Here’s the story:

My bro was borrowing my car (which he does often, and yes he is insured)
He is waiting at some traffic lights when the van in front starts reversing into a parking space and hits the front passenger side of the bumper/bonnet.

He proceeds to get out of the van, apologises and states as its a company van they will pay for the damage & not to involve the insurer as the excess is too high. My brother takes all his details, the guy in the van doesn’t even take my brothers name let alone his reg number.

We get some quotes & send them to the company he works for. We don’t hear anything for a week so I call the owner, he starts giving me abuse and says he is not paying for the damage.

So we involve the insurer, they contact the guy’s insurer and take matters further.

We are now told that there is counter claim stating my brother hit the van.

So, where do you think we stand as im under the impression insurers always favour the car in front? Will they take into account that it was us who contacted our insurer first, us who took all the drivers details etc & he didn’t even get my brothers name or reg number.

Has anyone had any experience with issues like this before?

ask local shops etc for CCTV

ask local shops etc for CCTV

Tried that, its a really small village and none have CCTV installed.

You are commiting an offence under the road traffic act if you do not report an accident, it also provides witness statements for insurers. hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Find a witness………….

The insurer will take the easy option of ‘knock for knock’
It appears the only way to sort it is a independent witness or cctv.

Independent witnesses are avaliable but the third party may do the same 😯

Duckers You only have to report accidents with injuries IIRC

Try these guys. I don’t know if they’ll be able to help due to the others not admitting liability but if you don’t ask….

http://www.helphire.co.uk/helphire/aboutus/

Basically its of no consequence. You have contracted out of your rights in the matter by doing the deal with the insurer. All either theirs or yours are interested in is minimising the costs to themselves. In all likelihood it'll end up as a knock for knock scenario, coz its cheaper than arguing the toss.

TJ is right, it's only if someone is injured that you need to report it.

Log everything that has happened – the verbal admission of guilt, the subsequent abusive phone call.

None of it may help as I am sure it will be knock for knock, but if things escalate the information may prove invaluable…

Case study – my brother was hit almost head on (he managed to get most of his car on the verge to avoid a full head on) and he had an independent witness. The insurance company didn't care and proceeded to do it knock for knock as the other party would not admit fault (he had witnesses in his car who were obviously friends claiming my brother was on the wrong side of the road).

It was only when the other party then decided to try to claim compo for his injuries that my brother's insurance company bothered to look into it more closely and it ended up in court (which my brother won in about 10 minutes flat as the evidence was unarguable).

I take it you cant involve your own insurers?

Otherwise it's up to you to pursue the claim.

Actually you ARE required to report accidents where damage / injury has ocurred. BUT if you have exchanged details (they didn't) then its not necessary.
I got stung for this (ended up with £185 fine and 5 points for a simple clash of mirrors).
If in doubt report it to plod so they have a record should it come up, so you cover your own ass, **** the other party!

Don't give in. Argue that if your brother had run into the back of him there would be damage along the whole bumper not just one side.

They will push very had for knock-for-knock as it is cheaper for them and they have a tedious duty to mitigate their costs.

my experience says they'll just bum you with 50/50 at best

my van was hit on a back road, I had seen the other car abd stopped in on the hedge, other car hit me with minimal breaking, I had a passenger as witness, but they were discounted as not independent and apparently it is standard policy not to contest and go 50/50 where ther are no road markings. What reall bugged me about this 50/50 is the van just needed its bumper popping out, which I did the following weekend. Her car needed a whole front end and she claimed a courtesy car, the cost of this alone I could have bought a car for.

so yeah, they are arses. You'll just have to rant and suck it up.

Duckers – Member

You are commiting an offence under the road traffic act if you do not report an accident, it also provides witness statements for insurers. hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Only if there's an injury.

And I think it's up to 24 hours after the RTA you have to report it to the Police.