Car insurance refusing payout - now threatening court

[ditzzy]

Someone reversed into the family car in the summer in a car park. No question of fault, we were nowhere near it and the driver immediately came to find us, apologised and handed over insurance details.

We handed everything over to the insurance company who sent a like for like hire car for three days while ours was fixed. It wasn’t a massive bump, but the bumper had to be taken off and some sensors replaced as well as cosmetic clean up.

All seemed fine until a few months later when our insurance said that their insurance was now refusing to pay up, citing that it was too expensive for the damage caused (£2000 of which £1600 was repair, £400 hire car).

The insurance company is fighting it on our behalf but DH has now been told that it’s going to court and he needs to be prepared for a court appearance!!

Is it just me, or is this ridiculous for a car park bump?

Has anyone else had this happen?

He is not best placed to give that evidence though. The car would have been assessed by the mechanics who repaired it at the time. There will also be documentary evidence as to its age.

Insurance companies are shit. Long story short - a family member ended up in court over an ‘accident’. CCTV proved the ‘injured’ party did not make contact with the vehicle at all, and their injury was a pre existing leg injury which had been treated for months by gp/hospital. CCTV showed the person was categorically lying and the Judge said as much too. The judge threw the case out of court. BUT, despite all this, the insurance company paid the person £25,000 as that was cheaper than being taken to court for a personal injury claim! Absolute madness!

I am in a similar situation, someone rear ended me last year, admitted fault immediately, all straight forward.

I did everything through the insurers, used their repairers and car hire as I couldn’t be without a vehicle for a week but the other party’s insurer are refusing the pay the hire car costs and its potentially going to court and I may have to appear. I didn’t do anything wrong but feel as if I’m on trial! I’m not sure if this is a new trend but I could really do without the stress. They said if I don’t agree it will impact my insurance negatively in the future.

I nearly had to go to court as a witness one time, when I was a passenger in a taxi which had a bump (lorry behind rear-ended it). The lorry driver argued that the taxi driver had just pulled out suddenly into his lane. He hadn't. It was still a pain though, having to meet someone to make a witness statement and there was absolutely no benefit to me whatsoever. No good deed goes unpunished!

This is your own insurance though and it is best to co-operate with the process, annoying as it is.

I think you must have misunderstood. The case went to court and was struck out by the judge. So how could a payment have been made because it was cheaper than going to court?

I would ask for a full break down and costing of the work from repairer or Insurance and get a couple of quotes from elsewhere. Did you choose repairer? I had grief when I was shunted as well - I needed it sorted pdq so went through my insurance and their network of repairers, the guy that shunted me had cheap skate insurance and they were phoning me directly with requests to deal directly with them and not my insurer so they could use their own network of repairers, completely confused me (which takes alot) but in the end I just said I pay insurance for a purpose and part of that is to deal with this sort of thing on my behalf. They are a reputable insurance company albeit at the top end (I wanted decent cover) so they couldn't say it was unreasonable and yes the cost of repair and car hire was in the region of 5k as he hit me hard. Glad I managed to avoid car in front of me as that would have complicated things further

My ds had an accident. 100% other person’s fault, all on video. Took 6 months and the threat of court to make the other person’s insurer pay up. And my ds premium is now over 2k because of this complete non fault situation. If me and DH had been unable to help ds, that could have been him unable to drive anymore as insurance would have been prohibitive - through zero fault of his own.

someone rammed my DH whilst he was stationary, waiting at a zebra crossing for a pedestrian to cross. That did go to court!! But DH did not have to go, the insurer just did it.

Insurance is a dirty dirty business.

I haven’t misunderstood lol, this was family. The original court case was for dangerous driving due to a person being ‘injured’ . That was thrown out due to the CCTV showing the person was not in contact with the vehicle at all. There was much more, I’m keeping it simple. The person hired a no win no fee solicitor to take their own court action for personal injury. My family member subsequently argued with the insurance company as to why they were making this payment when it was proven in court to be complete lies and the case thrown out. Their response was it’s cheaper to settle out of court than to go and defend the case, and that policyholder’s have no say in what the insurance companies do.

I'm in this situation at the moment, I posted in Legal Matters, but far fewer replies than here. Minor accident which was totally the other driver's fault. That driver's insurance admitted liability, contacted us directly and offered settlement (I believe this practice is called "third party capture"), but I refused, as I've heard of this going very wrong. Now, fifteen months later, my insurer is telling me they're having to take that insurer to court on my behalf, as they are refusing to pay up. My insurer has said that a court appearance is the worst-case scenario, and this is possible, but hopefully unlikely.

I wouldn't be surprised if this happens all the time: the insurer who won't pay up waits for the other one to take them to court, hoping that the driver concerned will just "let it go" for an easy life. It is probably best to co-operate with the process, even though you shouldn't have to. I'm worried that they might make my court date when I'm on holiday (already booked).

@Choconuts Thanks for your reply, that has given me a lot of insight. Insurance being "a game of bluff" with their customers as pawns doesn't surprise me at all.

OK, you may not have misunderstood but you didn’t explain properly the case that was “thrown out” was not the same case.

They are technically taking the other party to court “on your behalf” but this court case does not actually benefit you in any way because you’ve already had your payout. The insurers have to use your name, legally, to get the money back for themselves and you consented to this (as well as to helping them) when you took out the policy.

Take a look at my previous post upthread for a fuller explanation. I’m an insurance lawyer.

No may not about it .. I definitely did not misunderstand 🙄
And re-reading my post, there’s only 1 extra word that would have made it make 100% complete sense to you, so apologies for not inserting that one small word for your convenience. It still makes sense as it is.

@HotCrossBunplease you’re an insurance lawyer but couldn’t make sense of my post .. WOW!

This is exactly what happened with ours. It sounds like it must be quite common

Gosh why is he so worried about this? I wouldn't put up with him being all grumpy about something that has nothing to do with him.

This happens ALL THE TIME every single day within car insurance. Just ignore, sign what is needed etc but then forget about it. It won't go to court, it'll be sorted between them and shouldn't effect you guys at all moving forward except having to declare a non fault claim on insurance renewals. That's it. Tell him to stop worrying. It's a good thing you've never been through this before (I have twice - both non fault accidents) lots of wrangling and weird phone calls where you're never sure if they're from your insurance company or someone else's. It soons blows over. I just used to stop answering the phone and wait for an email to pop up.

Anyway stop worrying, this is no big deal, it'll all be sorted and he won't have to go to court.

You’re not understanding how the word “may” works in that sentence.

Think about:

“He may be young, but he is wise beyond his years”

”She may only be small, but she is mighty”

Those people are definitively both young and small. The “may” does not cast doubt on the fact, it is signposting the next part of the statement. Hence

”You may not have misunderstood, but you still misled by omission”

Can I ask whats the issue with Kindertons? I had an accident just before xmas and had to go through kindertons as my car is a lease. They got it fixed and returned to me but should I await issues down the line do you think?

I couldn’t make sense of your post BECAUSE I am an insurance lawyer!

Oh wow. Misled by omission 😂😂 Please get a grip.

@HotCrossBunplease Thank you for your explanation. We laypeople need explanations like this.

I'd make sure he focuses on the point that he is a witness. He is not there because he has done anything wrong. Just like if someone had stolen the car and was being prosecuted.

Why is he so worried? Because he has anxiety and depression (to the extent that he can’t work) and he “has” to read every single word of anything he signs.

This thread kind of took off when I wasn’t looking… wasn’t expecting that!

Oh well that explains it then 🤣 sorry I just assumed he was being over concerned but now I understand why. Can you try and intercept as many emails and letters from him maybe to avoid him getting bogged down? Poor bloke. Sorry!

That’s … I’m speechless 😶