3rd Party Insurance not accepting liability!

[Rush2389]

hello all ,
My 1989 560 SEC was struck from behind at the lights and the driver behind failed to stop and i got hit from behind , my car was written off and i bought the car back to get it repaired + i dint want my car in the accident shop rotting away in the rain ! so took the car back!

Now they are saying they will not accept liability , I have asked my solicitors to issue court proceedings , and the 3rd party has told my insurers that they will be sending an engineer to look at my car - clearly he will the guy has come hit me right in my back ! and my car has to be repaired quick because water has got inside through the displaced boot , but i cant repair it unless the engineer come to have a look , if i do , then i wont get my money !... so any advise or anyone had similar problems please chip in.

Thanks a lot

[phey708]

Unfortunately it looks like the person who went in to the back of you has decided that it wasn't his fault and is disputing it. This is why the 3rd party insurance company is probably disputing liability. Does your insurance company not have a legal team you can use?

Do you have a report of the damage and comments regarding rusting? If so I would fire that off to the third party and allow them time to respond along with the repair estimate. They usually will send an engineer out who will investigate the damage for yourself and I would imagine without this the court will see that you have not give the 3rd party chance to look at the damages.

Hopefully your insurance will press ahead with repairs asap after inspection from 3rd party then dispute these costs in court.

[nails1979]

Sounds like the third party is disputing quantum. Ie the amount of damage done. This happens a lot and I wwouldn't worry if you aren't trying to pass any pre accident damage off as the fault of this one or if there are any underlying poor accident repairs already. These are what causes problems down the road but let them look at the car.
Sometimes they just want a look so their engineer can put a price on the car rather than your insurance handlers.

[TooMany2cvs]

Rush2389 said:

my car has to be repaired quick because water has got inside through the displaced boot , but i cant repair it unless the engineer come to have a look , if i do , then i wont get my money !... so any advise

Put a cover, tarpaulin, some kind of plastic sheet over it.

[Mr Tidy]

Not clear where the car is now, but if stored outside / not weather tight why not Gaffa tape some plastic sheet over the opening to prevent water ingress?
If you are going down the legal proceedings route I would recommend getting your own independent engineer's report anyway, and once you have provided an opportunity for an inspection by the TP insurer the car can be moved to anywhere you feel is appropriate but best make it clear that is what you propose to do and specify a time-frame.
Good luck anyway.