Is this car insurance situation usual?

[Garage_Doors]

This is odd and I'm sure Edna can confirm. My understanding is that the police only get involved if a crime has been committed - if ts a simple bump with no injuries and things like speeding, drinking, due care & attention etc. are not at issue I'm surprised they are involved as this becomes a tort under negligence.

I would ask the claimant to provide you the evidence that makes him think you did it. If he doesn't, you may have your day in court. But remember, this is a tort claim [for your negligence] and not a crime, it will be heard in the county court and the claimant only needs to convince the judge on the "balance of probability" that you did it.

I was thinking pretty much the same when reading the account, it's very difficult to get the police out when something has been stolen from personal experience or any accident where there are no injuries. Ringing them up and saying "someone has bumped my car in a parking space" then they say they will come out out ,have a look, review CCTV then using a car registration thatS been given to them by the complainant as it's pretty clear it didn't come form the CCTV then check it, contact the owner and then speak to the them seems incomprehensible to me.

Sound a bit like the car owner has a friend in the police who is "lending a hand" but that would be pretty stupid by any serving police person due to the penalties of being caught.

Would like to hear Edna's take on it.

 

[StonehamPark]

I was thinking pretty much the same when reading the account, it's very difficult to get the police out when something has been stolen from personal experience or any accident where there are no injuries. Ringing them up and saying "someone has bumped my car in a parking space" then they say they will come out out ,have a look, review CCTV then using a car registration thatS been given to them by the complainant as it's pretty clear it didn't come form the CCTV then check it, contact the owner and then speak to the them seems incomprehensible to me.

Sound a bit like the car owner has a friend in the police who is "lending a hand" but that would be pretty stupid by any serving police person due to the penalties of being caught.

Would like to hear Edna's take on it.

Police will (usually) only attend if an injury is reported or a car is blocking the road and cannot be moved.
Otherwise, the Police will advise you to deal with your respective insurers.

 

[drew]

This is it. They're presumably hoping that by dealing with an individual person (who more than likely will have no knowledge of insurance claims procedure), they can come out of it having paid out considerably less than they would if your insurer got involved and put their weight behind it.

Having worked as an insurance broker, ie not an insurer who actually pays out, i would suggest your comments are a little disingenuous. Third party insurers are looking to control costs for obvious reasons. They will have nominated repairers that they would want you to use as they will have labour cost agreements with them. They will be the same repairers that they use to repair their own customers cars. The same way that your insurers will use their nominated repairers when dealing with third party vehicles damaged by their policyholders. As for hire cars, there has been a history of over inflated costs just because the hire firms know that they are getting money back from a third party insurer.

If insurers stop paying over inflated third party claims then that going to help keep your premiums down, the same as if they (or the Police) could keep uninsured drivers off the road!!!

 

[drew]

Explain this one then .... someone I know got a brand new car on a personal lease that comes with free insurance for a year - great as he's young and its his first insurance.

He visited a mates house a few weeks back and the next day he gets a call from his mates neighbour saying that he reversed into car and did £1000 worth of damage and its recorded on cctv.
The bloke got his number from his mate who claims he saw the car and worked out he did it from the cctv!

There is not one scratch, mark or dent on the new car and he swears that he can't have and didn't hit this blokes car so he told him politely to get stuffed as it can't have been him. Bloke says he will go to the police - so he says well do so as he didn't hit it.

He gets a call from the police and tells them the story and they say they will get back to him after investigating which they do and call him in for a chat about it. When he goes for the chat they tell him they have seen the cctv footage and whilst they can't say he hit it yet they advise him to go through the insurance because if he doesn't they may prosecute him for not reporting the accident and if they win he will get six points!

They didn't show the footage supposedly against him because "it wasnt available right then"! so he is unsure what to do - whilst he's sure he didn't hit the car he is buckling from the hassle from the police and is thinking that if he lets it go through the insurance they will sort it and they will say that he never hit it and nothing else will happen.

I've warned him that if it goes as a claim in any event he will end up losing out on NCD and premiums etc even if they agree that he didn't hit the car and the cctv might not show anything other than a car reversing and it might not even be able to show what car or anything. I can't see that there would be no mark or damage on his car and I think the bloke might be trying it on.

I think the police are just either hoping they will scare him it to admitting it or just hoping they can pass the problem on to the insurance companies.

Reading what Bozza wrote in his mums case I find it ludicrous that they in that case they say they won't investigate but in this case they seem to be going all out to find the person even perhaps by trying to pressure someone unfairly to do close the case.

My advice would be to report it to his insurers and confirm the details in writing either by post or email so it is on record that the driver does not accept that he hit the car. Problem is that if it happened several weeks ago then the other car may have got any damage repaired and any evidence is gone. Likely that there was already damage to their car and just trying to get it paid by your friend.