Please help! Letter from a solicitor to recover £5k

[upskyy]

Husband has received a letter from a solicitors saying they have been instructed to recover 5k.
This is related to an apparent car incident last year.
Husband says there was no contact with her car, didn't need insurance etc moved on . Letter says their client has incurred costs due to going third party.

What do we need to do/respond to this please?!

They must have found details through his reg and the other party insurance have contacted his insurance . They contacted him he said none event. The checked his car. That was that. This was all in early 2023. And now this letter from a solicitor

reiterate to the sols that there was no contact by him because there was no hit.

the posts are confusing but it sounds like they’ve paid out to the other driver which would be very unusual for your husband not to know about

Don't worry about it. Send it to the insurance company.

He should call the insurance company and ask if its a) legit, and if yes, then why are they accusing him of not reporting it when they came and inspected his car at the time to corroborate his report that there was no contact between vehicles.

Does he have any emails or correspondence from the Ins Co at the time?

I bet for some reason they just haven't linked the 2 incidents. Maybe because the other party has waited so long to report? They are treating this new claim as a new incident.

Solicitors can be paid to send anything in a letter doesn’t mean it’s legal.

They can't claim anything other than reasonable costs off you if you didn't report something or other minor violations of the t&c.
So 5k for not reporting a non accident would be beyond the realms of possibility.
It does sound like a try on our maybe even scam.
Would you be happy to cover the private parts of the letter up and post a photo on here?

Or quote the jist of the letter changing any identifying details?

Had same years ago, young driver didn’t want insurance claim. Very minor, both cars fault. Got huge bill for a month of car rental, repairs … apparently heard we were “minted” from people at pub, no way the repairs which was minor paint scrape was a month !! Furious DP went to court to fight the outrageous claim … kid never turned up at court because the scammer insurance was 6 hours travel away. Furious “minted” husband did travel so WON at court by default. Scammer.
i always take photos. Record the people from my pocket when talking at scene.

That’s not the same. OP had said the letter is from a solicitor acting on behalf of her partner’s insurer claiming £5000 because he didn’t report an accident.

I've gone out now but I will post a photo or a better type up of the letter when I can!

DH said he responded to his insurance, let them check his van and behind that he didn't respond so he may be at fault for that?! But in his mind there was no issue, he was making no claim and they were just hounding him for info .
God knows what the other person claimed for.

@upskyy my husband had something similar. A moped smashed into the side of his van. Moped had jumped red light. Young lady hysterical and badly shaken, luckily my husband being a nice person offered her his phone to call her parents to come and get her, he called police who said it was insurance matter. Parents didn't turn up so husband took pics, loaded moped in van and dropped her home as he was worried about her. Several witnesses gave their details. Very little damage to van, girl didn't want to lose no claims, parents paid, all good. He reported to his insurance on the day.
Months later my husband was phoned by police to say he was to be arrested for leaving scene of accident, dangerous driving, we were gob smacked. However the statement she gave was complete fabrication and easily disproved. The CCTV at lights obtained, her 2 phone calls on his phone itemized and dropped moped to her home (so hadn't fled the scene) witness names and she had moved accident to a different location. It was nerve wracking until police informed us that husband was proved right. How bloody lucky my husband had photos, address, phone numbers and hadn't deleted anything. We assumed it was some sort of scam and he had been lucky. She had also gone through solicitor and police not insurance. A lesson learnt never accept sorry, always keep evidence, always call police, log everything.

It would help if you could post a photo of the text of the letter OP, covering any personal info.

Is it a letter before action? What exactly does it claim you owe the insurer money for?

It seems very unlikely that they are claiming you owe £5k purely for a breach of their terms, or that a letter before action from your insurer's solicitor would be the first you've heard about it.

If that genuinely is the case - Contact the insurer first to make sure it's legit from their solicitor and not an error.

Your husband urgently needs to check that his insurance is still valid. It should be incredibly easy to prove he reported the accident - there must be emails/messages/call history arranging a time to view the car.

The other party hasn't necessarily waited to report. I had an accident in 2022. I reported it on the same day, with footage of the other driver. His insurance company didn't contact him about it until June this year. God knows why! Part of his argument in court was that I didn't report to my insurers for over 18 months, I had evidence otherwise.

I had something similar.

My car was damaged by a van. The van driver tried it on that I had reversed out of a space and hit him.

I was even sent a date to appear in court.

Nothing happened - I wasn't even in my car but having a cup of tea inside the supermarket cafe!

A point about insurance claims.
Stopped at traffic lights, car behind didn't - their car a write-off ours damaged.
Our fully-comp insurance wanted to write-off our car for £1k.
Spoke to the at-fault driver's insurer, they were happy to repair (with write-off repaired category), pay £1k compensation and provide 2 weeks courtesy car.
There is something very fishy about how insurers treat each other. My suspicion is that vehicle would have been moved by 'special' transport and stored in 'special' compound so that the claim would have been thousands more than paid out.
Only thing I would have done differently is to ask for more compensation as being in the accident increased my insurance premium even though I was not at fault.

I had this once. They were trying it on making a fake personal injury claim. I forwarded the correspondence to my insurers and confirmed I would go to court to defend. My insurers appointed their solicitors to deal as they had had enough of people trying to take the mick. They soon backed down and ‘remembered’ it wasn’t me they’d been in an accident with!

The usual con is 'whip lash', it's not unknown for an accident with a car carrying a couple of people to suddenly create claims from a whole load of 'injured' passengers.

“DH said he responded to his insurance, let them check his van and behind that he didn't respond so he may be at fault for that?! But in his mind there was no issue, he was making no claim and they were just hounding him for info .
God knows what the other person claimed for.”

Your posts are somewhat confusing. What does “behind that he didn't respond so he may be at fault for that” mean?

And “they were just hounding him for info”…. presumably ‘they’ are the other party’s insurers. Are you saying your husband did not respond to their requests for information? Without talking to his own insurance company? If so, this wasn’t very smart.

I think it would be a good idea if you could write a clear, chronological, step by step account of what actually happened and when, and who did/said/wrote what, including emails, letters, records of phone conversations

Not necessarily to post here, but for your own benefit and clarity.

You don't reply at all, you pass it to the insurers of your vehicle at the time . Insurers don't like you to liaise with third parties as it can prejudice their position .

Her husband's insurer's have instructed these soldiers.