Kobe

Joe.. had an absolutely identical situation in a service station carpark.. where a grandad with a clapped out sierra hit my newish astra.

On the spot I suggested we sort it out ourselves as a 50:50 avoiding the insurance issue,...the guy seemed honest and harmless enough..I got his details.. did nothing and did not fix my car.

3 months later I got a "demand" from Zurich insurance - to pay for the damage on grandads sierra..since he had made a full claim and had half his car repaired on that one bump.. they claimed I was 100% at fault and failure to pay and so on was offence or something....

I refused to pay..and suggested to take it to court if necessary... My argument was that the grandad had made a false insurance claim - because he had not recorded the details of the incident correctly and therefore was defrauding his insurance with a false claim - which in turn was against me... if they did not settle in full, I would contact the police. After several back and forth letters.. they dropped their claim totally and also settled my claim.. which in the end was

Kobe

just stupid question.. why does the UK not use a standard accident claim form - which both parties fill out as original and duplicate at the scene. In the rest of europe everybody has this in their car.. and it avoids a lot of issues,.

you tick the boxes.. which describe the situation, draw a map etc.. both parties have to sign it - or else the police can be called to get the facts correct.

with this document all signed up, you fax it to your insurance and more or less there is an instant decision on fault and getting the car repaired.

have had 3 accidents in belgium.. from a write off to a car park shunt.. and this document has saved me every time to ensure a 100% 0% fault decision. You just make sure you are the one controlling the conversation and filling in the form.. get the signature and it's sorted.

Moggy

[QUOTE=Kobe,Jul 6 2005, 06:28 PM] Joe.. had an absolutely identical situation in a service station carpark.. where a grandad with a clapped out sierra hit my newish astra.

On the spot I suggested we sort it out ourselves as a 50:50 avoiding the insurance issue,...the guy seemed honest and harmless enough..I got his details.. did nothing and did not fix my car.

3 months later I got a "demand" from Zurich insurance - to pay for the damage on grandads sierra..since he had made a full claim and had half his car repaired on that one bump.. they claimed I was 100% at fault and failure to pay and so on was offence or something....

I refused to pay..and suggested to take it to court if necessary... My argument was that the grandad had made a false insurance claim - because he had not recorded the details of the incident correctly and therefore was defrauding his insurance with a false claim - which in turn was against me... if they did not settle in full, I would contact the police. After several back and forth letters.. they dropped their claim totally and also settled my claim.. which in the end was

Kobe

Zurich tried to bluff it.. asking me to pay up.. then reducing to 50:50 when I questioned them..and giving me the statistics that courts normally always settle at 50:50 so it was not worth it.... they finally they accepted 100:0 when I said I would not cave in.. but actually would go on the offensive..the line being that I was not interested so much in the money.. but to make sure that they did not win based on fraud and that this would be shown in the court if required.

I prepared a full case of technical evidence which I explained I would be showing at court, and mailed it to Zurich.. I had no particular intention to go to court..but the aim was not to blink first.

a week later a cheque appeared covering my repair estimate in full.

no apology however,

Neil.H

Result, but what an absolute bastard for putting a claim in like that.

Note to self: trust no one.

(Congrats on the 5 stars by the way Kobe.)