Safe Speed Forums

Back in December, my GF was driving my spare car, using the "drive other cars" facility on her policy, this is fine.

She disturbed a gand of 3 balaclava'd men who were in the process of stealing my car, they responded by attacking her, they smashed the windscreen (causing the rear view mirror to fall off, and all of the side glass, injured her shoulder with a housebrick and some other objects being thrown)

The attack culminated in them attempting to ram into her with a (probably stolen) VW Golf with no numberplates, if they had hit her, the car would have smashed into an Alfa that was behind her, causing considerable damage, instead she managed to reverse out of the path of the golf, avoiding this attempt on her life, but dented and scratched the doors of the Alfa in the process. She then made it to a petrol station forecourt and got them to ring the police, escaping mostly unscathed.

The police report for the event, based on her statement and that of a witness states that the damage to the Alfa was not her fault.

Fast forward to a month or so ago, we receive a snotogram from the solicitors representing the owners of the Alfa (a corporation), demanding that we pay their £250 excess or else they'll take us to county court, we contact the people who are handling our claim (who are outsourced from the actual insurers *sigh) and they say they're taking legal advice on this one, and they will advise the claimant that they will have to wait until their enquiries are complete.

We then get another snotogram from them, claiming that "your insurers have stated that they are unwilling to proceed with this claim" so pay up or we're taking you to court.

Now £250 to make this whole thing go away isn't so bad, but in reality they are also claiming damages of over a grand from her insurance as well, and it looks like our insurance may decide they can't be bothered to fight it.

This is a problem, because without her no claims, she can't afford to insure a car, a car that we have recently dropped a hell of a not of money into, for a freshly build engine and other upgrades, I really don't want to see it go.

I realise we're screwed on the no-claims situation until this is resolved, but in reality, who is actually liable for this. Insurance doesn't seem to follow the standard process of allocating blame, instead it just works it's way down the chain until it finds someone traceable. Personally I think they should be claiming off the uninsured losses people since the accident was caused by the actions of the driver and passengers of the stolen car, and that if she had just sat there and let herself be rammed by the car, the damage would have been far far worse.

Is it worth going to court over this, and is there any way we can prevent the claims handler from paying out. I am not prepared to see her lose her car over this since I know how much time, effort and money she has put into restoring it (and that she hates anything FWD, which is what a cheap replacement would end up being)

Being slightly naughty here is there anything to suggest that the stolen golf didn't hit the alfa anyway after she'd gone past it and was at the petrol station? With enough doubt like that you could get it thrown out of court I should imagine as the opposition can't state clearly that she did the damage they are claiming on the excess for. Letting insurance cough up seems a bit overly generous so if they haven't had the car repaired yet it might be a worth while tack to suggest that this claim may get chucked out altogether as the insurance company have had information (golf may have hit their alfa afterwards) which would absolve them of repairing all the damage. It seems rather unfair that they're allowed to claim on that insurance at all as the damage was ultimately caused by an uninsured vehicle so they should have gone to the MIB for compensation I think.

Probably best to get a solicitor/legal expert to look at this

There was an independent witness, which is why the police were able to state that it was not my GFs fault. If it were only her testimony they had to go on then presumably they couldn't do this.

I'm wondering if a better solution may be to go to the local rag and see if they're interested in playing up the big bad corporation bullying victims of crime angle.

But yeah, I agree on the solicitor thing, but if we could afford that, we could afford the increased premium.

No claims bonus is just that, not a no fault bonus. If you girlfriend's insurer has to pay out and can't get ALL its money back then it's bye-bye bonus. I don't understand why if "your insurers have stated that they are unwilling to proceed with this claim" the Alfa owners aren't asking you for £1250. If your GF's insurers don't pay anything out then the NCB should be safe.

_________________
Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

That £250 excess is surely a third-party liability and so your GF's insurance should pay up or fight - along with other grand's-worth. AFAICT they can't both have her NCD and pass on the liability for the third-party's excess.

Hope this makes sense ...

_________________
Will

will you lose all your ncb or just two years?

_________________
Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

If this claim goes away, then as of this year she will have two years.

I don't know why they're chasing us directly for the excess, presumably because their insurance have paid out in the short term, so they've set the lawyers on us independent of the insurance claim.

I still would like to know if she can actually be held liable for the damage?

I would politely suggest that her insurers go and bother the Motor Insurers' Board (?) for damages incurred as a result of the actions of an uninsured vehicle.

If I were driving down the street and a car raced towards me head on, resulting in my avoiding action which resulted in striking a parked car, with corroboration from a witness that this was the only possible outcome of successful avoiding action, then the driver of the car that had forced me into the third party would be liable.

I would suspect that the fact it was your gf's car that actually made contact with the Alfa is irrelevant when all parties should be able to agree that the overarching cause was the actions of the Golf.

Insurance companies will try anything to wriggle out of paying. I parked the bosses car at one of our customers and someone drove a fork lift into it (punched a hole straight through the side!). The insurance company tried to avoid paying because we could not give them the registration number of the fork lift. The fact that fork lift trucks are not used on the road and therefore do not have a registration mark did not matter to them. The claim was eventually settled, but only after a fight. I think the term is a wunch of bankers (or something like that!).

I think the correct expression for them is "A lunch of bankers!"

I would rather the Alfa's insurers go bother the MIB to be honest. Her renewal is up in a couple of weeks and this isn't good. There is no spare cash right now.

We can't even sell the car, since we're still waiting for Thames Water to sort us out with a new wheel after the old one was damaged by their ineptly filled pothole