How AI Legalese Decoder Can Help Navigate a Claim for £14k in Costs After Hitting a Parked Car
- May 18, 2024
- Posted by: legaleseblogger
- Category: Related News
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## Situation Overview
Hi all, I hit a parked car in Birchanger services in Jan. They were very tight to the line in their space, as was the car in the other bay next to the one I was attempting to enter, but I still went in next to it and caught it whilst straightening up; my fault. No damage at all to my car, but left a mark and a dent on the third party’s car.
**How AI Legalese Decoder Can Help**: The AI Legalese Decoder can analyze the legal jargon in the provided letter from the solicitor and help you understand your legal responsibilities and options in responding to the claim. It can break down the complex language into easy-to-understand terms, making it easier for you to make informed decisions.
## Response from Insurance and Solicitor
I left a note and went into the services, and they’d rang me before I left, so went back and verbally exchanged details. All was amicable. I continued with my trip and reported to my insurance on my return home a couple of days later. My insurance (Churchill) informed me that the process as far as I was concerned was complete at that point; there’d be nothing to pay and it’d be just a matter of lost NCB at renewal.
That was until I got home from work tonight and found a letter from a solicitor acting on behalf of the third party. It contains a Certificate of Service, including a Claim Form, and all of the invoices associated with the repairs and the subsequent hire of a replacement vehicle while theirs was repaired.
**How AI Legalese Decoder Can Help**: The AI Legalese Decoder can assist you in understanding the legal documents provided by the solicitor, including the claim form and invoices. It can help you decipher the legal implications of accepting fault or defending the claim, allowing you to make informed decisions about your next steps.
## Financial Impact and Insurance Coverage
This totals to over £14,000, only £3700ish which is repairs. The way it’s worded, I have to respond accepting fault, and therefore pay the costs, or defend the claim either fully or in part. I cannot afford the costs, nor do I have any intention of defending the claim, as I don’t feel I have a leg to stand on in that regard, particularly as I (naively, I admit) didn’t take pictures at the scene.
**How AI Legalese Decoder Can Help**: The AI Legalese Decoder can provide insights into the potential financial impact of the claim and whether your insurance coverage, including legal cover, will protect you in this situation. It can analyze the terms of your insurance policy and help you understand if the costs stated will be covered or if you may face financial liability.
## Personal Concerns and Next Steps
Is this paperwork a formality, and the costs stated will be covered by my insurance (Fully comprehensive, including legal cover)? Or should I prepare myself for an economic shafting? My poor wife is shaking with anxiety and I’m trying to play it cool as a formality that’ll all be sorted by the insurance, but I don’t know that’s the case and I’d rather know for sure and be able to be honest to her either way.
**How AI Legalese Decoder Can Help**: The AI Legalese Decoder can provide clarity on the legal processes involved in responding to the claim, ensuring that you understand your rights and obligations. It can also help alleviate your wife’s anxiety by providing comprehensive information about the potential outcomes and options available to you.
I am in England.
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****** just grabbed a
You need to contact Churchill and pass all the info onto them, do not make contact or doing anything yourself. It is very unlikely you would have to pay any of those costs unless Churchill discovers you acted fraudulently.
Just pass it onto your insurer asap. That’s what you paid them for.
Pass all the info on to your insurance company, it’s all part of your original claim, and as you did the right thing and reported it you shouldn’t have an issue with them dealing with it.
I’d also suspect that the 3rd party is being scammed by the old “courtesy car scam that’s really a premium hire car service” and is now coming after you for the bill, £500 a day is excessive for a courtesy car.
It’s normal for the letters to be in each driver’s names as it’s you that were involved not the insurer. Pass to your insurer and they can decide to pay or challenge the costs.
It’s a scam probably caused because the other party is a doughnut and thought having a courtesy Rolls Royce Phantom for 3 months as a courtesy car was an acceptable expense.
Contact Churchill and send over all correspondence. Do not engage with anyone other than Churchill.
It’ll get sorted by your insurance company once you pass it over.
Expect lots of back and forth comms though – it isn’t a quick process unfortunately.
This is exactly why we are all paying so much more for car insurance. Companies squeezing everything they can to make a claim.
The irony is that some Insurance Companies recommend and pass you on to Accident Management companies and the credit-hire-car when there’s no question of you being at fault, and the Accident Management companies get you take out an insurance policy that will pay for the cost of the hire car should it not be recoverable from the “at fault” driver’s insurance company.
Repairs whilst you are driving their credit-hire courtesy car always seem to take three times as long as they should do normally as well.
Really interesting article about this in the Guardian a few weeks ago: https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/may/11/cars-charges-insurance-premiums-cost-of-claims
Pass to insurer. You’ll find that he contacted his insurer who passed him on to a claims management company who basically advertise their services to people in accidents trying to grab as much money out of your insurance company as you can. All the insurers pretty much do the same thing. The deliberately delay repairs and give a replacement vehicle at exorbitant rates per day to rack up costs. All a massive con if you ask me.
Do not respond directly to the solicitor or claimant.
Check the invoice for the actual repairs and you can go on a site like click mechanic to see how much it would actually cost for the repair they are claiming. Show that to your insurer.
NAL. I wonder if the third parties insurance was somehow invalid and he was unable to make a legitimate claim against your insurer. Trying to claim for the same damage twice would be fraudulent.Follow.advice here and contact your insurers immediately.
On a related note. I recently had someone drive into me. The ‘insurance claim handlers’ refused to deal with my claim
1. Because I didn’t want a hire car.
2. Because I wanted to use my preferred local repairer.
They were very pursausive in the car hire thing, to the.point I felt they were trying to strong arm me into claiming for something I didn’t need. Still contemplating repoing them for trying to involve me in fraud.
contact the insurance, do not respond to the claim for damages that would be dealt with by the insurance
I had a similar package of legal documents suing me for loss of income from the driver and passenger of a car I had rear ended, I sent the documents straight to my insurers and never heard about it again.
Your insurance will require you to pass any communications on to them. Do not jeopardize this by doing anything else.
This is what you buy insurance for.
They are entitled to hire an equivalent car whilst theirs is off the road, £500 is indeed taking the piss but that is your insurers battle to fight not yours.
My mum had a similar thing happen to her a few years ago. She got blinded by low lying sun awhislt driving and collided with a parked car. She admitted fault to the owner of the other car at the scene and also called and reported the collision to the insurer, admitting fault whilst at the scene whilst waiting for the tow truck. ^ months after she got a letter including court documents from a legal team for the third party suing my mum for the costs of the write off value and brief car hire fees.
My mum called the insurer and was advised to forward all the documents to them and the insurer would take care of it, which is what she did and heard nothing more of it.
OP – call your insurer, tell them you have received these documents and ask them to sort out the claim on your behalf. Do not call the third party or their insurers, only your insurer.
As for the hire vehicle – if the third party car was still driveable and only minimal damage was caused to it, then the hire vehicle obtained should only have been provided whilst the third party car was in for repair – a repair that should only have taken place when all the parts were at the bodyshop and ready for the repair to commence. The third party has a duty to mitigate their losses, so having a hire vehicle for nearly three weeks whilst the repair was being done doesn’t seem reasonable to me, especially considering the damage you report to the third party vehicle being minimal denting and scraping coming from a slow speed collision in a car park. If I were still working in the insurance industry, this is something I would be questioning as the costs for the hire do not stack up, and it also the reason why everyones insurance premiums are going through the roof.
Don’t do anything. Inform your insurer immediately. They will deal with it.
I would ring your insurance, inform them of this and let them fight this for you as that’s what you pay insurance for.
500 quid a day!? What car were they renting!?
Insurers problem, don’t respond, pass it on to them.
Sounds like a scam to me anyway.
You just need to forward this on to your insurer. Not sure why they’re approaching you directly about this but don’t make any contact yourself, or your insurers may hold this against you.
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definitely contact your insurance the other party are trying it on
Good grief, phone your insurers.
I was just thinking how the guy who’s car got dinged not getting a note is down to people taking advantage, but I wasn’t thinking it could be this bad.