Insurance claim advice

[chungasarnies]

Alright then, here goes another one of these threads. Would appreciate anyones thoughts here.

My other half had a run in a supermarket car park last month. Essentially pulled out of a space and a lad came round the corner and went into the side of her. I've put on a naff drawing we did on the night if it gives you a better idea.

I don't necessarily want to get into who's fault it was, but I get the impression that she pulled out in good faith as her view of the other party was obscured by the parked car next to her. Apparently it happened so quickly that she barely knew what was happening before he went into her.

There were 4 or 5 17-18 year old lads in the other car and I think they were probably going a bit too fast (surely you can stop in that distance at car park speeds?) At any rate, accidents happen etc etc and its hard to say who's to blame. Him and his mates (and then his mum) kicked up a big stink at the time, blaming her, trying to get her to write down her side of the story and other such bks, to the point she locked herself in her car til her dad got there to calm things down.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, there can be no question that he ran into our car - the front nearside bumper on his (actually, his mums) Fiesta split and our front offside wing got bashed in, but being that its a £300 shed Corolla we frankly couldn't give two sts about it.

"Worst case scenario is joint liability" Admiral told us, which is what we got about two weeks ago. Seems fair, not worth challenging. Took only a verbal statement, didn't ask for the photos, didn't ask for our diagrams.

Today they ring up and say the other side has challenged and now we're being held 100% accountable, saying things like "he had right of way" and his "speed doesn't matter". It was like they hadn't even read the statement. They used words to the effect that we don't have a choice but to accept this.

I've never had a bump so I don't know where we go from here. Surely it is in Admiral's interest to not pay out for this claim. Surely joint liability is more reasonable being that he crashed his car into us when he probably could have easily avoided it? Can we not have a say in this if he just decided he didn't like the sound of joint liability?

I hope I don't come across as a whining ste who thinks we've done no wrong, but if someone could suggest a next step I'd like to hear it!

[B'stard Child]

Good luck - I hope your insurance company backs your corner

[chungasarnies]

Cheers - quite fortunate in that it's the first year of the policy so no no-claims to lose as such. Maybe the best option is to suck it up and make it clear we'll be taking our business elsewhere come renewal :s

[B'stard Child]

chungasarnies said:

Cheers - quite fortunate in that it's the first year of the policy so no no-claims to lose as such. Maybe the best option is to suck it up and make it clear we'll be taking our business elsewhere come renewal :s

Did you take photos of the location - how wide is the roadway she was pulling out of - ie room for two cars to pass or just single car width (if two way width he should have been able to drive round) if single way was it one way etc etc

I'm just thinking that the other party has done a better job of making a convincing expaination and you haven't.

Your insurance company probably sees the info at face value and you need to improve your case

[hotchy]

So, she reveresed out the space, and he came into a junction while you was in the road and hit your car? 100% his fault. Then again. i bet he will be saying she reversed out straight into him and he was already on the road. No chance of a camera from the car park? Id fight it all the way.

[itcaptainslow]

Go back to the car park, take some decent photos to aid your explanation of what happened and maybe ask the supermarket nicely if they have any CCTV which covers the area of the car park.

[chungasarnies]

Thanks, I should say she had reversed into the space so was driving directly out of it. Unfortunately it was around 8pm and closing time so there was essentially no one around, we considered asking Sainsbury's if there was any chance it would have been caught on CCTV but Admiral said the would 'sort all that out for us'

We did inform them that we had photos/diagrams of the scene but they said they wouldn't be necessary....

[B'stard Child]

chungasarnies said:

We did inform them that we had photos/diagrams of the scene but they said they wouldn't be necessary....

You should have made it necessary - picture worth a 1000 etc

[anothernameitist]

I like the quote and his speed doesn't matter.

So they are condoning 100 mph on motorwyas then, sure BRAKE would love that.

Speed = more control required and more chance of driver error from an unexoerianced driver using his mum car

[chungasarnies]

B'stard Child said:

You should have made it necessary - picture worth a 1000 etc

Point taken. Think we'll call them up, tell them we want to make a challenge and make sure they get all the photos, diagrams and a statement of exactly what we want to say then?