As you may be aware if you follow my non-exercise posts, I've been contacted by the hire car company to start legal proceedings against the third party's insurance company to recover funds from them for the cost of the hire car I held on to for around 45 days due to being unable to get a new during because of lockdown.
Yesterday I was contacted by the lawyers and today, I've got the details to log into their portal to provide details for them to start the case.
I'm hoping I don't have to attend court for this, but you never know with insurers.
Forgot to log this yesterday, but it was another on-off rainy day. Went for my walk in a period where the rain was easing and it was fine, but it started to rain on the way back home, so got a little wet.
Also got called by the hire car company from my accident last year (just over a year ago now) -- the insurance company on the other side are still resisting paying the hire car charges and now its going to legal action. So potentially I might end up in court.
But since the accident is a no-fault accident from my side (my car was stationary and parked, and the other driver was arrested for drink driving), I should not be getting any costs coming my way.
I thought with the Hire car collected, this incident would be closed. I guess not.
The insurance broker contacted me to ask me to complete a litigation questionnaire. From the sounds of it, the other side is resisting the costs, unsurprisingly.
Got my first cheque in the post from Aviva the insurance company the other driver is part of. Now waiting for the second cheque from the Salvage agents.
Also got a refund from DVLA for the remainder of my road tax since the car is now written off.
Another walk in nice weather. Did the longer walk today. Queues outside the local fruit n veg. No queue outside Co-Op (though there was on the way back). Small queue outside Tesco Express petrol station, big queues outside Sainsbury's no queue outside Tesco Express supermarket, and small queues outside the butchers and the fruit n veg stores nearby to there.
Did my shopping this morning. Missed my usual 5:30am queue up and ended at the Tesco at 6:15am and there were no queues. No idea why, there's normally queues until past 6:30am at least.
And the shelves were pretty well stocked up. So perhaps the panic buyers have finally bankrupted themselves.
This will be the final weekend with my car since it will be being picked up Monday for recycling. So I made sure everything was emptied out of the car today. Out of curiosity, I turned on the ignition (but not the engine) and the electrics all came on and the radio was fine and still had its memory of my stations, and there were no warning alarms. Whether the car is driveable or not, we'll find out when the salvage agent comes on Monday.
So, it was finally confirmed. My car is written off after being assessed by the insurance engineers. Interestingly, they were also on lockdown so had to make the assessment using the photos I had taken from the accident.
They have valued my car at £3000. Which isn't too bad I guess. It's better than nothing.
The car next to me that was also involved was also written off, to the value of £2200. So that's £5200 being claimed against the insurance of the other driver. The two cars other cars affected in the accident will probably claim the cost of their repairs, which I'm not sure how much that will be. Probably in the 1-2K region, so that's at least £6200 in total.
Then there's the driver's own car's damage. Assuming it's not written off, the damage is probably another K at least. So £7200 of cost on the driver's own insurance.
That drink he had is proving to be rather expensive.....
My car is going to be towed to disposal on Monday, with the other written off car to be towed tomorrow (Friday)
I've already started making enquiries to different dealerships in my area looking for hybrids with a size about the same as my Fabia, or possibly the size of an Octavia. Contacted Hyundai, Toyota and Skoda.
So far, only Toyota have come back and they've suggested the Corolla. But I'll have to wait until they open up again so I can take a look at it closer.
4.70km walk (though my FitBit lost GPS for a while so the tracking was all over the place). No FitBit workout after the walk.
Insurance came back this morning and confirmed my car is a writeoff. The assessors called in the afternoon and valued my car at just over £3000. Considering it's an 09 plate, that isn't too bad, I think. Will discuss with family before giving the go ahead. The car next to mine is also written off, with value of £2200. Meaning a total of £5200 will be claimed from the third-party insurance, and that's not including the damage from the other two cars, and the driver's own car.
Got the hire car a few hours after approving the documents. Got a Vauxhall Corsa. Feels weird in a new car with different handling, but I guess it's only temporary.
Called the hire car company and they confirmed it would be no cost to me, even though the docs are worded really weirdly. Apparently, they are required to display the costs, even though they are going to be recovered from the third party.
3k walk today, which took me about 30 mins, then I decided to take up FitBit's offer to a 3 month trial of Premium, which included access to FitBit Coach (which I used previously). Picked up where I left off and resumed my "Get Lean" program. Today's workout was also 30 mins long and definitely made me sweat. God, I'm so out of shape... :-(
In other news, I finally got called by my insurance company and have so far spent two hours on the phone with different companies -- the insurance company, the accident claims management company partnering the insurance company and the assessors who are responsible to checking whether the car is repairable.
My dad's car, which was also damaged has been declared a writeoff, even though it suffered less visible damage than my car. Mine hasn't been declared written off yet, although I've sent all the videos and photos I have to the assessors. We shall see whether or not I need to get a new car....
I can’t figure out what this guy was thinking. Was he on the phone? Was he texting? Going too fast? All of these? Who knows. What I do know is that if this guy was travelling fast enough to knock down a traffic light, drag it 20 metres, and wreck his engine, then someone standing at the crossing (which is exactly where the van has come to rest), wouldn’t stand a chance….
