Back in September last year i was hit by a foreign (Polish) HGV on a motorway roundabout. Basically he came into my lane without indicating and clipped my rear quarter and forced me against the kerb. Not a massive amount of damage luckily and could have been much worse had i not taken evasive action!
Anyway, I submitted an insurance claim against him and was told that with him being foreign it could take some time before it is sorted. Fast forward 8 months and he has now responded to my insurance company stating that he **does not accept liability **and i cut him up!! He is not claiming for any damage/ injury compensation but will not accept liability. In the absence of any 'independant witness' (my pregnant other half was in the passenger seat but is not an independant) my insurance company say that it is likely to go 50/50 :evil: They have acknowleged that my diagram and statment of events is far superior to the foreign drivers and that his story is completely different to mine (other side of the roundabout etc) but without any independant witness i'm stuffed. 🙁
Now, the damage to my car amounts to circa £700 which is less than my extortionate excess and the third party is not claiming any damages. Therefore my insurance company will not have to pay a penny should the claim be settled on a 50/50 basis. Nevertheless they have said that i will still lose two years of my no claims bonus if i proceed with the claim!! That to me is a joke and i can't understand how they can get away with it!?! Ok, it will go down as a fault claim against me but it has cost them nothing! The third party would pay 50% of my costs (£350) and i would pay the remainder as it is within my excess amount. My insurance company would be paying 50% of nothing as the third party is claiming nothing.
The only way around this is to cancel my claim and fork out the entire amount for repairs myself. this would be more beneficial as I can guarantee that my insurance will rocket if i lose two years no claims discount, certainly more than its cost me to repair.
I'm just really p*ssed off that:
(A)My insurance company seem perfectly happy to accept 50/50 even when it was blatently not my fault and were quite eager to have me cancel my claim when i mentioned i may not proceed if it goes 50/50...they actually offered to shut my case there and then we i mentioned it over the phone!
(B)How can they reduce my no claims by two years when the claim will cost them nothing and they will actually stand to make money out of it by putting up my premium!
**(C) **It appears that without a completely independant witness the third party can lie there way out of a claim and say what they want!
I'd aprticularly appreciate it some advice on point (B) if anyone knows why they can do this?
Sorry for the rant! 🙂