Hit by disqualified driver
Discussion
My car was hit last night whilst I was stationary on a minor road. I had stopped at the beginning of the road (off a junction) as I had seen the other vehicle's lights in the distance. I wanted to give him plenty of room to go past as it was icy and there was snow on the road. It wasn't until he was very close to me that I realised he was going pretty quickly. Cue him smashing into me; the force of which pushed me up a verge!
We got out of our cars and I tried to get details from him and give him mine. However, he couldn't understand me as he was a foreign national and all he wanted to do was leave the scene. I managed to get him to stay and as we were blocking a junction and my car wouldn't move I called the police.
The BIB arrived and went through the motions of checking cars, details etc. It was at this point when they informed me he was a disqualified driver. The car was insured but as he was disqualified he wasn't.
So, what can I expect from this? Will it be a simple case of me having to claim because he is uninsured etc? The chap I spoke to at my insurance company said that maybe it won't be all doom and gloom as the vehicle was insured. They just need to investigate why he was driving it.
Also, my car is a V reg Bora Tdi which has been lovingly looked after. It has 130000 miles on the clock but runs (well did run) beautifully. I just had two new tyres on the front too! Will I be looking at a write off here?
The front driver-side corner is mangled up but I managed to drive it back around the corner to work after the incident (the chap apparently works at the same place as me too). The front wing has been ripped off and the bumper and light housing are all smashed.
I'm guessing that it's market value isn't so great so it looks like i'm going to lose out. I have read on here in the past about not accepting the first few offers if it is a write-off etc. But does anybody have any helpful advice about what I should do now? I have checked the internet and cars that are a similar age to mine are fetching around £2000.
Oh well, what a s
tty evening! Thanks all! My car is currently awaiting collection by a collection company and I'm still awaiting details of a courtesy car that I have paid for with my insurance.
We got out of our cars and I tried to get details from him and give him mine. However, he couldn't understand me as he was a foreign national and all he wanted to do was leave the scene. I managed to get him to stay and as we were blocking a junction and my car wouldn't move I called the police.
The BIB arrived and went through the motions of checking cars, details etc. It was at this point when they informed me he was a disqualified driver. The car was insured but as he was disqualified he wasn't.
So, what can I expect from this? Will it be a simple case of me having to claim because he is uninsured etc? The chap I spoke to at my insurance company said that maybe it won't be all doom and gloom as the vehicle was insured. They just need to investigate why he was driving it.
Also, my car is a V reg Bora Tdi which has been lovingly looked after. It has 130000 miles on the clock but runs (well did run) beautifully. I just had two new tyres on the front too! Will I be looking at a write off here?
The front driver-side corner is mangled up but I managed to drive it back around the corner to work after the incident (the chap apparently works at the same place as me too). The front wing has been ripped off and the bumper and light housing are all smashed.
I'm guessing that it's market value isn't so great so it looks like i'm going to lose out. I have read on here in the past about not accepting the first few offers if it is a write-off etc. But does anybody have any helpful advice about what I should do now? I have checked the internet and cars that are a similar age to mine are fetching around £2000.
Oh well, what a s
tty evening! Thanks all! My car is currently awaiting collection by a collection company and I'm still awaiting details of a courtesy car that I have paid for with my insurance.Edited by funkyrobot on Friday 8th January 11:10
The car may very well be a write off - I can see that coming to £1k+ when repaired and the cost of a replacement car to you etc. will quickly exceed a payout.
In the event that the car that hit you is insured, the insurance company should be required to step in as Road Traffic Act Insurer and meet the liability to you, which would preserve your no claims. Some insurers are better at this than others. They will then look to recover the cost from their insured and/or the disqualified driver, who could be one and the same.
In the event that the car that hit you is insured, the insurance company should be required to step in as Road Traffic Act Insurer and meet the liability to you, which would preserve your no claims. Some insurers are better at this than others. They will then look to recover the cost from their insured and/or the disqualified driver, who could be one and the same.
W124Bob said:
I'd be very tempted to mention this to your employer and /or colleagues make sure the word gets round he's been driving whilst disqualified.Does he work where a certain amount of trust/honesty is expected|?
This has been done this morning. I left the car at work last night so security were fully aware of the situation this morning. It has also been forwarded to HR. Daft thing is, when I was in security last night the chap showed me an entry in their diary from Monday. The police had been here looking for a disqualified driver. Wondering if this was him?Thanks for the advice all!
DavidHM said:
The car may very well be a write off - I can see that coming to £1k+ when repaired and the cost of a replacement car to you etc. will quickly exceed a payout.
In the event that the car that hit you is insured, the insurance company should be required to step in as Road Traffic Act Insurer and meet the liability to you, which would preserve your no claims. Some insurers are better at this than others. They will then look to recover the cost from their insured and/or the disqualified driver, who could be one and the same.
Depends on what they were using it for.In the event that the car that hit you is insured, the insurance company should be required to step in as Road Traffic Act Insurer and meet the liability to you, which would preserve your no claims. Some insurers are better at this than others. They will then look to recover the cost from their insured and/or the disqualified driver, who could be one and the same.
Some insurers wait for the unsatisfied judgement, so it may look like they are being awkward.
OP should get paid however.
Sorry to hear this buddy.
Just make sure you stick to the old "My vehicle was stationery at the time of the collision and I can therefore accept no responsibility whatsoever for any damage caused to either vehicle". Just in case anybody tries to twist it later!
I'm afraid it sounds like a write-off (for insurance purposes), you have two options;
1) Offer to take a payment in lieu of damages (if you think you can get it repaired yourself for a reasonable amount?). They will haggle on this, and it's normally done quite amicably with the engineer directly. He'll say book value is £1200, you tell him where to go, and you want £2000 and to keep the car, he'll say bugger off, etc.
2) They'll offer a silly amount to settle. Decline this and go for more. It's standard practice. I added £2500 to my settlement when my last car was stolen, their first offer was just ridiculous!
Hope you can get it sorted.
Just make sure you stick to the old "My vehicle was stationery at the time of the collision and I can therefore accept no responsibility whatsoever for any damage caused to either vehicle". Just in case anybody tries to twist it later!
I'm afraid it sounds like a write-off (for insurance purposes), you have two options;
1) Offer to take a payment in lieu of damages (if you think you can get it repaired yourself for a reasonable amount?). They will haggle on this, and it's normally done quite amicably with the engineer directly. He'll say book value is £1200, you tell him where to go, and you want £2000 and to keep the car, he'll say bugger off, etc.
2) They'll offer a silly amount to settle. Decline this and go for more. It's standard practice. I added £2500 to my settlement when my last car was stolen, their first offer was just ridiculous!
Hope you can get it sorted.
Noger said:
maser_spyder said:
2) They'll offer a silly amount to settle. It's standard practice.
.
They dealt with hundreds of claims every month.
It's standard practice to offer a low price first.
I'm guessing you're in the insurance industry?
funkyrobot said:
The BIB arrived and went through the motions of checking cars, details etc. It was at this point when they informed me he was a disqualified driver. The car was insured but as he was disqualified he wasn't.
I thought we'd agreed in previous threads that third party cover still holds?In which case go direct to someone like europa as it's a straightforward(!) no fault third party claim
Why would some body shop know what the offer was ? Let alone know how the systems work. It isn't on Auda Enterprise.
This is pretty much all automated, the engineer has only a limited tolerance to change the estimate.
Maybe a few years ago they would have gone for the trade price. Nowadays that isn't the case. Offers are audited.
So your information is both thirdhand and out of date.
The idea that somehow a fiddle factor of -10% is applied to all offers is nonsense.
If you are going to malign an entire industry, then at least try to do it on the basis of facts, rather than hearsay.
This is pretty much all automated, the engineer has only a limited tolerance to change the estimate.
Maybe a few years ago they would have gone for the trade price. Nowadays that isn't the case. Offers are audited.
So your information is both thirdhand and out of date.
The idea that somehow a fiddle factor of -10% is applied to all offers is nonsense.
If you are going to malign an entire industry, then at least try to do it on the basis of facts, rather than hearsay.
saaby93 said:
funkyrobot said:
The BIB arrived and went through the motions of checking cars, details etc. It was at this point when they informed me he was a disqualified driver. The car was insured but as he was disqualified he wasn't.
I thought we'd agreed in previous threads that third party cover still holds?In which case go direct to someone like europa as it's a straightforward(!) no fault third party claim
Noger said:
Why would some body shop know what the offer was ? Let alone know how the systems work. It isn't on Auda Enterprise.
This is pretty much all automated, the engineer has only a limited tolerance to change the estimate.
Maybe a few years ago they would have gone for the trade price. Nowadays that isn't the case. Offers are audited.
So your information is both thirdhand and out of date.
The idea that somehow a fiddle factor of -10% is applied to all offers is nonsense.
If you are going to malign an entire industry, then at least try to do it on the basis of facts, rather than hearsay.
+1 with you their Noger,This is pretty much all automated, the engineer has only a limited tolerance to change the estimate.
Maybe a few years ago they would have gone for the trade price. Nowadays that isn't the case. Offers are audited.
So your information is both thirdhand and out of date.
The idea that somehow a fiddle factor of -10% is applied to all offers is nonsense.
If you are going to malign an entire industry, then at least try to do it on the basis of facts, rather than hearsay.
Why would an insurer knowingly go out of there way to make more work for themselves?? we dont have a department that comes up with "silly prices" maser_spyder and if they did im sure our regulators would come down on the insurer very hard, very fast and very publicly!!!
Edited by ZOLLAR on Friday 8th January 13:18
There's a good guide to what happens when a victim of an uninsured driver here (it's kind of an advert for these solicitors and I have no connection):
http://www.colemans-ctts.co.uk/Personal/Articles/R...
It seems as though scenario 1 (if the driver is not the policyholder) or 3 (if the driver is the policyholder and misrepresented the position at the start of the claim) will apply. If the driver was banned during the life of the policy then scenario 4 would apply.
http://www.colemans-ctts.co.uk/Personal/Articles/R...
It seems as though scenario 1 (if the driver is not the policyholder) or 3 (if the driver is the policyholder and misrepresented the position at the start of the claim) will apply. If the driver was banned during the life of the policy then scenario 4 would apply.
Edited by DavidHM on Friday 8th January 13:26
So why was I offered £12k for my car, and when I pointed out that was a ridiculous offer, they changed it to £14500?
Quite a jump, no?
'Hearsay' from my parents is hardly 'hearsay' per-se. I know them pretty well. I lived with them for 18 years.
They also had car sales, so used to help their customers with write-offs that came in for estimates, by quoting like-for-like prices for replacing written off cars.
Sorry if you don't like it, but it's fairly standard practice to decline the first offer from an insurance company and ask for a more realistic value for a replacement vehicle.
In any case, it can't do any harm to check the market to make sure you're getting the correct value for your car back, shirley? Especially in a non-fault accident.
Not doing this would be just silly!
OP - make sure you're getting market value for your car by checking for similar for sale, autotrader, etc. And be aware that if the offer seems low, you can often negotiate.
Ignore the naysayers!
Quite a jump, no?
'Hearsay' from my parents is hardly 'hearsay' per-se. I know them pretty well. I lived with them for 18 years.
They also had car sales, so used to help their customers with write-offs that came in for estimates, by quoting like-for-like prices for replacing written off cars.
Sorry if you don't like it, but it's fairly standard practice to decline the first offer from an insurance company and ask for a more realistic value for a replacement vehicle.
In any case, it can't do any harm to check the market to make sure you're getting the correct value for your car back, shirley? Especially in a non-fault accident.
Not doing this would be just silly!
OP - make sure you're getting market value for your car by checking for similar for sale, autotrader, etc. And be aware that if the offer seems low, you can often negotiate.
Ignore the naysayers!
Noger said:
saaby93 said:
funkyrobot said:
The BIB arrived and went through the motions of checking cars, details etc. It was at this point when they informed me he was a disqualified driver. The car was insured but as he was disqualified he wasn't.
I thought we'd agreed in previous threads that third party cover still holds?In which case go direct to someone like europa as it's a straightforward(!) no fault third party claim
I would appreciate you retract that.
I was trying to help the OP, so that he didn't get ripped off by a silly low offer.
I'm actually quite offended at your tone, when all I was trying to do was help.
maser_spyder said:
So why was I offered £12k for my car, and when I pointed out that was a ridiculous offer, they changed it to £14500?
Quite a jump, no?
'Hearsay' from my parents is hardly 'hearsay' per-se. I know them pretty well. I lived with them for 18 years.
They also had car sales, so used to help their customers with write-offs that came in for estimates, by quoting like-for-like prices for replacing written off cars.
Sorry if you don't like it, but it's fairly standard practice to decline the first offer from an insurance company and ask for a more realistic value for a replacement vehicle.
In any case, it can't do any harm to check the market to make sure you're getting the correct value for your car back, shirley? Especially in a non-fault accident.
Not doing this would be just silly!
OP - make sure you're getting market value for your car by checking for similar for sale, autotrader, etc. And be aware that if the offer seems low, you can often negotiate.
Ignore the naysayers!
Certainly every instance I've heard of amongst friends etc where a write-off is concerned, the initial offer was pathetically low. Expecting us to believe that these low offers are somehow "accidental" is going to get you (Noger) precisely nowhere - it's bollards. It's a game that insurers play very well, but of course someone in the industry will argue til they're blue in the face that that isn't their practice <strokes chin>.Quite a jump, no?
'Hearsay' from my parents is hardly 'hearsay' per-se. I know them pretty well. I lived with them for 18 years.
They also had car sales, so used to help their customers with write-offs that came in for estimates, by quoting like-for-like prices for replacing written off cars.
Sorry if you don't like it, but it's fairly standard practice to decline the first offer from an insurance company and ask for a more realistic value for a replacement vehicle.
In any case, it can't do any harm to check the market to make sure you're getting the correct value for your car back, shirley? Especially in a non-fault accident.
Not doing this would be just silly!
OP - make sure you're getting market value for your car by checking for similar for sale, autotrader, etc. And be aware that if the offer seems low, you can often negotiate.
Ignore the naysayers!
Most recent one was a young lad that wrote off his Evo 6. The initial offer was £6k for a car he had paid £8,500 for only a few months earlier. After much messing about and threats of the Ombudsman he got £8k or £8.5k (can't remember). They really dug their heels in with him, totally out of order. Once the word ombudsman was mentioned he received a call back within minutes from "someone higher up" offering the CORRECT settlement figure.
Rather like the little kid with chocolate round his mouth denying the empty wrapper next to him is anything to do him, insurers may as well give up defending the very obvious and well-known 'game'.
Edited by bramley on Friday 8th January 13:53
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