Morning all,
I have insured vehicles for too many years, and up until 2025 we had had one rear end no fault accident, and I destroyed someone's wing mirror, which was covered by my fully comp insurance.
Aside from that there are no claims.
My partner is insured on the vehicle, but I'm the vehicle owner, and the main policy holder.
In January my partner was driving along a wide A road, and a driver came out from the opposite side of the road, somehow did not see her, and crashed into the side of our vehicle - basically behind the drivers door if that makes sense, as it's a van type vehicle, plum in the middle effectively.
She had a witness, and took their details.
The insurance is with LV who I believe have a good reputation, I sacked off the last one when they threatened to write our vehicle off after the no fault accident.
This was reported to them, I stressed I wanted it repaired, it was all deemed fine, but of faffing and delay with the repairers, but a repair was completed within maybe 4 weeks, and we have a hire vehicle in the meantime.
I thought that was an end to it, and it didn't even cross my mind.
Out of the blue I see an e-mail from what appears to be a solicitors, referring to 'my accident' - I have to be honest, when I first saw it I just thought it was a phishing e-mail, and ignored it - when another one was sent I called LV to be told yes it was correct that they were contacting me.
I'll try and summarise - effectively the letter is they are currently failing to get a payment out of the other parties insurers, and needed a load of details (again to my mind) about the accident, where it happened, where the vehicles were, who the witness was etc.
The most amazing bit for me, is that they didn't even know it was my partner driving the vehicle.
My partner has gone through all of this repeat data gathering for them, including drawing a diagram of the accident etc.
The latest letter is going on about 'your claim' and the fact that there might be a court appearance (With my name on even though I wasn't driving) and that if they can't recover the money my insurance cover will increase.
The final bill I can see is approx £6k, but we didn't know that until now - I don't think they are suggesting we might have to pay that back, my interpretation is that the renewal would go up - which seems wrong to me, as I have protected no claims, which I thought was the whole point, and clearly it is a non fault claim, and not under my control that the other parties insurance is refusing to pay.
A few things here annoy me, and I'm thinking to lodge a complaint with LV.
Firstly, I thought we paid for insurance for these exact scenarios, the insurance company have paid out to repair our vehicle, and it's up to them to recover that money from the other party. If they need one of us at a court appearance, then fair enough, but let us know when that is about to, or has to happen.
Secondly, I'm astounded LV didn't think to let me know this was happening - a phone call or e-mail would have sufficed.
I'm also amazed that they appear to have furnished the solicitors with almost no information about the accident, other than my name and the date.
I've never been in a position like this before, and I have to be honest, I think we are both finding it pretty stressful, even more so as it has happened completely out of the blue.
Does anyone work in the industry, and or know if this is expected/normal behaviour or if I am correct to feel somewhat p1ssed off by what is occurring?
Thankyou - hope this doesn't come across as too much of a whinge.
I have insured vehicles for too many years, and up until 2025 we had had one rear end no fault accident, and I destroyed someone's wing mirror, which was covered by my fully comp insurance.
Aside from that there are no claims.
My partner is insured on the vehicle, but I'm the vehicle owner, and the main policy holder.
In January my partner was driving along a wide A road, and a driver came out from the opposite side of the road, somehow did not see her, and crashed into the side of our vehicle - basically behind the drivers door if that makes sense, as it's a van type vehicle, plum in the middle effectively.
She had a witness, and took their details.
The insurance is with LV who I believe have a good reputation, I sacked off the last one when they threatened to write our vehicle off after the no fault accident.
This was reported to them, I stressed I wanted it repaired, it was all deemed fine, but of faffing and delay with the repairers, but a repair was completed within maybe 4 weeks, and we have a hire vehicle in the meantime.
I thought that was an end to it, and it didn't even cross my mind.
Out of the blue I see an e-mail from what appears to be a solicitors, referring to 'my accident' - I have to be honest, when I first saw it I just thought it was a phishing e-mail, and ignored it - when another one was sent I called LV to be told yes it was correct that they were contacting me.
I'll try and summarise - effectively the letter is they are currently failing to get a payment out of the other parties insurers, and needed a load of details (again to my mind) about the accident, where it happened, where the vehicles were, who the witness was etc.
The most amazing bit for me, is that they didn't even know it was my partner driving the vehicle.
My partner has gone through all of this repeat data gathering for them, including drawing a diagram of the accident etc.
The latest letter is going on about 'your claim' and the fact that there might be a court appearance (With my name on even though I wasn't driving) and that if they can't recover the money my insurance cover will increase.
The final bill I can see is approx £6k, but we didn't know that until now - I don't think they are suggesting we might have to pay that back, my interpretation is that the renewal would go up - which seems wrong to me, as I have protected no claims, which I thought was the whole point, and clearly it is a non fault claim, and not under my control that the other parties insurance is refusing to pay.
A few things here annoy me, and I'm thinking to lodge a complaint with LV.
Firstly, I thought we paid for insurance for these exact scenarios, the insurance company have paid out to repair our vehicle, and it's up to them to recover that money from the other party. If they need one of us at a court appearance, then fair enough, but let us know when that is about to, or has to happen.
Secondly, I'm astounded LV didn't think to let me know this was happening - a phone call or e-mail would have sufficed.
I'm also amazed that they appear to have furnished the solicitors with almost no information about the accident, other than my name and the date.
I've never been in a position like this before, and I have to be honest, I think we are both finding it pretty stressful, even more so as it has happened completely out of the blue.
Does anyone work in the industry, and or know if this is expected/normal behaviour or if I am correct to feel somewhat p1ssed off by what is occurring?
Thankyou - hope this doesn't come across as too much of a whinge.
