Insurance Rant!

[Sockpuppet]

Perhaps then your insurance does pay as no other vehicle is involved.

It's the same as your house. If a tile fell off your roof and it hit a passer by, your home insurance would cover it (I think it would anyway). If somebody burgles your house, you don't expect to claim on the burglar's insurance, you expect your insurance to pay. You insure against the risk of being burgled; in the same way your car insurance would insure you against the risk of being driven into, as well as the risk of you injuring a pedestrian or crashing into a lampost.

Isn't home insurance known as an "all risks" policy so they also cover you if your dog bites someone etc.

[Old Greg]

For those who don't venture into TPD last week I ran into the back of someone coming out of a junction as they had stopped in the middle of the road, entirely my fault and I admit that, on first inspection there was no damage to their car and a bit to mine but not enough to worry about it, she mentioned something about renewing her policy in a few days so trying to avoid going through our respective insurers and looking at the damage (or lack off) I was happy with this. Few days later I get a call saying there is damage to the boot and "behind the bumper" so it will have to go through the insurance, again no worries.

Get a letter through yesterday from their solicitors claiming "in excess of £10,000" due to whiplash, driving anxiety and lost earnings, **** sake I thought I was on a good rate as given they only had one day off (the form stated this). So I go back to the photos I have taken off the cars and again confirm there is no visible damage to her car and given the speed of impact was below 5mph I spoke to my insurers saying I wanted to contest the level of the claim, only to be told that with fault established it is not in their and thus my, interest to negotiate the claim and just settle.

Are things that ****ed up with our legal system that it is cheaper to just settle than try and negotiate a fair deal? I wonder how much the case would cost if third party claims management firms were not involved, or no win no fee cases were abolished.

Did she have valid insurance?

[Alias]

...So I go back to the photos I have taken off the cars and again confirm there is no visible damage to her car and given the speed of impact was below 5mph I spoke to my insurers saying I wanted to contest the level of the claim, only to be told that with fault established it is not in their and thus my, interest to negotiate the claim and just settle...

tbh, i'd get onto a solicitor and make sure that they couldn't claim that much off ya and not "just settle" regardless of blame...

[SueEllen]

tbh, i'd get onto a solicitor and make sure that they couldn't claim that much off ya and not "just settle" regardless of blame...

Unfortunately in your policy you agree for the insurance company to handle it, so you can't do anything.

So unless you called the police and indicated it was a set up then the insurer will pay out.

[ASB]

Unfortunately in your policy you agree for the insurance company to handle it, so you can't do anything.

So unless you called the police and indicated it was a set up then the insurer will pay out.

Yep. It's a bit of a bugger. Some years ago I had some geezer run into the back of me on the M4. Damage wasn't too bad, about 2k at the time. It ended up being "knock for knock" and I got demerit on NCB and premiums.

So, I went to see solicitor. His view was that the insurers were perfectly within their rights. If I wanted to do anything about it I would have to sue the other driver. He also indicated that it was his opinion I would win.

I suggested we go forwards, which is when I also discovered I would be wasting my time. Even if I won (as expected) all I would be able to recover would be MY loss. That would be limited to the increased insurance premiums.

It's down to the insurer if they want to fight a claim, or try and recover from the other party. But the obvious easy option is just to pay out. Crappy system, but its the one we have.

[TykeMerc]

Interesting. When the wife was hit from behind at a far lower speed - car behind thought she was going to pull out and pulled out themself - her insurance company (NOT some dodgy specialist accident company) were very keen to get her to claim for injury.

I've had something similar in the last month.

Some old dear tried to pull across the road I had just turned into, she admitted full fault verbally at the time, to the insurers etc and I've had notification from my insurers that she's admitted responsibility. The bingle wasn't at high speed 10mph tops, but it trashed the bumper on my car and one of the light fitting things, all repaired with replacement car while mine was in dock.

Within minutes of my call to my insurers they had a firm of solicitors calling me asking if I'd suffered any injury and I had a similar call from the other parties insurers with some personal injury claims bod. Neither legal type was pushy, but it was pretty obvious they were keen for me to make some personal injury claim and there were follow up calls over several days after the event.
I suppose some people would call me pretty daft for not pushing a dodgy claim, but I didn't lose any work and I didn't suffer any injury.

[SueEllen]

I've had something similar in the last month.

Some old dear tried to pull across the road I had just turned into, she admitted full fault verbally at the time, to the insurers etc and I've had notification from my insurers that she's admitted responsibility. The bingle wasn't at high speed 10mph tops, but it trashed the bumper on my car and one of the light fitting things, all repaired with replacement car while mine was in dock.

Unfortunately the courts - and insurers know this - don't take any claim of liability at the scene or a couple of hours later into account as the parties are in "shock". This is why you need the address and/or phone number and name of a witness, or a police report. - Though I strongly suspect witness statements will now carry more weight than a police report.

Within minutes of my call to my insurers they had a firm of solicitors calling me asking if I'd suffered any injury and I had a similar call from the other parties insurers with some personal injury claims bod. Neither legal type was pushy, but it was pretty obvious they were keen for me to make some personal injury claim and there were follow up calls over several days after the event.
I suppose some people would call me pretty daft for not pushing a dodgy claim, but I didn't lose any work and I didn't suffer any injury.

I've had that as well. It was amusing for one of my no-fault claims as I was no where near the car at the time and a local builder saw it all happen, which is why I could claim. I actually got a phone call from a firm of solicitors twice and had to explain this to their obvious dismay. The insurer was also upset as they contacted me about four times to ask me if I needed a hire car and I said no as I was using public transport to get to my role.

The government has banned insurers from getting referral fees from solicitors etc. so anyone having accidents from now on should get less tulip. Unfortunately there are still insurers who have solicitors in their group of companies.....

[Wanderer]

The government has banned insurers from getting referral fees from solicitors etc. so anyone having accidents from now on should get less tulip. Unfortunately there are still insurers who have solicitors in their group of companies.....

Yep, for a while it was a really dirty system. If you got rear ended, your insurer would actually get a kick back from a solicitor they passed your details to so they would encourage you to make a claim against the other parties insurer for whiplash. They hated doing it but their reasoning was that everyone else was doing it so they had to do it too.

It's just a terminally screwed up system. The biggest winners are the ambulance chasing solicitors...

[AtW]

Get a letter through yesterday from their solicitors claiming "in excess of £10,000" due to whiplash, driving anxiety and lost earnings, **** sake I thought

Did you have "legal" extra on your insurance? Maybe that would have helped.

[AtW]

I suppose some people would call me pretty daft for not pushing a dodgy claim, but I didn't lose any work and I didn't suffer any injury.

You've done the right thing.