Advice on insurance claim please.
Discussion
Trying to advise a friend on this one. I said I would ask the collective wisdom of PH before he calls his insurance company.
He was driving into the Wallasey tunnel from Liverpool towards Wallasey earlier today.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=tunnel&a...
It was a standard 2 lanes into 1 as one was closed situation and rightly of wrongly (that's another argument) he hadn't gone right to the back of the queue and waited with everyone else, he was using the open outside lane to pass a some queuing traffic with the intent of merging in closer to where the lane ended. I would say he was in the right and from the passenger seat I remain convinced he was right.
Someone took exception to this, a scouse, skin-head, tattoo'd idiot of a man and as he was passing (very slowly) looking for a gap to merge into (this is still prior to where the lane ends) the lovely chap in a golf starts to pull out. No time to do much about it, friend makes contact with him, my friends nearside front wheel arch makes contact with his offside rear wheel arch resulting in scuffs which are very, very minor.
Bullet head jumps out of the car and goes nuts. Witness pulls over and suggested my friend was in the wrong for not joining the back of the queue (standard sheep) but at the same time she witnessed him pull across into us. Not sure how much use she will be.
My initial thought is that when given to the insurance company the inevitable 50/50 will result. He's not too bothered, hardly any damage and it's an older car anyway, most of the scuff has rubbed off.
He has a massive excess as he's young so if it goes 50/50 he wouldnt be claiming.
So what does he do? Inform insurance company of the the issues, give his story, but not mention he wouldnt be claiming should it go 50/50? Best case scenario would be for other driver to be found at fault, which IMO he is.
Worst would be for him to be found at fault.
Would insurance company be more likely to go for 50/50 if they knew he wouldnt be claiming and therefore would cost them nothing so therefore that shouldn't be mentioned.
Bit of a PITA this situation.
He was driving into the Wallasey tunnel from Liverpool towards Wallasey earlier today.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=tunnel&a...
It was a standard 2 lanes into 1 as one was closed situation and rightly of wrongly (that's another argument) he hadn't gone right to the back of the queue and waited with everyone else, he was using the open outside lane to pass a some queuing traffic with the intent of merging in closer to where the lane ended. I would say he was in the right and from the passenger seat I remain convinced he was right.
Someone took exception to this, a scouse, skin-head, tattoo'd idiot of a man and as he was passing (very slowly) looking for a gap to merge into (this is still prior to where the lane ends) the lovely chap in a golf starts to pull out. No time to do much about it, friend makes contact with him, my friends nearside front wheel arch makes contact with his offside rear wheel arch resulting in scuffs which are very, very minor.
Bullet head jumps out of the car and goes nuts. Witness pulls over and suggested my friend was in the wrong for not joining the back of the queue (standard sheep) but at the same time she witnessed him pull across into us. Not sure how much use she will be.
My initial thought is that when given to the insurance company the inevitable 50/50 will result. He's not too bothered, hardly any damage and it's an older car anyway, most of the scuff has rubbed off.
He has a massive excess as he's young so if it goes 50/50 he wouldnt be claiming.
So what does he do? Inform insurance company of the the issues, give his story, but not mention he wouldnt be claiming should it go 50/50? Best case scenario would be for other driver to be found at fault, which IMO he is.
Worst would be for him to be found at fault.
Would insurance company be more likely to go for 50/50 if they knew he wouldnt be claiming and therefore would cost them nothing so therefore that shouldn't be mentioned.
Bit of a PITA this situation.
Merging lanes will nearly always go 50/50. I had some knob pull out to prevent me passing him to merge further down the other day. A factor will be if the TP took the womans details as a witness, and what she says. Basically the tp pulled into your friends path, however he doesn't have a strong witness and as it's merging lanes it will go 50/50.
My advice would be to speak to insurance, insist tp pulled into his path and plead non fault and don't waver from that.
My advice would be to speak to insurance, insist tp pulled into his path and plead non fault and don't waver from that.
Edited by Somnophore on Saturday 24th April 18:14
That's assuming that's what she says. My feeling is it's likely to go 50/50 whatever the witness says, however if she does state he pulled into your friends path could possible go non fault or 70/30 in your friends favour. But that won't be sorted out til later, so I personally wouldn't claim as it's likely to go 50/50 and he won't recover his excess
Yeah, but the other guy has indicated that he will be telling his insurance company it was Tom's fault.
So he needs to contact them and he's not bothered if it goes 50/50 as damage doesn't need sorting anyway. It's only an old Punto.
I was well impressed with the tunnel police though, and how they dealt with it. Hat's off to them.
So he needs to contact them and he's not bothered if it goes 50/50 as damage doesn't need sorting anyway. It's only an old Punto.
I was well impressed with the tunnel police though, and how they dealt with it. Hat's off to them.
Just wanted to give an update on this.
He called his insurance and went through the circumstances, giving all the details he needed to.
The insurance company have gone away and made contact with both the witness and the other guys insurance company. Other guys insurance have confirmed that he wants to dispute liability but have said they are going to be doing more investigation. They have, however, confirmed that their client has admitted to changing lanes.
The situation is that they are waiting on the witness statement - they've made no indication of what it will contain - but have said he can go ahead and make a claim if he wishes but that excess would be payable and reclaimable should third party admit liability.
No point doing that as excess is more than cost of damage.
If it goes 50/50 he would not have to claim but he would lose his no claims, which is strange?????
Although having said that both insured parties could decide not to bother and the case would be closed with no loss of no claims which given damage it what I assume would happen.
Worst case scenario is that the other idiot goes ahead and claims, friend loses no claims and is left with scuffed bumper.
Best case scenario is that third party insurers admit liability and he can book his car in, get it fixed, have his courtesy car and a virtual dig at the complete helmet that pulled out on him.
He called his insurance and went through the circumstances, giving all the details he needed to.
The insurance company have gone away and made contact with both the witness and the other guys insurance company. Other guys insurance have confirmed that he wants to dispute liability but have said they are going to be doing more investigation. They have, however, confirmed that their client has admitted to changing lanes.
The situation is that they are waiting on the witness statement - they've made no indication of what it will contain - but have said he can go ahead and make a claim if he wishes but that excess would be payable and reclaimable should third party admit liability.
No point doing that as excess is more than cost of damage.
If it goes 50/50 he would not have to claim but he would lose his no claims, which is strange?????
Although having said that both insured parties could decide not to bother and the case would be closed with no loss of no claims which given damage it what I assume would happen.
Worst case scenario is that the other idiot goes ahead and claims, friend loses no claims and is left with scuffed bumper.
Best case scenario is that third party insurers admit liability and he can book his car in, get it fixed, have his courtesy car and a virtual dig at the complete helmet that pulled out on him.
Quick update, 3rd party has admitted changing lanes into the insureds lane but the witness has said in her opinion my friend is at fault for 'queue jumping'.
His insurance company has faxed the statement over to the 3rd party insurers and have said "this statement is a matter of opinion and clearly cannot be used as evidence nor can it be proved. however, you client has admitted changing lanes into our clients lane therefore causing the incident and because of this we consider them 100% at fault and await your admission of liability by return".
This was sent to them 13th May and they are still waiting for a response.
How do the PH masses see this one going?
His insurance company has faxed the statement over to the 3rd party insurers and have said "this statement is a matter of opinion and clearly cannot be used as evidence nor can it be proved. however, you client has admitted changing lanes into our clients lane therefore causing the incident and because of this we consider them 100% at fault and await your admission of liability by return".
This was sent to them 13th May and they are still waiting for a response.
How do the PH masses see this one going?
The fact that the lanes were merging in the distance is entirely irrelevant, the incident is isolated purely to the fact that TP changed lanes onto your friend and caused the collision.
This is pretty much the sum of what the insurance company can take into account.
If it were to be expanded to include the supposed Q jumping then it could, logically, be taken a step further to say TP deliberately caused the accident to impede your friends progress and therefore open himself up to all sorts of potentially criminal circumstances.
This is pretty much the sum of what the insurance company can take into account.
If it were to be expanded to include the supposed Q jumping then it could, logically, be taken a step further to say TP deliberately caused the accident to impede your friends progress and therefore open himself up to all sorts of potentially criminal circumstances.
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