Ok, completely un car related.
A couple of weeks ago a driver drove through my front fence , destroying my property ( Fence, plants, rockery) and his car (bumper , headlights etc) .
The police were called and he went off in an ambulance as he was claiming he passed out, the police did talk to him and breathalysed him. The police
towed his car away, gave me an incident number and then left
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I thought or rather hoped that it would be a simple case of phoning my home insurance company up and claiming off his car insurance however they have
said it would have to be a claim off my house insurance and i would have to pay my excess (£350 ) and that they may be a ble to claim the costs back,
there was a very big may so i get the feeling that it wouldn't happen nor do i want to pay the excess or claim on my insurance.
I thought i would go and speak to his insurance company direct and they have given be a case numver and passed me on to the departmemet that is
dealing with it. I have spoken with them today and they have said it is currently being investigated and that if he is not found to be negligent then
they will not pay out for any damages. They also indicated that if he passed out then he would not be deemed negligent and costs for repair would not
sit with the insurers.
So , where do i stand ,if this is the case? can I persue a small claims case? or should i just pay for the damage although i am loathed to do this out
of principle. Has anyone had any thing similar happen to them?
[Edited on 26/4/12 by 001Ben]
Although I have no personal experience with such an issue what I do know is that when a friend of mine slid his clio on ice and knocked down a garden wall the owner of the wall claimed off of his insurance.
If you have legal cover on your house insurance, then I'd use that, and instruct accordingly.
hth
oh and good luck
Again, no personal experience but in your situation, the first thing I would do is find out what it's going to cost and contact the person that did it asking politely that they pay for it to be fixed. If that failed you'd probably have to go through small claims court.
Stick at his insurance co... they are liable for the damage to your property!
I wouldnt involve your insurers, just contact him directly and ask him to send you the details of who he is insured with.
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Stick at his insurance co... they are liable for the damage to your property!
he crashed into your wall he is liable. ring his insurance get a claim form and send it in. if his insurance refuse to pay then take it to small claims.
If he'd crashed into another car, saying that he'd passed out wouldn't do him any favours. Why is it different crashing into a
house?
Sounds like your home insurance are just swinging the lead so they don't have to do any work. Push for it to go through as a full claim against
the third party.
I've had several close members of the family who have had various things happen to them.
If next doors house burns down and takes yours with it, unless negligence can be proven then you claim off your own insurance, my mother has been
flooded from the upstairs flat 8 times, her own insurance company tells her to either pay for it herself, claim off her own insurance or take them to
small claims court, unless you can prove negilgence you will get no where and they are not liable.
I was as surprised as most people would be when this happened to my relatives, most people would assume that the person who damaged your
home/car/whatever there insurance would be liable, but it appears this is not the case for most people
David
House fires and road traffic accidents are quite different!
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
House fires and road traffic accidents are quite different!
Road traffic legislation specifies that motor vehicles used on public roads must have an insurance policy that covers the 'third party'.
There is no such obligation in place that requires home insurance policies to do so.
quote:
Originally posted by Minicooper
I've had several close members of the family who have had various things happen to them.
If next doors house burns down and takes yours with it, unless negligence can be proven then you claim off your own insurance, my mother has been flooded from the upstairs flat 8 times, her own insurance company tells her to either pay for it herself, claim off her own insurance or take them to small claims court, unless you can prove negilgence you will get no where and they are not liable.
I was as surprised as most people would be when this happened to my relatives, most people would assume that the person who damaged your home/car/whatever there insurance would be liable, but it appears this is not the case for most people
David
Ben..
Stop the communication with your home insurance. They don't deal with RT matters!
Keep dealing directly with the car insurance company! Don't be fobbed off by them! They are responsible!
That he claims to have 'passed out' is completely irrelevant!
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Ben..
Stop the communication with your home insurance. They don't deal with RT matters!
Keep dealing directly with the car insurance company! Don't be fobbed off by them! They are responsible!
Him passing out is completely irrelevant!
As already said, this is exactly what insurance is for. Get a claim form from his insures. If his fainting is a known prob, perhaps the dvla might
like to suspend his licence for further investigation.
ATB
Simon
Definately his car insurers who will pay, if he had hit a council sign for example his insurers would pay out immediately as local councils take no prisoners and have their own legal departments. They are just hoping you'll give up and dissapear
To agree with most of the above, they have bullsh**ed you in the hopes you give up. Just another example of bull**** britain. There is no law against
lying it would seem, so they do it with gusto.
Of course its his fault. And of course he was negligent, he lost control of his car. Myself, id have a landscape gardener round for a quote, put the
shits up them with a big bill.
http://www.monetos.co.uk/insurance/car-insurance/types/third-party-fire-theft/
This makes it very clear his insurers are liable
quote:
Originally posted by snakebelly
http://www.monetos.co.uk/insurance/car-insurance/types/third-party-fire-theft/
This makes it very clear his insurers are liable
would be interested in hearing how you get on, let us know.
quote:
Originally posted by loggyboy
I wouldnt involve your insurers, just contact him directly and ask him to send you the details of who he is insured with.
As above they are just trying to fob you off. They are just hoping you'll get fed up and go away. I am sure that insurance companies have unofficial policies regarding 'ignoring people until they actually take us to court'.
well, i phoned them again and they said pretty much the same thing that if he was negligent then they will pay out and if he wasnt then they wont.
They are currently waiting for doctors notes to see if he had been advised not to drive or whether the tablets that he had been on said that he
shouldnt drive. I did explain that i didnt give a flying hoop whether he should or shouldn't drive and that i wanted my garden repairing and as
it is his fault and he is insured then i expect them to payout.Even mentioning small claims court and financial ombudsmen didnt seem to bother them,
in fact he told me to go and see a solicitor!
There next bit of advise was either pay for it myself or go through my home insurance. He did say ( after 20 minutes) that if they were to pay out
that they would want two quotes to get it fixed and that i should go away and sort that out as it may speed up the process if they do decide to
payout, but i think he was getting fed up with me by then. What makes it worse is he couldnt say how long it would take for them to decide whether to
pay out or not.
quote:
Originally posted by Irony
As above they are just trying to fob you off. They are just hoping you'll get fed up and go away. I am sure that insurance companies have unofficial policies regarding 'ignoring people until they actually take us to court'.
I would be Stateing
1 that you are making notes if the case to go to the ombudsman,
2 that you will start recording the calls to assist with point 1
3 you are trying to sort this without solictor but iff needed you will contact yours and llok for these cost to be recompensed.
4 the cost you belive are involved and that you will keep persuing these until it i resolved.
regards
Agriv8
I can't see why his car insurer will only pay out if he is negligent. As people have said ^^^, that's what third party cover is for: damage to any other person or their property; the question of negligence should only affect whether they pay out for damage to his property... Keep going and keep a log of who you spoke to when and what date, and what they said, partly so you can produce "evidence" at some time if necessary, but also so you remind yourself what happened before when you talk to the company/person at a later date. I have found it much better when dealing with companies if I can say "I spoke to X on 3 April and he said...". They tend to realise that they can't so easily fob you off and make you think you forgot.
Has anybody suggested contacting the driver?
I have previously been led to believe (and I do believe it) that if the insurance company do not play ball, let the drive know that you intend taking
THEM to the small claims court. Explain politely that their insurance are refusing to cover the damage that has been caused, therefore the driver
needs to pay.
This usually gets a reaction from the driver, resulting in hasty calls to their insurance company. If they are not bothered, start the process. I
cannot possibly believe that small claims would not find in your favour.
It's not just insurance companies that seem to have things in place to try and make you just give up. I had to phone the electcity company to sort something that couldn't be done any other way (Basically to stop them sending round debt collectors for something I'd paid but would clear until after they were due, which means they'd try and charge me for the visit) and was waiting for 40 odd minutes, on a hold system that I'm sure was designed to make it difficult to put up with as they interupted the music with the same message far too frequently at far to high a volume.
Unconscious at the wheel of a car, how much more negligent could you get than that ?
I am not 100% sure, but I seem to remember reading that negligence must be shown for insurance to pay out. Bad driving, driving despite a known medical condition, etc. are all negligent, whereas I am pretty sure I remember seeing a case where the insurers would not pay as the driver had no previous medical history and had a heart attack at the wheel and out of the blue.
The ombudsman is interesting. When you open a case with the financial ombudsman, there is a flat initiating charge that goes directly to the offending
body. Even if the only response you (initially) get from them is "Have you exhausted the claims/complaints" procedure.
So, even if it doesn't need the ombudsman, the offending body is charged.
Just saying.
quote:
Originally posted by FuryRebuild
The ombudsman is interesting. When you open a case with the financial ombudsman, there is a flat initiating charge that goes directly to the offending body. Even if the only response you (initially) get from them is "Have you exhausted the claims/complaints" procedure.
So, even if it doesn't need the ombudsman, the offending body is charged.
Just saying.