Van damaged car, chances of a claim?

[CaptainMorgan]

I'll try not to waffle too much but here we go...

Thursday afternoon I walk the dog and spot some damage to my car. Spent a while going through the camera at the front of the house and eventually find the incident, it happened a couple of evenings before. Plain white van, leaves no note, no nothing. Footage isn't good enough for a reg so I knocked on some doors, found the house the parcel was delivered to, they confirmed the time etc which all matches up with when the incident happened. Another person came out shortly after they heard the noise but only saw the guy/van driving away at speed.

I've contacted the company (online seller named after large rainforest), I had assumed they were all sub contracted and ran their own insurance but perhaps not as they've put me onto their claims company. What do we reckon my chances are of a (relatively) hassle free claim? It's quite clear that the van that caused the damage was the van that delivered the parcel but do we think they will try and argue the toss?

Massively fked off, second non fault accident I'll have to declare now on all the policies and my nice shiny car is no longer the right shape.

[CaptainMorgan]

Walked up the road yesterday, found one other CCTV but it’s just a blur of the van going past unfortunately.

Fair bit of damage, best guess is around £3000 at the moment, assuming nothings too bent underneath but I’m waiting for the bodyshop to get back to me.

I was thinking the same regarding declaring a claim too but it’s a decent chunk of cash, if it were a scuff then I’d not even consider chasing for it.

[CaptainMorgan]

Cheers for the replies, put my mind at ease a bit.

I ordered something from there and waited with my brother but it wasn't the same driver unfortunately. The neighbour has had numerous deliveries since but no luck there either.

I'll update how it goes, I'm hoping the body shop get back to me tomorrow so I can get it booked in ASAP. It's making me sad seeing it bent up.

[CaptainMorgan]

ResQ1 said:

Unfortunately, there's very little chance of a successful claim unless you have evidence specifically proving which vehicle hit yours, i.e showing or stating the registration or fleet identification number of the vehicle. Without that, its going to be one persons word against another which "white van" hit yours.

As the law stands, its up to the person making the claim (you) to prove their your loss, i.e that the other person was the one involved in the accident, that they caused all the damage being claimed for and that they are liable for your loss. The other person
doesn't have to prove it wasn't them... the burden of proof rests with the claimant.

Without this the claim is pretty much bound to fail, sorry.

I thought that, but then I've got the van on camera, GPS tracking is pretty accurate on their app, plus he delivers the exact moment he goes out of shot. We'll see, I'll keep you all updated. It's lose lose anyway, even if they payout then I'll get shafted declaring the accident for the next 5 years.

[CaptainMorgan]

I've fired the evidence off along with the claim form and an estimate, hopefully they don't mess me about.

loskie said:

you shouldn't do if it's not fault and you claim off the 3rd party insurer only notifying yours. I had a car written off, claimed off the other guy's insurance, had no affect on mine

I've got a accident already from a neighbour reversing into it, I figured a second would make matters worse come renewal.

[CaptainMorgan]

ResQ1 said:

Does the video you have show the impact and the registration / fleet number of the van ? Or is it just the van in the street near your vehicle ? If not, then I'm sorry to say from an insurers point of view, what you have is a video of a white van in your street, that could be one of their insured vehicles....or not.

For the GPS tracking, I'm certainly not an expert, my understanding is that the delivery app position is based on the courier reporting successful delivery of each parcel (maybe someone else on here who works as an Amazon driver could confirm) rather than a GPS tracker in the vehicle.

Don't get me wrong, I really do hope you are able to get it all sorted out by the van driver or his insurance, its just that 25 years in the insurance claims arena has made me somewhat cynical.

The cctv shows the van rolling down the hill, driver chasing it, then it hits my car. It’s not clear enough for a registration.

The GPS tracking does work all the time, when I ordered a parcel Friday I followed a guy up the road, it pings every 30 seconds. The van was in the footage for 4-5 minutes.

I’ve sent the claim form and they’re planning to get back to me within 24hrs apparently. I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Edited by CaptainMorgan on Tuesday 10th November 10:08

[CaptainMorgan]

AJL308 said:

His neighbours Amazon account will show an exact time of delivery, surely?

Yeah, I have the screenshot of the email you get sent when it's signed for.

Car was hit at 1717, parcel delivered 1719, van drives off at 1720 when another neighbour comes out of her house, driver spots her coming out the house and floors it up the road. You can see the neighbour in the footage come out of the house too.

[CaptainMorgan]

So I had a email asking for a few details, I managed to get the tracking info from the app showing it was delivered when it was. Sent that off with the photo of the parcel, they're investigating and will get back to me as soon as they have news.

Drove the car round the block, still drives as it should thankfully, I'm quite impressed given the wack it took. It's off to the dealer Monday, they done some work on it before and I was happy so hopefully it'll be all good.

[CaptainMorgan]

Update, I got an email end of last week with the drivers name, reg number, insurer & his policy number. I've contacted them and now I'm waiting for them to get back to me.

[CaptainMorgan]

Final update, the guy hadn't told his insurance company, they asked for the footage and for photos of the damage before paying out pretty quickly, no issues!

Hopefully next months renewal isn't too painful.