Playing a waiting game??

[wongie]

In last October, my wife was waiting in her stationary car on her friend's private gravel drive when her friend reversed her car into my wife's. The damage to my wife's car is about GBP 550.

 

Our insurance company is happy with us going ahead with the repair but we have to pay for the excess. We feel that the accident was no fault of my wife and we would like her friend's insurance company to pay for the repair so that we do not incur the excess and most importantly we will not have a claim record.

 

We have asked our insurance company to persue the claim against the other company (as it turns out both cars are insured by the same insurance company). Our insurance company has come back a couple of times with excuses like: they could not persue further because the other driver was on her private drive and she was under no obligation to look at her rear mirror whilst reversing. We countered their argument with "what if there was a postman standing waiting for her to finish her reversing and got run over?" Now they said the other driver was claiming that my wife' car was not stationary when the accident occurred. My wife is adement that she was stationary and there were our children (age 12 and 8 ) in the car to testify that. Also there was only dent on the side of the front wing but not scratches as well (which one would normally get when the car was moving). There was also gravel marks to show that the car was pushed sideway not at an forward angle one would have got if the car was still moving when the crash happened. Now they said they could not use our children as witnesses as they are not independent (I wonder if the same argument could be used if it were a murder case !!!). All these comments came from the solicitors of our insurance company! Aren't they supposed to be on our side and help us to recover the damages??

 

We have a feeling that the insurance company is not really doing anything about it and not really interested in it (it has been 6 months now) and just playing a waiting game and hope that we will eventually lost our patience and go ahead with the repair and pay the excess or pay the whole lot if we dont want any claim record. We have tried to contact them many many times by phone and letter and they just said it is being dealt with.

 

We would like to know if there is something we could do to speed up the process; can we write a letter to give them deadline or anything? We are only talking about extra GBP 150 excess that they have to cough up on top of the GBP 550 which they have to pay anyway!!

 

Any comments would be appreciated

[Yorkyclaims]

You can write direct to the Insurance Company quoting your friends address. Writing in the capacity of a third party you can hold them liable, and ask for the excess back. It is higly unlikely your ULR would provide cover as it is against the same company. All your lett needs to say is I am holding your Insured liable because xxxxxxxx. My Excess is £xxx, and I require the settlement excess cheque by return.

[wongie]

"You can write direct to the Insurance Company quoting your friends address. Writing in the capacity of a third party you can hold them liable, and ask for the excess back. It is higly unlikely your ULR would provide cover as it is against the same company. All your lett needs to say is I am holding your Insured liable because xxxxxxxx. My Excess is £xxx, and I require the settlement excess cheque by return."

 

Hi Craigwalton

 

Sorry, just to be clear. What did you mean by "Writing in the capacity of a third party you can hold them liable"? We cant be the third party, can we? We were involved in the accident.

 

Can I ask for the excess from the insurance company if I go ahead with the repair myself and pay for the repair? I do not want a claim record as I have not made a claim for over 10 years!

 

David