If you have been in an accident caused by someone else, and the consequences are not great, you may find yourself in a frustrating position.

We are talking about a case which the law calls a small claim. If there is not an injury worth £1,000, and the financial loss is below £5,000, you are in small claims territory. The classic situation is where your vehicle is damaged, and you have to pay for its repair, or you have paid your own excess. If your case falls into this category your legal costs cannot be recovered from the party at fault. All legal cover policies we know of cannot provide assistance in such a situation, simply because it is uneconomic to do so.

Another frustration is that your own insurer will not chase the insurer of the person to blame. So lets say you have fully comprehensive insurance, someone knocks over and damages your bike which is legally parked. You claim on your own policy, and have to pay the excess to the repairer. Most people think their own insurer will recover the cost from the party to blame. It might surprise you, but most insurers are not interested. Their job is to insure you, not represent you.

The insurance companies used to operate a knock for knock agreement. They recognised the swings and roundabouts of accidents and blame, they knew it was expensive to chase one another for repayment of their expense, so agreed to swallow their own losses. This agreement was kicked into touch some years ago, but some still operate along the same lines. So in the example above, where the accident is clearly the fault of someone else, both you and your insurance company have paid out, and your premium will go up next year.

So, what are your options?

If YourKey has arranged repair or hire you have a process within which your own expenses can be recovered. The benefit of credit hire in such a situation is that the paying insurer wants to keep the cost down, so will try to ensure repair is quick, and the hire period short. In this case the expense is recovered direct from the insurer of the person to blame, leaving your insurance record and wallet intact.

If we do not arrange hire or repair, then you have to recover the cost yourself, and here is how to do it.

Do not try to recover losses by telephone. The insurer will have a process, and telephoning does not short circuit the process, as you talk to a call centre rather than the person assigned the file. Write a letter, keep a copy, and although formal, you are much more likely to get a reply this way. Check the website of the insurer you are writing to for a fax number.

We recommend writing to the person you hold responsible, and their insurer at the same time. You will need to change the wording of the letter below to suit your situation. It is designed for writing to the person at fault only, but do send a copy for the insurance company.

To

Defendant (name and address of person you hold responsible)

Dear Sir or Madam,

Re: Claimant’s full name (that’s you)

Claimant’s full address
I wish to claim damages in connection with a road traffic accident on (date) at (place of accident which must be sufficiently detailed to establish location)

Please confirm the identity of your insurers. Please note that the insurers will need to see this letter as soon as possible and it may affect your insurance cover and/or the conduct of any subsequent legal proceedings if you do not send this letter to them.

The circumstances of the accident are:-

(brief outline)

The reason I am alleging fault is:

(simple explanation e.g. pulled out from minor to major road without looking, driving too fast)

The accident was reported to the police by (myself or name). I will obtain a copy of the police report if you do not accept what I say and agree you are wholly at fault. I will let you have a copy of the same upon your undertaking to meet half the fee.

My vehicle (manufacturer, model, and registration) needs repair. The vehicle is currently at (and is incurring storage charges). I would like to give you the opportunity to inspect my vehicle and put forward your own proposal as to the work required and the method of repair. If you do not wish to take up this offer I will arrange for the repairs myself, and send the invoice to you for payment.

In the accident the following articles were damaged:

(detailed description, date of purchase and price - remember you are only entitled to cost of repair or value at time of accident).

A copy of this letter is attached for you to send to your insurers.

Finally I expect an acknowledgment of this letter within 21 days by yourself or your insurers.

Yours faithfully

We help many members with this type of claim. We have also advised on making a County Court claim which is your next step if the letter does not work. The process is not difficult, it does not require a solicitor, but it does require a little time and determination. Don’t be fobbed off, and use the letter rather than the phone so the insurer sees you know what you are doing.

There is encouragement from the Guardian consumer rights man who brought a small claim against Carphone Warehouse.

There is some very useful guidance on the Government website by clicking here.

Let us know how you get on, and share your experience to help other members.

Good luck.

Comments

1. David Says:
   October 14th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

   Query - I want to ask about 2 recent incidents where i witnessed my car damaged by third parties whilst i wasn’t in it.
   1, I was getting items from my garage when a parked car reversed into mine and broke the numberplate, scratched paintwork etc. They subsequently ignored my letter.
   2. I saw a neigbours cat jump off my car’s convertible roof as i approached which has left claw marks all over the canvas and plastic rear
   window. They subsequently ignored my letter.

   Would YOURKEY have been able to act for me in either of these cases and to
   what extent ?

   Thanks

   Dear David,
   Thank you for your question.

   The legal expenses policy with YourKey is designed to allow you to bring a
   compensation action after an accident in which an injury is suffered. This
   is typical of the legal policies sold with vehicle insurance.
   Such policies have different names, and apparently different features, but
   the common feature is that the policy will only support an “economic”
   action.

   I have come across uninsured loss recovery policies, which you would think
   are the answer to your problem,but they commonly contain a clause which
   excludes cases where the legal costs cannot be recovered.

   Where the is no injury, and the property damage and loss is below £5,000,
   legal fees cannot be recovered from the third party. But if there is an
   injury worth more than £1,000 legal costs are recoverable.

   It is for this reason we have provided information on our website at
   http://www.yourkey.info/category/legal-consumer-rights
   This explains how to bring a small claim in the County Court. Such an
   action should succeed where the car reversed into you, but you have not
   got a chance on the damage caused by the cat.

   Good luck from the Your Key team

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