Advice On Private Insurance Settlement

My mum was involved in a bump and decided to settle privately at the suggestion of the 3rd party.

Took it to bodyshop of his choice who produced their bill which we paid without argument. However we did get receipt signed stated third party had been paid a specified sum as full and final settlement for any claims arising from the incident on a without prejudice basis.

Dunno if he actually got his repaired or just pocketed the cash but we weren't too bothered, sorted Mum's car out and got that back on the road.

About 10 weeks down the line, Mum gets letter from her insurance asking about an alleged incident on the same date as the incident previously mentioned, and the same location.

However strangely the sections for owner/driver/vehicle/reg are all filled as unknown.

Called up the third party who said he did not inform his insurance, but then didn't want to spend any longer on phone. I first got the feeling he is pulling a fast one, hence not wanting to speak further, but I remembered he is a cabbie so it is also plausible he just wanted to get on with driving.

This leads us to scratch our heads wondering who informed the insurance?

3rd party? (but then he would be in breach of contract considering our private settlement....)
Recovery service? (but shouldn't the Data Protection Act stop them.....)
Council or other type of authority who may have seen on CCTV, and possibly want to claim for a tiny tidy up or similar service?

Anyone got ideas on best way to proceed?

I've been reading online and seen people suggesting private settlement can easily be ignored for all kinds of reasons, the best being:

1. That the person agreeing has not been properly legally advised so did not fully understand the agreement and therefore agreement is invalid. I struggle to believe that as that would mean I could walk into a bank, ask to borrow £10k, then tell them to get stuffed when it comes to paying anything back as I didn't understand the agreement.
2. That a person cannot sign away their legal rights (just like I could not authorise anyone to murder me for example). But then surely this would also apply to any settlements made by insurance companies as well as those made privately?

Makes little sense for him to inform insurance unless someone told him he could get into trouble and he shit himself and told em to cover his back or something.

I wouldn't think the data protection act would stop them, totally fucking useless legislation that does none of it's intended purpose and the only people it stops getting and sharing information is the man on the street.

always tell insurance of an accident regardless of fault, mrs tapped back of a MG Midget woman looked at the back was nothing it was literally a tap.
Told mrs tell your insurance just to be safe, 3 weeks later mrs gets a letter from her insurance saying the other party is claiming whiplash.

Just told her to ring her insurance let em deal with it. Mrs had photos etc so she could prove no speed was involved as no marks on her car.

Never heard a thing back, but had mrs not reported it, she would have been in trouble for not reporting and poss legal fee's

Insurance. The biggest legal fraud going.

A friend of mine works for one of the big insurance companies (my brain is refusing to tell me which company atm) He was telling me how insurance companies often negotiate between themselves who will pay out this time as in to balance things out regardless of who is actually the party at fault.

Turns out it was the recovery service who reported it to insurance. Very strange......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Over Carl

Turns out it was the recovery service who reported it to insurance. Very strange......

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Most also have a nice sideline in selling on details to these personal injury accident claim companies, I used Green Flag after the Mrs broke down last year for the first time and then had weeks of texts and calls telling me I had recently been in an accident and they would help me make a claim, again another example on how the data protection act was set up to protect 'the people' but does exactly the reverse.