Mountain_Biker Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Whilst on holiday last year in France, I had an accident with a car exiting a side road. The accident occured in July and the other parties insurers have accepted 'conditional liability'. I understand the implications of this but my concern is the amount of time it is taking to pay up. Whilst I pay the excess of the claim and the insurance uplift cost becasue fo the accident, I am out of pocket. Does anyone know of a way of escalating the claim, the insurance company assures me they are pressing to get the insurance paid but anyone know how I can press this. They advise me it can take 10 years to resolve!! Thanks >:-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Here, most Insurance Claims are paid out by the Agents on behalf of the Company. We had Friends who made a claim on their house and it took 5 years to get paid, by that time they had sold the property and were back living in the UK. We, n the other hand, made a claim in 1999 and were paid out within months although we had to supply photographs to prove the damage. Sorry this doesn't help much but my old Boss used to say "a sqeaking wheel will get oiled" in other words keep pestering your Insurance Company and then they will get fed up and do something about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawcara Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 This is possibly a silly comment to make, but if this were in the UK, then I would sue the person who caused the accident for the excess and any uninsured losses. This should put back your no-claims etc and expedite matters. What the situation is abroad I don't know, but is it worth asking your insurance company how you go about suing the other party in order to regain your uninsured losses. Perhaps someone else on here can offer some assistance, as I would be interested to learn what to do in this eventuality. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 surely your own insurance company should pursue your third party losses...Also do you not have legal expenses cover, silly not to for what it costs..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 JudgeMental - 2013-05-29 11:38 AM surely your own insurance company should pursue your third party losses..... This is what I was suggesting that you have to pester your Insurance Company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 It is likely to take time. We had an incident in Italy some years back where liability was not contested but it still took well over a year to be resolved. You may well just have to grin and bear it for the time being. I would speak to someone at your insurer as high up their management chain as you can get, as seek assurances that, assuming the claim is settled in your favour, you will be put back to the position you were in before the incident. That is to say that your risk profile will revert to whatever it was beforehand, that any loss of NCD will be fully reinstated, and that any increase in premium will be refunded. If any of these items are regarded by the company as non-refundable, you may need to advise them to pursue these on your behalf as consequential losses, as they may not do this as a matter of course. I assume you will by now have read your policy document in depth to see exactly what cover it provides in these areas. If not, it would be a good starting point before talking to them, because you can then ask them specific questions about the meaning of the clauses. Conditional liability will have a specific meaning under French law, and may not mean what you think it means. As a side road was involved, is it definitely the case that the driver of the other vehicle had crossed a "Stop", or "Give way", sign? Were there road markings across the side road? If neither, it is possible that the rule of priority on the right is being invoked. Did you manage to take photographs? Is the other driver contesting the claim on the basis that they had priority? Many side road junctions in small towns are not priority marked, meaning that vehicles coming from the side road have priority? Whether that would be accepted would depend to some degree on whether there were witnesses, and on what part of your vehicle was damaged. If the damage was around the front of yours and to the front or sides of theirs, the situation regarding liability may not be so clear. If the damage is wholly to the side of yours and wholly to the front of theirs, unless there was a priority on the rght at that junction, you should eventually be OK - but you may need to prove/argue that you were already across the side road before the other car tried to exit. Insurers have a tendency to settle disputed claims on a knock for knock basis in preference to pursuing complex arguments over liability, as it is cheaper for them. You may need to clarify how your insurer regards your claim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain_Biker Posted May 30, 2013 Author Share Posted May 30, 2013 Thanks for the comments, I do get regular updates from the insurer, on the face of it they seem helpful. Regarding the exiting the side road - yes the French road law is odd in this respect. My van is 7.5M and the hit me in about 1.5M from the rear. We took lots of photos and jointly filled in one of the 'old' accident forms. I speak quite good French 'when I had calmed down', all a bit incoherent for a few minutes! Anyway, I'll Chase the insurance company.... Thanks.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Difficult to imagine a defence to that - other than claiming you were reversing at the time! :-) Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnerontheroad Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 I had an accident many years ago in France when I told my Dutch insurance company they said why didn't you get hit by a German, Dutch or Italian anything but a Frenchman it will take years for us to get our money. Never did find out how long it took but they were not happy to have to deal with French insurance company. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan k Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 My accident was last June in Brittany, a young lady opened her car door as we went past at about 10mph. damage to my front wing, indicator and door mirror. She claimed it was my fault for passing too close. This morning I had the surprise of a cheque for my excess. So the Insurance Companies did agree it was her fault!! By the way I now have a RoadHawk camera, mainly as a result of that incident cheers alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I had an accident in France in the late 1970's in a works car. Multiple shunt from behind at a level crossing. Insurers adamant that I had to get a "Notaire" on the scene. Did so, & all settled within weeks - As I recall the cost was ~ £50 ish which we got back. Probably a very good use of a legal bod , on the scene within minutes & no one could wriggle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Mountain_Biker - 2013-05-28 7:20 PM Does anyone know of a way of escalating the claim, the insurance company assures me they are pressing to get the insurance paid but anyone know how I can press this. They advise me it can take 10 years to resolve!! Thanks >:-) Might be useful for us who spend a lot of time across the ditch to know who your insurance company is? ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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