Question,

 

Why does it take so long for insurance claims to be processed? For example, I was involved in an incident last September, fairly simple, two cars, head on collision on a blind bend on a single track road with no independent witnesses. To me it can only go 50/50 as neither party can prove anything.

I haven't claimed for the damage to my car, fixed it the next day with spare parts I already had in my garage and a hammer. I also haven't made any accusations towards the other party as I know I wouldn't be able to prove them. The other party has, of course accused me of everything they can think of so have naturally rejected the 50/50 settlement offered by my insurance company and said they want to take it to court. That's fine, I have no issue with it going to court as I have nothing to lose.

What's annoying me is that after 8 months, such a simple incident is still not sorted, and an unsettled claim against me seems to be more problematic for me than a done and dusted one, even if it were to go completely against me.

 

So what is it that takes so much time? Surely it's just a few letters and phone calls or am I massively missing something?

I have heard of things running to 3 years before when someone ran into a friend of mine on a roundabout (actually accused my friend of reversing at high speed on the roundabout!). 10 minutes before going into court, they changed their mind and bailed out.

 

To me, this is where £50 on a DVR is worth is weight in gold. None of this conflcting statements crap, upload as a private link onto youtube and let everone involved watch what happened from the comfort of their own desk. From what I've heard, time between claim and closure is around 4-6 weeks.