity and the missus was at fault. Reversing in to a road is generally an automatic fault according to the insurance people. Now this is odd as I thought only being stationary and being hit buy a car behind was about the only time one party was 100% at fault. I have CCTV of it and she argued the other person had plenty of time to stop so was distracted so knock for knock but they've said the only way is to lodge an appeal and it will nearly always fail for the price of repairs as we'd have to prove negligence and that normally only passes for really bad speeding or other fairly obvious reasons. Slow speed bump won't cut it.
So on to the question. Insurance mentioned we could get our repaired against our own comprehensive insurance and they gave the missus the name of the garage they recommend. It's only a bumper scuff so I can live with it so no need for insurance. They rang her again asking if she is going to progress and she said no. They advised they are closing the incident as a 'Communication Only Claim'. I assume this is the thing where you get loaded for just speaking to them as you've had a bump and are a risk even though there was no claim. Does this mean she will get loaded for the accident AND the Communication Only claim? There is now a claim by her and the other party? She didn't really know she was opening a claim when discussing liablity and hoping for a knock for knock so will feel a big conned in to opening a claim.
Anyone any experience of this 'Communication Only' thing? Can you be loaded twice for a single incident? Rung the insurance to ask twice but the drones on the desk say wait until renewal but that's 11 months away. I know you can get loaded just for speaking to them but don't want to get loaded twice for the same accident.
Got CCTV of it and yes the missus should have looked to see her coming but argument is neighbour should have seen a large black 4x4 with reversing lights on as well. There were some workmens van parked badly at end of road so suspect both had half an eye on that so just unfortunate.
Fastforward and our insurace says they will accept liablity and the missus was at fault. Reversing in to a road is generally an automatic fault according to the insurance people. Now this is odd as I thought only being stationary and being hit buy a car behind was about the only time one party was 100% at fault. I have CCTV of it and she argued the other person had plenty of time to stop so was distracted so knock for knock but they've said the only way is to lodge an appeal and it will nearly always fail for the price of repairs as we'd have to prove negligence and that normally only passes for really bad speeding or other fairly obvious reasons. Slow speed bump won't cut it.
So on to the question. Insurance mentioned we could get our repaired against our own comprehensive insurance and they gave the missus the name of the garage they recommend. It's only a bumper scuff so I can live with it so no need for insurance. They rang her again asking if she is going to progress and she said no. They advised they are closing the incident as a 'Communication Only Claim'. I assume this is the thing where you get loaded for just speaking to them as you've had a bump and are a risk even though there was no claim. Does this mean she will get loaded for the accident AND the Communication Only claim? There is now a claim by her and the other party? She didn't really know she was opening a claim when discussing liablity and hoping for a knock for knock so will feel a big conned in to opening a claim.
Anyone any experience of this 'Communication Only' thing? Can you be loaded twice for a single incident? Rung the insurance to ask twice but the drones on the desk say wait until renewal but that's 11 months away. I know you can get loaded just for speaking to them but don't want to get loaded twice for the same accident.
Comment