Some time in the past couple of weeks, my dad clipped a car with his towbar while parallel parking. (eg middle of other parties rear bumper) He got out to check if there was any damage (he would have left a note / knocked on the persons house if he had caused any damage, hes a really honest guy) and there was no damage to the bumper where he had nudged the car. As he was about to leave, the guy comes running out of his house with two teenagers shouting and ranting (my dad has just turned 60 and was visiting my sister) claiming hes bashed the side of the car (old scrapes, rusting already etc as far as I know), my dad is adamant he hasnt caused any damage but leaves his insurance details all the same.

I informed him (maybe stupidly) to ring the Insurers, (Direct Line) to let them know he nudged a car but caused no damage. They said not to worry as they have assessors of some kind who will be able to verify that the damage is new or old, and they would not go forward with any claim on the other parties behalf otherwise.

Today we got a letter through saying they are accepting his claim (even though there was no new damage) and this will go against him on his policy etc etc.

Is this standard practice? There were absolutely no fresh marks on this guys car (which is a shed anyway by all accounts, covered in bashes and scrapes that have been there for years) and I'm guessing hes going to get all of this repaired + full respray etc etc which is a bit out wrong coming from my dads insurance.

Can my dad do anything at this stage? They have basically said they will deal with everything on our behalf and we will hear no more about the claim, unless we want to know about specfic costs of repair which will be passed on to us if we let them know in writing

No photos etc were taken at the time, its basically this guys word against my mum & dad. Whats to stop me accusing someone of bashing my car and claiming on their insurance when the event never actually happened?

Cheers in advance
Dave

If you want to see how good direct line are at claims handling... have a look in this section at what they have currently done to me.

You need to ring up and speak to a manager... because the processing monkies at D/L will just see the circumstances on screen that your dad hit the other vehicle...and they will accept blame. They don't look any further than skin deep and that's whay their reputation is shocking at present.

D/L need to send out a fraud investigator to look at the damage on the other vehicle...it's blatant fraud from the third party and they need to act under their obligations to your father as the policyholder.

Just been reading your other thread Mike and its shocking! I'm currently with them as well but certainly won't be come next renewal! What a disgrace!

To be honest a few of my friends work at Direct Line and they are pretty knowledgeable when it comes to claims, but there are so many chimps that work there. Why else would RBS be selling off Direct Line personal lines motor....because it loses them money.... so I did the right honourable thing... and poached some of their good staff!

Good luck getting it sorted, make sure you are stern with them!