Help please. Bogus claim?

OhNoes

I was crawling towards a roundabout in quite a bit of traffic today and braked too gently tipping the car in front of me.

Now I can't stress enough that this was an extremely light little tip. I wasn't even entirely sure we made contact.

The other lady got out first and looked at her car and I got out and joined her. She looked at me and said "I see nothing". I looked too and there wasn't a mark on either car which wasn't at all surprising to either of us but good to see anyway.

But suddenly a man got out of the passenger seat, came round the back and start aggressively pulling at the rear of the car. "do you hear that". Then says there internal damage. Something about a metal plate inside that's been damaged.

Before anything else can be done, a guard just happens to be passing and asks out his window if anyone's been injured. Everyone says no.

The guard pulls in and gets out and comes over and says since we hadn't called a guard yet, he would handle things. He said first things first you've all told me no one has been injured correct? And me and the other lady say yes but the man pauses then holds the back of his neck and says "well I've hurt my neck".

I was so shocked.

The guard came round the back then and looked at the car, took pics, as did I and concluded there was no damage. The man starts on about this internal stuff and the guard asks if he's a mechanic and when he said no, the guard said well then you don't know.

He takes all their details and sends them on their way.

At this stage I'm bawling. Guards looks at me like what's up? I said I just can't believe he's saying that about his neck and I tell him about him messing with the back of the car. The guards says he's putting in his report: no damage, no injuries. And they're obviously trying to pull a scam.

I feel very upset about the whole thing. It was such a minor brush, and to have the man behave like that? It's so disappointing to me. But I'm really worried about my insurance costs. Things are very tight and I can't afford to be scammed into higher premiums.

Does anyone have any advice or info on what's likely to happen here? Will my insurance company properly assess this? Will the guards report be taken into account? The photos etc.?

Should I be worried?

I've never had any claims by or against me and I don't really know what happens.

Can't talk to my insurance company until tomorrow and I'm a bit panicked.

Ginger83

Do you have a dash cam?

OhNoes

No. Unfortunately I don't. But I fully intend to get one now.

Ginger83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121615105#Comment_121615105

I would recommend having one. You should inform your insurance and let them deal with it. If the contact was minor tell them that.

Alkers

Report to you insurance,they'll give you a report to fill out. Did you take photos yourself?

Hopefully nothing will come of it.

If they put in a claim, you can emphasise to your insurance that there was no damage and you have the Garda witness to back that up.

If there is a claim, it should be for a low amount, so it may make sense to settle outside of insurance

Sono

Sorry to hear this has happened to you but it happens a lot and the judges will allow these spurious claims, insurance companies succeed the odd time with defending them but it’s rare.

Sono

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121615351#Comment_121615351

The issue is the passenger saying they’re injured, I work in the industry so would be fairly confident this person is off to a solicitor tmw unfortunately, I could be wrong but I’ve seen it too many times.

tomhammer..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121615351#Comment_121615351

It doesn't make sense to settle outside insurance here

DRedSky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121615512#Comment_121615512

Just curious but why do you say that?

Do the insurance company send an assessor out here to verify theres no damage to other persons car? And if so is that the end of it?

CramCycle

First of all, nothing to freak out about, that's what insurance is for. Other than that, advice here is solid but as Sono said, they might chance their arm with a solicitor but hopefully their friend was mortified enough to put them off. After that, don't stress about it. The Garda claim, your version of events and so on. It probably won't go anywhere and if it does, the insurance company will settle early for small money.

It's **** and not they way the world should work and I'd love to see a system where these chancers get jail time but that's for another thread.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121615512#Comment_121615512

100%, go through the insurance if something comes of it. The passenger could get a solicitor to use that as an admission of wrong doing and add weight to a non existent case.

Eggs For Dinner

Horrible situation, but all too prevalent. Do not try and settle this privately. If you do, and an injury claim is subsequently lodged, your insurers may refuse to indemnify you for breach of contract

Alkers

Can you not settle.a claim so there is no loss to the insurance company and retain NCB etc?

Fairly common practice I'd have thought, full and final settlement etc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121616776#Comment_121616776

The non existent car damage might not be the thing claimed for, more likely a spurious “medical costs”, “injury”, “pain & suffering” “being unable to work” and “mental distress” claim.

Inform own insurance company in detail, attach any photos. Also I would consider keeping an eye on the complaint man’s social media, eg if he claims to be unable to do this or that due to his injury, if there’s any posting about him running in a marathon etc screenshot those. People are often caught out lying by indiscreet posting on social media.

Miscreant

Another thing to point out here, is that he has up to 2 years to submit a claim so definitely put your own insurance company on notice. Document everything now and keep a hold of it in case it is needed in future.

Fingers crossed nothing comes of it but you never know with some people. I had a small crash back in 2015, very similar to what you are describing and was told by the insurance about the 2 year "statute of limitations" thing. Nothing happened in the end, even though the guy was clutching his neck as he got out of the car at the time, but I still had my insurance company informed.

hello2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058331247/help-please-bogus-claim

Sorry to know about the incident but I will say you have been very very lucky to have an official witness otherwise the passenger had plans to claim for personal injuries. Most of the times you lose these claims as there is no witness but in this situation they will think a lot before claiming anything knowing there was a witness and it will be contested in court.

Eggs For Dinner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121616776#Comment_121616776

While you can settle the other party's (alleged) damages privately, this would have no binding effect on the passenger, who has his own right to pursue an injury claim.

Notify your insurers for "record purposes only". As mentioned above, chancers are less likely to put in claims these days, so hopefully he will have thought better of it

OhNoes

Hi all, thanks so much for all the replies.

I certainly won't settle anything privately for all the great reasons outlined in various replies here.

Last night I was fretting mainly because I can't honestly afford for my insurance premiums to skyrocket, especially due to a false claim.

Like others said I think the main worry here is an injury claim since there was clearly no damage to the car, as seen by the Garda and in the photos.

But I got talking to my insurance company this afternoon. They were very patient and helpful. They took extremely detailed notes of every tiny detail and they said as far as they're concerned no damage=no injury and they'll send their assessor and engineer in to show that.

It's apparently not as easy in recent times to make these claims, so I'm hopeful this fella will just move on and not try to pull a fast one. Also I'm satisfied that my insurance company sounded happy to fight it, given the circumstances and the Garda incident report.

Fingers crossed.

OhNoes

Oh and I've already ordered a dashcam!

DRedSky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121618320#Comment_121618320

Huge factor is the Garda who has made the report. Sounds like that Garda knew what they were up to. Blessed that Garda was going by at that time.

Between your witness and the Garda report and photos showing no damage, those chancers might think twice.