Lost NCD + Excess none fault car accident

[willin]

My daughter has lost her NCD and excess on her car insurance! Can anyone offer any advice?
Story – I’m in the car with her one morning, approaching a junction an old lady stops quickly in front, she stops behind and a lad 25 – 30 nudges into her, not bad just a scuff /cratch on the bumper. The lad gives all his details except his address (says he would prefer not to).
I didn’t think much of this at the time, turns out her insurer Sheila’s wheels (SW) says she has to pay the excess £250 until they claim it back as she could not give full details of the other driver (be warned anyone who has a bump) . She has fully comp cover, NCD protection (everyone note this only protects you with your current insurer, not with any other insurer when you renew), and legal cover.

After the repair nothing happens for weeks, I phone them on her behalf (she hasn’t a clue how to deal with a claim) 3 or 4 times over the next 6 weeks or so, eventually I am told they have to give the other insurer up to 3 month to respond - note nothing at all in writing. After 3 months still nothing so when I ring I’m told the lad says he was only a witness to the accident AND he has an engineer’s report to say his car had no signs of being in an accident, so they would not be able to peruse the claim remember it was a nudge rather than a bump, his car is an S reg (1998) vw polo that had had more bumps than a dodgem. no engineer would be able to tell either way.
I complained to SW and told them I would go to the ombudsman if they did nothing about it. I was told they would pass it back to the legal team and get back within 7 days, after 8 days I complained to the ombudsman who wrote to them. Eventually I got a letter off them nearly 5 month after the accident basically saying they can’t prove the lad was involved and I am not an independent witness, a bit grovel saying sorry for not being kept informed and a chq for £100.
So short of finding out where the lad lives and kicking the $hit out of him, can anyone offer any advice, I will be continuing the complaint with the ombudsman.

 

[Purity]

I can't really offer any advice. But I'd like to comment about people being absolute scum, and dishonest.

I'm in a similar boat at the moment. So far I've not had to pay my excess but I am still being classed as at fault, even though the incident was nothing to do with me, and I was minding my own business, stationary, when someone hit me.

The party that damaged my car is just not responding to her insurance company, so I've had to wait 4 months to get my car fixed!

 

[Him Her]

Everyone should be aware that while it is a legal requirement to HAVE insurance, there's no legal requirement to CLAIM.

The other party could simply fail to inform.

 

[Purity]

This is true, but the other persons insurance company has an obligation to investigate a claim

 

[digi247]

A Sad state of affairs these days with the Insurance company's with the amount of Cash for Crash claims this seems to have spilled over onto genuine cases such as yourself, Personally i would always ring the police even if they dont come out due to the minor accident you get the call logged with all the details of Driver's, Car Reg etc... as a backup

 

[trevortron]

IIRC, isn't it the case that any road accident should be reported to the police within 24 hours, regardless of who is at fault? As @DIGI says, at least then there would be an official record of the incident. Doesn't help in this case sadly, but forewarned & all that.....

 

[turner brown]

little tip for everyone is keep a disposable camera in the glove box . its £3 well spent
also in any accident take pics straight away don't even move the car

 

[Purity]

Good advice.

I believe you don't need to contact the Police unless there is someone injured, but it makes sense that it is logged somewhere.

Disposable camera is a good idea. Worth taking a picture of the offender too if it is non-fault

What I failed to do, because I've not been in an incident like this before, is get a witness that saw it happen. Make sure you look round for anyone who may have seen what happened. I know this for the next time now :-(

 

[madhatter007]

IIRC, isn't it the case that any road accident should be reported to the police within 24 hours, regardless of who is at fault? As @DIGI says, at least then there would be an official record of the incident. Doesn't help in this case sadly, but forewarned & all that.....

Not round here mate.

Had an altercation with a women on a Sunday morning coming out of my drive.

We stopped about 20 inches from each other but she claimed I hit her.

Rang the old bill and we're not interested, not even when I said it was fraud.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

[trevortron]

Not round here mate.

Had an altercation with a women on a Sunday morning coming out of my drive.

We stopped about 20 inches from each other but she claimed I hit her.

Rang the old bill and we're not interested, not even when I said it was fraud.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

Interesting- makes you wonder why we pay rates & taxes. But if you were to physically go into the station (with doc's of course) I don't think they'd have any option but to log it. I was referring to Scotland- may be different in England.

Here it's very different. Any bump, however minor has to be attended to by the police. They come along with their cameras & measuring tapes & take copious notes- you can't even move the vehicles until they've finished, however much traffic chaos it causes.

OOI, how did your 'altercation' pan out?

 

[digi247]

In 2 words DASH-CAM everyone shortly is going to need one, I drive a lot so having one gives me peace of mind when those idiots pull out in front of you and the usual crap. It's on record and stands up in a court of law as well now for £60-£70 well worth it and should put a stop to these Crash for Cash scams

 

[willin]

I can't really offer any advice. But I'd like to comment about people being absolute scum, and dishonest.

I'm in a similar boat at the moment. So far I've not had to pay my excess but I am still being classed as at fault, even though the incident was nothing to do with me, and I was minding my own business, stationary, when someone hit me.

The party that damaged my car is just not responding to her insurance company, so I've had to wait 4 months to get my car fixed!

Her renewal is next month, like you say fancy being classed as at fault when some dishonest little $hit hits you from behind.

Interesting- makes you wonder why we pay rates & taxes. But if you were to physically go into the station (with doc's of course) I don't think they'd have any option but to log it. I was referring to Scotland- may be different in England.

Here it's very different. Any bump, however minor has to be attended to by the police. They come along with their cameras & measuring tapes & take copious notes- you can't even move the vehicles until they've finished, however much traffic chaos it causes.

If it had been in Scotland I would have been classed as a witness, in England a relative is NOT classed as a witness.

In 2 words DASH-CAM everyone shortly is going to need one, I drive a lot so having one gives me peace of mind when those idiots pull out in front of you and the usual crap. It's on record and stands up in a court of law as well now for £60-£70 well worth it and should put a stop to these Crash for Cash scams

So in my daughters case would you need 2 cams? front and back?

I feel really sorry for her, she drives like a vicar/the day she took her test and would never do anything dishonest. The insurer (Sheila's wheels) is beyond belief not telling of ANY developments absolutely no correspondence whatsoever until I complained to the ombudsman. I am trying not to find the lad at the moment as I will probably do something I'll regret.

Will be returning the £100 chq and detailing everything in a letter to the ombudsman, thanks for all the reply's.

 

[trevortron]

I sympathise too, sadly it seems to be the way things are going. I wish you the best of luck. Keep at it with SW, they might eventually realise you're not going to give up- remember David can beat Goliath.

Re.dash-cam, there are dual-camera models- one front and one rear-facing. Again, it's sad that it's coming to this, but when needs must.....

 

[Him Her]

Your only option is a legal route I reckon. Start by getting his address and hassle with "Unreasonably withholding contact details following a Road Traffic Accident" which, in itself, is an offence.

 

[seanicca]

Try MIB they deal with untraceable/uninsured drivers they may or may not be able to help at least worth a try

Welcome to the Motor Insurers' Bureau

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

 

[audiobookman]

This is awful, when she renews tell the new insurance company about the accident but non fault!!! thats the important bit. She cannot be at fault if she was hit from behind.

I totally agree with dashcams, and i can see them eventually becoming law. I have the blackvues in our cars after i was targeted by a crash for cash. Luckly for me i am a professional driver and spotted them miles back - when they tried the brakes i was already going too slow to hit them.
The day after my blackvues were ordered and been in there ever since.

 

[ManofScience]

It's a fix but it's all about statistics - if you've been in an accident, whether your fault or not you're more likely to be in another accident - that's how they work it. Insurance these days is not about incase of accidents - it's about profits for share holders in this claims-for-cash society

 

[trevortron]

I can see where you're coming from, but as to them becoming a leal requirement, I very much doubt it. The civil liberties brigade would be up in arms for a start, infringement of freedom, privacy and all the other sh*te. So what I DO think should be compulsory, is for them to be registered before the footage can be used in court. For two reasons. Firstly, video could be tampered with, edited or altered in other ways- a registration system would only allow watermarked material to be admissible. And secondly, until such a system is adopted, the crim's have the best of both worlds. If they do cause an accident & it's recorded, they can simply omit to mention that they have a dash-cam- the same one that they'd shout about if they weren't at fault.
I also think that they might tempt 'certain' drivers (especially ones driving a car that's already had a scrape) to allow an avoidable no-fault accident to occur, being as they'd be secure in the knowledge that the whole thing is recorded & there's no way it can come back & bite them. Maybe even subconsciously....?

This is awful, when she renews tell the new insurance company about the accident but non fault!!! thats the important bit. She cannot be at fault if she was hit from behind.

I totally agree with dashcams, and i can see them eventually becoming law. I have the blackvues in our cars after i was targeted by a crash for cash. Luckly for me i am a professional driver and spotted them miles back - when they tried the brakes i was already going too slow to hit them.
The day after my blackvues were ordered and been in there ever since.

 

[willin]

This is awful, when she renews tell the new insurance company about the accident but non fault!!! thats the important bit. She cannot be at fault if she was hit from behind.

I totally agree with dashcams, and i can see them eventually becoming law. I have the blackvues in our cars after i was targeted by a crash for cash. Luckly for me i am a professional driver and spotted them miles back - when they tried the brakes i was already going too slow to hit them.
The day after my blackvues were ordered and been in there ever since.

Will certainly do that mate, as I understand it an "irrecoverable loss" counts as a fault accident (I do hope I'm wrong).