Recovery of insured losses?

[djbobbins]

I was just wondering if anyone has got experience of recovering uninsured losses?

 

My wife was involved in a no-fault accident last year - slid on black ice which was present on the road as a result of a burst water main. After a lot of chasing I managed to get a job code from Severn Trent for the burst, which seems to have helped in proving blame.

 

My insurance company has got their money back from Severn Trent, and is now pursuing them for my £350 excess.

 

I suspect it will turn up at some point but just wondered how painful I should expect this to be and how much chasing will be needed? Anyone got any experience of getting this sort of money out of utility companies?

[doobin]

I suppose you'd also have sued God if the accident was due to snow?

 

No fault? She lost control of the car by the sound of it- if it was cold enough for it to freeze, then there was the possibility of ice everywhere. More care needed- it's just one of those things.

 

Why don't you sue the council also for failing to grit the road properly?

[nepia]

Seems like you're chasing anything but an UNinsured loss; LAs have insurances coming out of their ears!

Patience man, patience...

[djbobbins]

Doobin, thanks for that constructive response. For someone to come wading in with an off the handle reply when you know nothing about the circumstances in question was just what I was looking for! yourself...!

 

FWIW I'm not "suing" anyone. I am trying to recover the excess that I had to pay out when the car was repaired. My insurance company has done whatever they do with Severn Trent and they've agreed that my wife wasn't at fault. Therefore, my insurers get their side of the repair costs back but as it stands, the same doesn't automatically happen to the money I paid out towards the repair bill.

 

My wife would have been within her "rights" as the law stands to pursue damages for whiplash etc, as I would have been when someone ran into the back of me whilst I was stationary at a T-junction about 10 years ago. However, I don't agree with the concept of ambulance-chasing no-win-no-fee litigation and have never sought to gain from it.

 

Seeing as the issue of "blame" isn't under discussion, I take it from the tone of your post you'd be happy that if someone ran into you, at no fault of your own, that you should have to pay the excess on any repairs?

 

Or you perhaps also think that if a member of the public was driving irresponsibly and went through a fence e.g. into a Severn Trent pumping station, then ST wouldn't try to recover their costs from the car driver's insurance??

[doobin]

Seeing as the issue of "blame" isn't under discussion, I take it from the tone of your post you'd be happy that if someone ran into you, at no fault of your own, that you should have to pay the excess on any repairs?

 

Or you perhaps also think that if a member of the public was driving irresponsibly and went through a fence e.g. into a Severn Trent pumping station, then ST wouldn't try to recover their costs from the car driver's insurance??

 

Of course the issue of blame is under discussion! Both those scenarios involve someone driving like a loon and causing damage to someone elses property.

 

As I understand it, your wife caused damage to her own property by driving a touch too fast for conditions. If it's cold enough to freeze water into ice, then you need to take extra care. How was it the water companies fault? Pipes burst, especially in the cold. These things happen, same as trees blow down in the wind.

 

Congrats on the ambulance chasing stance though

[djbobbins]

Blame isn't under discussion at this stage.

 

Severn Trent and my insurer resolved between them that my wife was not at fault. If it had been decided that my wife was to blame, my insurer would have footed the costs of the repair above and beyond the excess, and I would be liable for the first £350. Job done.

 

Since the decision on ST's liability had already been reached, and ST had paid my insurer, the remaining step was for me to be re-imbursed my £350. The reason I started the thread was to ask what experience anyone had of going through this process, since I had a suspicion it might take a while.

 

I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to receive a cheque yesterday!

[Paul Jenks]

One of our trucks was hit by a car last year and the chipper was not towable. The team was stuck holding the driver together before the police etc turned up and then were deemed better at directing traffic the senor plod so were doing that for a couple of hours whilst the fire brigade cut the driver free.(She was ok and phoned up a few days later asking if we wanted all the clothes that the guys had used to stem the blood flow.) We went for uninsured loss for the loss of a days work and only the persistance of our broker and my office manager got anything out of the insurers.