Insurance Advice Needed

[bobmc]

A family member was recently in an accident that was their fault - they hit a stationary car at a road junction

Unfortunately, the family member was breathalysed and was over the legal limit for alcohol and has since been to court and there has been a fine and a ban. 

The car was leased and the insurer refused to pay for the costs of repairs to the lease vehicle but are allowing them to pay these costs over the next 12 months.

However, they have now received a claim from one of these accident management companies for personal injuries to the third party driver. As the accident speed would have been very low, it's a bit of a stretch but I suppose it's quite normal now to claim for whiplash injury in these circumstances.

They've spoken to the fleet management company after receiving this claim and they're refusing to deal with this 3rd party claim - so my question is are they within their rights to do this in these ciircumstances or does the Road Traffic act not cover this?

 

 

 

[ColinBarber]

The insurer has to pay out against the third party as per the road traffic act - some policies will cover the driver too, other won't and may even sue the driver to recover costs of the third party. Being a lease shouldn't make any difference, other that who you are dealing with if the insurance was part of the lease deal or if you get it independently.

 

[bobmc]

Hi Colin

Thanks for that - it confirms my understanding of things. The problem is that we don't know who the insurer is because it all goes through the lease company and apparently they've never seen the insurance documentation so we have no idea of what the policy wording is. 

I don't condone what they've done by any means and it's fortunate that no-one was badly hurt. The issue here is that they really don't have the means to meet the potential costs of this claim. They accept they've been stupid and irresponsible but the fine and the repair costs have hit them badly already. 

 
 

[Malc]

if they have house insurance or a member of the AA or such, then there might be some sort of provision in that policy to put them in touch with free legal advice

Malc

[Grumps]

Might be worth looking on the Honest John website.

There is a guy on there who specialises on giving advice on Insurance matters. Drop him a line from the 'Ask HJ' link. He appears always to be up to date and very knowledgeable.