dsnowy89:

Yeah More Than have voided the policy after the crash, when they realised the mistakes we had put down, so they settled the claim against the lady my son hit as they were obligated to do so. So are now chasing us for it

You do realise that the debt to More than is owed by the Policyholder and not the named driver. It would be the Policyholder that would be taken to court if the amount was not settled.

In regard to Morethan paying the claim, which as you say they may be obligated to pay, did they at any point advise you of the negotiations with the 3rd party. To me it would be wrong of More than to have negotiated an amount, without keeping you informed. What if for sake of argument, your son had crashed into a film stars Rolls Royce and a claim had been made for several million. How would they have dealt with such a claim? My point is that an Insurer should not take on responsibility of solely negotiating a claim, where they are expecting the policyholder to pay them back. Atleast if they had kept you informed you could have taken some legal advice and perhaps could have negotiated a lower settlement.

So my advice here is to make a complaint to Morethan that they should have involved you in the negotiation of the claim settlement with the 3rd party. By not involving you, they have in consequence committed you to repaying an amount you had no control over. If you had known the amount, you would have taken legal advice to negotiate the amount. Advise Morethan to consider this point and to issue their final response, so that this matter can be referred to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS).

By making a complaint to Morethan and the FOS, this should suspend Morethan from taking action, until this matter is resolved. I don't think Morethan would take any action if you have asked the FOS to look into this. This will give you a few months breathing space, during which you should take advice about how you would settle the matter, if the FOS did not uphold your complaint.

In some respects, by Morethan dealing with the claim, they may have saved you time and money. If you had to deal with the 3rd party claim yourself, you may have incurred legal costs. So some may view complaining as being a little ungrateful. This is not the point. The complaint would be a narrow argument that Morethan should have informed the policyholders of negotiations with the 3rd party, so they could have taken legal advice, if they were going to be financially commited. The other reason to complain to Morethan and the FOS, is that this will delay matters for months.

In my opinion you would be silly not making a complaint to Morethan and the FOS. You have nothing to lose by doing this apart from the postage. The FOS complaints process is free to you but they will charge Morethan a large fee, even if they win the decision.

Hope this makes sense.

Huckster

Fender bender damage of £6,000 is not particularly high. I was on the receving end of one. Damage was cca £5,000 (repair + replacement rental + agency costs) and I didn't even claim injury nor loss of earnings.

Yeah More Than have voided the policy after the crash, when they realised the mistakes we had put down, so they settled the claim against the lady my son hit as they were obligated to do so. So are now chasing us for it

She is claiming for whiplash, loss of earnings etc etc. The crash happened when the third party crossed a mini roundabout stopped the other side to let another car pass as normal, my son pulled of from the mini round about realsed she had stopped too late braked but hit her the only damage was a dint into her bumper and the headlight of our car smashed nothing excessive

dacouch:Its probably More Than they are paying back

So they were insured with More Than who settled the 3rd party claim and now are claiming it back from the Policyholders son, who was a named driver at fault.

If this was the case they would be claiming the amount from the Policyholder, the person that signed up to the contract. It would be the Policyholder that would have provided incorrect information when policy arranged.

I am a bit confused. If they are going after the named driver, this seems to say than More Than are not involved. The 3rd party or their Insurer is claiming from the son as he was the driver at fault.

Perhaps the poster can clarify exactly how More Than have dealt with this. Have More Than voided the policy and offered to pay back all premiums paid, as if the policy never existed.

Huckster

Its probably More Than they are paying back

dsnowy89:

I agree with Dacouch, that CAB should be able to give him advice.

It would actually not be such a bad idea for the other company to take your son to court, as they would have to justify the amount of £6000. If you say the accident happened at 10 mph, what are they trying to claim for exactly?

So when your son speaks to CAB he should ask them about the merits of him pushing the company towards court action. He could sit down with CAB and work out a low payment to offer them, as I believe this would help with any court action. This would show that he was not avoiding this matter and had made an offer that he could afford.

The only danger of court action is if you do not manage to reduce the settlement amount and then incur extra costs. But if the other company are not confident with the £6k claim, they may actually reduce this, before it even gets to court.

Huckster

If he has other debts then the CAB is definately the best bet as they will take these into the equation, they will know the rules about how long the debt is enforcable for

Was with More Than. Thats probly what we will have to do i just dont want him paying it for years and years you see these adverts on TV which state you can only pay for a debt for 5 years then the rest is written off is this the case? He manages now all his debts fine but adding another £6000 is just going to be impossible for him to afford big monthly repayment

It would probably be best for him to go his local Citizens Advice Bureau, they will work out what he can reasonably afford and then approach the Insurance company with their proposal. The Insurance company are more likely to accept a low payment offer if the CAB are involved than if he does it himself. The CAB can also have a look at his overall finances, advise him on those and take these into account in their proposal.

Which Insurer is it?

Yeah he was a named driver on the policy. It hasnt gone to court no as we have been threatened with ccjs against his name and everything so we didnt want to go down that route

You mean the car was Insured in your name with him as a named driver, it was not Insured in both names.

Has the matter gone to court and a court order been made or has your son come to a private agreement with the Insurer

A year ago my son had a crash in the car which was insured in both our names. Because of we didnt add a previous claim we had made a few years earlier and stated the correct amount of cars within the household the insurace have decided that the insurance was void and we are left with the bill. Im not arguing this as we have accepted we made a mistake and its our own fault for not checking all the details.

As the crash was with my son he is left to pay the bill which totals nearly £6000 hard to beleive he was only doing 10mph and caused this!

My question is he can only afford to pay x amount per month due to higher insurance premiums credit cars etc etc does this mean he will be paying the debt of for the rest of his life? He has no means no do we to pay of the whole balance in one go.

Any advice would be great thanks