I had a minor car accident back in March. The other party admitted liability in writing. However my insurance company have been chasing me up to help recover my uninsured losses from the other party. This means signing a letter of authority to start court proceedings. I have been told this would rarely go to court over a relatively small amount. I have fully comp insurance plus legal expenses cover.
What is the question here? Your insurance will launch a claim vs the defendant to recover losses. The court proceedings mentioned is a threat of court proceedings unless a settlement can be made. If the defendant admitted liability in full, in writing, it likely won’t go all the way to court. For the claimant (you) to recover those losses, you need to give consent for your insurers to pursue it.
Does this info help?
Did the other driver produce evidence of insurance cover? - In case of an accident, all drivers involved are supposed to show such evidence to other drivers involved. If your insurer is intending to take this to court, then I can only assume either he has no insurance (an offense in itself) or his company are a fly by night organisation that won’t pay up. It depends on the extent of damage, and any subsequent loss, eg. Repairs and loss of income, or other travel expenses.
You say it’s a relatively small amount, that depends on what you class as small? Bear in mind if the driver has no insurance, then he shouldn’t be on the road, and the court (or the police) may prosecute him. Also - if the other driver has insurance with a reputable company who won’t pay up, then the court needs to find out why - if only for the sake of other drivers who suffer the same fate.
Bear in mind also that you are entitled to claim additional costs if you have to attend court yourself, like travel expenses and loss of income. I get the feeling you are asking “Is it worth the trouble?” and I would say that de;pends on not just the money, but the time wasted by the other driver and his insurer - if he has one. There’s also a question of interest on an accident occurring in March, but not paid up by the end of November. You need to decide “Is it worth it?”
There is also the question of ‘come backs’ - did the other driver strike you as possibly offensive or aggressive? - if he readily supplied a letter of responsibility then he sounds fair enough to me, but you need to think carefully before you decide if you are going to go to court or not, if you have any fears of collateral damage. A bottle of paint stripper or even coke can do a lot of damage as an act of retribution, so again, give it some thought.
Good luck - whatever you decide.
I’m sure that somewhere in the Policy document small print you’ll find a clause which says something like “the insured party is obliged to give the insurer every assistance to recover the losses from the third party or their insurer”.
Your Insurer already has authority from you to pursue the third party. They are your ‘agent’ insofar as recovery goes and your uninsured losses normally form part of the claim, being an integral part of your total amount of loss.
If the 3rd party declines to pay the full claim his insurers must meet it. Occasionally your insurers may choose to negotiate with the other insurers to reduce the amounts settled (used to be called ‘knock-for-knock’ but now illegal I believe but is not unknown). As previously said they should already have what they are asking for but no harm in complying with their request provided you read the letter very carefully. This occasionally occurs when the insurer anticipates problems down the line (of which you may not have been informed) and try to pre-empt their anticipated losses.
Are your insurers a main-line quoted company? My caution stems from when I was badly caught by a chap called Emile Savundra of Vehicle & General infamy- some on here may remember him!
By the way, the repetitive recurrence of ‘Not found… error 404’ is becoming more than a pain when posting replies. Other searches are also ridiculously slow - not unlike a very low-powered car with the handbrake on permanently. Sorry chaps, but it’s slower than dial-up.
Also, immediately after my last post here I felt obliged to post a very mild criticism about site speed and Error 404. That has disappeared completely. I assume that was an anomaly and not a result of censoring.
Now it’s turned up. Is there a first and second post on here?
Fidder - No, it’s the delay; but I like your analogy!
You need to recover your excess from the third party as absolute proof that this was a no fault claim on your part.
Until you do the claim will be recorded as fault claim on your file and come renewal time your premium will increase, even if you change companies this will still follow you.
Do it and protect your no claims bonus!!
There’s a lot of nonsense and misinformation posted on forums. This post has more than it’s fair share already.
Re my post #4, the wording in my policy document is as follows:-
“Anyone claiming cover under this policy must give us whatever information, documentation and help we need and continue to do so until the claim is concluded”.
You are right of course. In the interests of accuracy it would be helpful if you were to identify those you believe to contain nonsense, and why, so that the OP is not accidentally misled. Thanks.
Thanks. I thought it might be that posts were proof read prior to publication and there was a ‘road block’ at busy times. It took over a minute to load! Never come across that before and being new on here didn’t want to cast any aspersions. Apologies if I trod on toes!
I’ve been involved with a claim for 20yrs so not familiar with the process nowadays. When I spoke to the solicitor dealing with my case he did mention small print in policy about assisting with claims etc. I just thought it was being heavy handed so that they can get there money back ?
I don’t want to add to the misinformation here, but surely if it is uninsured losses that they are seeking your help in chasing then presumably you have not been paid out for them? So it isn’t their money that they are trying to recover, but yours.
Do you have legal cover? Perhaps it has leapt into action.
May I suggest that you get in touch with your insurers and ask them to explain things to you. That way you’ll get the facts and not just a lot of opinions and guessing by the rest of us.
its should not have an apostrophe.
See the Oxford English Dictionary. Either version is correct.
Yes. It’s bashing its head against the wall again…