Hi All
A friend of mine's girlfriend's car has been hit when parked up.
She unfortunately let her insurance renewal lapse and has subsequently renewed it. The other person has admitted liability (hard not to when hitting a parked car!)
How can she claim on the other persons insurance. I said they should inform of a claim directly and obtain a quote for repairs and submit to the insurers together with all other ancillary costs.
Is this correct? My friend was concerned that as she had no insurance (at the time of the accident) the other party's insurance co would refuse to pay. She has spoken to the police who have said NFA for the insurance (as she has bought some since).
Thanks
Jonathan
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If it was parked in a private carpark then there's no problem claiming, but if it was on the public road I really don't know. If the Police aren't bothered, she's got nothing to lose by persuing the matter. I certainly would, but I'd have a solicitor on standby in case things get nasty.
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In exactly the same way as if she had third party insurance only.
Her lack of insurance is irrelevant.
As the other party has admitted liability, and has presumably informed his insurance company, then in my experience the ins co will do everything it has to.
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Jon
The status of her own insurance is irrelevant. She can't claim off the other car's insurer anyway, as she has no contract with them.
What she does is to claim damages from the owner of the other car. Just that - all the monetary losses incurred by the incident; repair costs, loss of use, et al. If the owner wishes to involve an insurer, that's up to him/her; they can only act as the owner's agent in this case.
Get proper advice from a competent solicitor or a claims handling firm.
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In my (very recent) experience of someone running into the back of Mrs BP's car, the other parties insurance company called us and were very keen to get it sorted out.
I sent them packing as I'd already asked my insurance company to handle it (that's what they're for) and I would imagine that their main intention was for me to put the car into their approved repairer.
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Whilst everything screwloose says is technically correct, the chances are that as the driver has admitted liability he will have reported it to his ins co who will be contacting 'you'.
No earthly point in bothering with solicitors or claim advisers. Waste of money.
She will get a free hire car, though.
If it's only an old banger and in your view not worth repairing - or you fancy repairing light damage yourself (or living with it), you can negotiate for a cash settlement of the repair costs instead. I did this recently to great profit. Search author 'mapmaker' title 'prang'
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Whilst everything screwloose says is technically correct ...
now mapmaker, are you certain of that?
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>are you sure, Mapmaker?
No.
Dalglish is of course even more correct than screwloose. I still suggest that worrying about all this before the other party refuses to act decently is putting the cart before the horse and giving rise to large amounts of wasted brainpower and worry.
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... She can't claim off the other car's insurer anyway, as she has no contract with them. ..
in reply to screwloose : i wish you would check your facts first before making a statement like that, or say that you are not sure but are making an assumption. you are wrong. as i have said many times in this forum before, the facts are - see:
www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20023061.htm
....These Regulations, giving effect to Article 3 of the Fourth Motor Insurance Directive, confer on residents of the 15 Member States a new right to issue proceedings against the insurer of the person responsible for an accident in the UK. ...
as for jonathan's original question, search this forum (button under the login name on the right) for the words: third party insurance and limit it to searches for "dalglish" as the author.
here is just one link from that search:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=44888&...e
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.... as i have said many times in this forum before, the facts are - see
for example, these links refer to previous discussion with a certain "screwloose":
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=50541&...e
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=50541&...e
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Dalglish
While she may take action against the owner's insurer; I actually said that she had no contract with then - was that factually inaccurate?
In my considerable experience of my customer's third-party claims; involving their own - or another - insurer has not been in the best interests of the injured party.
Keeping the whole process simple is going to be rather difficult once obscure EU laws are invoked.
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... I actually said that she had no contract with then - was that factually inaccurate? ..
..
(2) Where this paragraph applies, the entitled party may, without prejudice to his right to issue proceedings against the insured person, issue proceedings against the insurer which issued the policy of insurance relating to the insured vehicle, and that insurer shall be directly liable to the entitled party to the extent that he is liable to the insured person.
in other words, as far as the law is concerned, the third party's contract with his/her insurer becomes your contract with that insurer.
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Dalglish
Thank-you; that's a useful clarification.
to the extent that he is liable to the insured person.
Would any restrictions/conditions agreed by the third party also apply to a claimant? Could get messy...
I am still of the opinion that such claims are best pursued directly against the liable party. Dealing with an insurer that has no interest in retaining your continued business puts you in the role of supplicant against a faceless corporation.
This loss of control has proven very harmful to many of my customers who have chosen that route.
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I have found that dealing directly with the 3rd parties insurer is a lot faster than a claim against the driver. Especially if he has already accepted fault and told his insurer. Last time, I got a cheque in a couple of days.
Martin
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Would any restrictions/conditions agreed by the third party also apply to a claimant?
what restrcitions? 3rd party insurance means 3rd party insurance as defined by law.
you have a right to be put back in the situation you were in before the prangee impacted on your car and your life.
.. This loss of control has proven very harmful to many of my customers who have chosen that route.
that is not my experience.
on the contrary, since the introduction of the law, prangees who have bypassed a "uncooperative" pranger and gone direct to the pranger's insurer have found that the insurer is very willing to help.
and get the pranger who is in denial is made to accept that the insurance company has to settle the claim despite the pranger having failed to notify the insurance company of the incident.
to summarise, in simple terms:
prior to the european directive, you had to pursue your claim against the prangee. if the prangee chose to ignore you, you could go to their insurance company but they had every right to say "sorry, bu no thanks, no claim has been made by our insured, and our contract is with him/her, not you; so please go away and multiply". now they cannot say that. they are the prangee in all but name and you can claim direct from them. if they do not play ball, they will be in deep doodoo with the fsa/ombudsman. just look at the ombudsman cases and you will see these types of complaints have disappeared. the bad old days are gone.
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Thanks for all the replies.
I've forwarded this post to my friend who is very appreciative and has cleared up some issues for him.
Regards
Jonathan
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If you have the insurers details, why not simply write to both the driver and the insurer anyway?
You (your client) ran into my car and admitted liability. The damage and others costs amount to £x. Please sort it out between yourselves, but pay me asap.
If neither does, then move on to Plan B.
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