Challenging an insurance company decision
Discussion
Last November MrsC was involved in an RTC with a bike. She was on a large traffic-light-controlled roundabout (Brook Street, A12/M25 J28) and was in the correct lane for her intended direction of travel. (M25 ACW > A12 North).
She was held at a red light, which changed and she pulled away (she has a 1.1 Citroen C2 so her aceeleration would never be great). A bike came around the "inside" of the roundabout, ie to her right, and tried to cut across the front of her to take the on-slip to the M25 ACW. The bike should have been on the "outside" of the roundabout, in Lane 1, which is the only lane arrowed for this direction of travel. He got it wrong and hit the OSF of her car. You could see from where the bike and biker landed that he was never going to make the manouevre in a month of Sundays.
Met police attended, and stuck the biker on. The actual offence was not advised to us but would have been something like DWDCA. He was subsequently charged, and offered an awareness course or 3 points. We have that in writing from the Met. We don't know which option he took.
Our insurance company are aware of all of this.
Fast forward to today, when we receive a letter from the insurance company advising that they intend to settle 50/50. WTF? MrsC was entirely inculpable in any of the incident.
So we need to challenge. First pass will be to write to them and refute the decision but if, as I suspect, they ignore or turn down that approach, where do we go next? Ombudsman?
Please, no car/bike hysteria. I'm an experienced biker myself; I see what he did, I see how he got it wrong, but get it wrong he did. So let's leave that out of this discussion, ta.
She was held at a red light, which changed and she pulled away (she has a 1.1 Citroen C2 so her aceeleration would never be great). A bike came around the "inside" of the roundabout, ie to her right, and tried to cut across the front of her to take the on-slip to the M25 ACW. The bike should have been on the "outside" of the roundabout, in Lane 1, which is the only lane arrowed for this direction of travel. He got it wrong and hit the OSF of her car. You could see from where the bike and biker landed that he was never going to make the manouevre in a month of Sundays.
Met police attended, and stuck the biker on. The actual offence was not advised to us but would have been something like DWDCA. He was subsequently charged, and offered an awareness course or 3 points. We have that in writing from the Met. We don't know which option he took.
Our insurance company are aware of all of this.
Fast forward to today, when we receive a letter from the insurance company advising that they intend to settle 50/50. WTF? MrsC was entirely inculpable in any of the incident.
So we need to challenge. First pass will be to write to them and refute the decision but if, as I suspect, they ignore or turn down that approach, where do we go next? Ombudsman?
Please, no car/bike hysteria. I'm an experienced biker myself; I see what he did, I see how he got it wrong, but get it wrong he did. So let's leave that out of this discussion, ta.
By all means contact them and ask them to reconsider. Tell them you're not happy. And that you're willing to attend civil court so they can recover their outlay in full. But as for a legal challenge, forget it.
When you make a claim on your policy, you pass over rights of subrigation to your insurers, that is you give them the right to act on your behalf as they see fit.. Just because they choose to act for you in a way you don't approve of is tough luck I'm afraid.
When you make a claim on your policy, you pass over rights of subrigation to your insurers, that is you give them the right to act on your behalf as they see fit.. Just because they choose to act for you in a way you don't approve of is tough luck I'm afraid.
I can't offer you expert help, but it's worth a search on here. There have been several threads with similar themes describing companies who you can employ to challenge these sorts of decisions on your behalf. Worth browsing and seeing what's on offer before giving up on this one.
Whether the financial risk of doing so is worth it is up to you. Failing that, there is the insurance ombudsman.
Whether the financial risk of doing so is worth it is up to you. Failing that, there is the insurance ombudsman.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff