accident

[lezmtaylor]

Not "X" related, but last friday an idiot in a pickup triuck ran into the side of me whilst driving the wife' s 3series 325ci convertible, his fault in wrong lane.
I am having real trouble getting his insurance details , have phoned him and left messages (He was not the driver)have given my insurance details to him, but he will not communicate with me.
What is my next step, wife is worried that he sounds of the travelling fraternity and will come round and attack our house.I have said it is a Police issue, as one is obliged to swop insurance details. It is going to cost £450 ons excess.

Lez

[mr angry]

You are correct it is a police issue should they fail to provide details within 24hrs. Have you reported it?

[Leslie]

Contact the police as said , the longer you leave it the harder it will be to get sorted.Chances are they are not on the policy so not insured for that car .

[Alan Gunn]

As above get on to plod asap.

[henrym3]

If its their fault you don’t have to pay your excess, it’s claimed of their insurance. Hopefully you have a good insurance company that pays out if your hit by an uninsured driver.

[X5Sport]

Your insurer will be able to check from the registration number whether or not the 3rd party vehicle is insured and who with. It will hold the insured drivers details though they won’t tell you them due to the GDPR rules. Let them know that the other driver refused to provide any details, and that the name/address given may be false as well (if you think that it is). Give them everything you have.

If you have legal protection on your car or house insurance then you can invoke that as well. If it’s an uninsured vehicle then report that you have been hit by an uninsured driver and plod should be able to put a trace onto the ANPR systems to flag it if it passes a camera - assuming it doesn’t already.

Write everything (vehicle details, driver’s appearance, date, time, location, direction of travel, speeds, indicators etc etc) that you can remember down as soon as possible. Contemporaneous notes may help you should a court case follow.

[lezmtaylor]

Thanks for all the help, wife is now going to contact the police.
Our ins co (NFU) say they have put the van reg through their data base of all ins companies , and it appears that it is not insured on the data base for any insurance company.
She is off to the cop shop now.

Lez

[lezmtaylor]

Eventually found a cop shop that was open (3rd attempt), they checked for insurance and guess what .... he is insured,3rd party only, accident happened 1145 Friday 15th February, His insurance was started at 0000 on the 15th feb (same day).
It sure looks fishy, insurance started 0000 15th feb, accident 1145 15th feb, and he could not produce details of insurance until today.

Now the long wait, our insurance will repair the car, if they have to put a new panel in , it is a write off.

[X5Sport]

If it shows up now then the insurer’s systems will have a time stamp for when the calls were made and for the policy being taken out. Getting plod to do anything might be a bigger challenge. Your insurers should be able to get the answers as well.

I am sorry about the car though. Neither of you were hurt, but......

[Leslie]

0000 might be a default time setting ,will remain to be seen if they bought insurance before or after the crash ! Bit of a coincidence it's the same day but you never know ..

[Alan Gunn]

The only time i had my insurance start at 0000 is when it renews.
When you first buy it starts at that time of day unless you don't want it to then you say when you want it to start ie tomorrow mid day Saturday 9.00am and so on.

[lezmtaylor]

Latest, ins co rang today and asked would I prefer to have vehicle repaired, or written off (my choice).
So as I bought the 325ci for the wife it is up to her.
She says it is difficult to get into the 325ci, and I am also having a lot of trouble with my back so it is going to go down the'' write off'' road. So as soon as we get the cheque it is a little Honda Civic 5 door for her, what sh e had before the 325ci.

Lez

[AW8]

Re the insurance settlement. Make sure you do your research on similar cars on autotrader. Insurance will not consider ebay or gumtree etc.

Haggle on the total loss settlement. (This week I negotiated an 8% hike in total loss settlement for a car owned by my neighbour on back of a 5 min sraight talking phone call)....possibly could have squeezed a little bit more if sending good condition pre accident pics and comparable advert links.


Once best settlement secured on the 3 series ask how much to buy it as a total loss. If cost of purchase damaged plus cost of independent body shop repair are less than likely sale price repaired you could make money from a bad situation.

Example....

Likely agreed private sale price if repaired £2.5k

Highest price of similar cars on forecourts £3k

Initial nsurance offer £2.2k

Haggled final settlement £2.7k

Trade value repaired unrecorded £1.6k

Buy car total loss recorded at target no more than 30 % of trade value £480... loss managent companies typically would sell total loss cars on to salvage companies for 20% of trade book...Maybe try to haggle from here.

Cash repair cost at small body shop £500

Total of car source price £480 plus repair £980

Private sale price recorded £1.5k

So settlement £2.7k plus sale price repaired is £4.2k

Less repair cost £500 = £3.700 or less excess at £450 (if 3rd party not accepting full liability or not insured) , £3,250.

Sure some legwork involved and you need to be confident haggling but my route could see you with more to spend on next car.

If aftermarket bits fitted and OE items still owned put it baxk to stock to sell and sell the aftermarket bits for more profit.


I don't know the maths on your damaged car. IIRC it's a non M E46 vert of sorts so my maths is example only and based on a car allowing variartions between trade/private/forecourt/total loss damaged/total loss repaired private sale and mates rates for a repair. You may be able to get a used same colour panel that bolts straight on and make more money. Worth getting alignment checked after a collision and if able... ideally before any decsion to buy the car back. If it's twisted or geometry out let someone else play or just get best total loss figure.

If it ends up recorded make sure you understand the nee categories and declare same at sale. Before and after pics plus any parts receipts for panel etc might reassure a private buyer who is a little unsure as to how bad the damage was.


If going down this route be confident polite but concise & to the point .....Final loss companies, cash in hand trade and such like want to hear your sad story of the accident or of your fondness of the damaged car. Do not make it an emotional process !

Keep hold of your V5 until car gone and keep it taxed and insured if running around fixing it up etc.

I have not mentioned other options such as stripping and selling for parts.

Accidents/collisions are never much fun but a bad situation can often be made financially better after some legwork & a bit of nerve.

If insuer says full liabiilty with other party then make sure ezcsss not taken and get liability onus by email or correondance plus proof of no claims if you layer change insurer. Keep notes of who you speak to and settlement figures as future insurers may want this when providing quotes. I also advise you to shop around come renewal as some companies try to claw back losses through premium greed.

Don't dismiss keeping records of any incurred costs & or injuries how ever minor...."ambulance chasers" might see tou with some compensatoon too. Keep all receipts....keep a diary recording details of all calls offers deals and appointments.

Little.to gain by pushing for a prosecution IMO but if yout want to discuss the S170 and road traffic act bits let me know here or PM/call/text me.

Wishing you all the best whichever route(s) you take.

[lezmtaylor]

AW8, private message sent.

Lez

[X5Sport]

He’s good isn’t he......

Next time I want a new car, I’m taking AW8 with me