Customer Had Car Accident and Sent Letter of Demand. At Fault Party Won't Take Receipt

pegaxs on 29/09/2023 - 17:52

Got a beauty for the OzBargain brains trust…

Set the scene: Customer bought their car in with some minor damage from a car park altercation. Customer is 100% good, other party is without a doubt at fault (Personally saw their dash cam footage and no I cant "get you a copy").

The quote we did for them is about $1,500. My customer doesn't want to go through their insurance (even though they are not at fault, they are worried it will increase their premiums anyway) so I helped them write a letter of demand…

Fast forward to today, they got in touch with me to ask how they can force the other party to accept the letter of demand. They have sent it out several times over the last few weeks and no dice. What they have tried is;

Regular mail (At fault said they never received it)
Registered mail (Received, but claiming flat mate singed for it who no longer lives there.)
Registered "Person to Person" that requires ID and ONLY the person named can receive it x 2 (At fault refused to sign for it both times this was attempted.)
Hand delivered in person x 2 (At fault refused to answer door/Claim of not being home)

So, they asked me for some creative ideas on how to get the letter there and signed for without them suspecting it is a letter of demand.He would like to try and settle this before he needs to contact a lawyer and have them served/taken to court. I said, I have just the guys to ask… :D

My two ideas were, send it in an Amazon box or some other online shopping box (Buy a roll of eBay tape to seal the box?)
or
"Bikies" (My customer is quite old and doesn't know a lot of bikies, apparently… I mean, who doesn't know a bikie or two??)

So, let me know your ideas. Let's gets this slipped through to the keeper. How would you go about getting a letter of demand proof of receipt signed for?

Poll Options

  • 20
    Amazon/eBay/Online shopping box
  • 22
    Bikies
  • 7
    Oh, read mine in comments, it's funny AF
  • 191
    Just lawyer up already
  • 14
    Just eat the loss and move on
Automotive

Comments

  • Brick Tamland on 30/09/2023 - 19:36
    +1

    No paint diagram or dash cam footage???

    But seriously just use insurance. I would only avoid insurance if the other party was engaged and agreeable.

  • AylaBoutique on 30/09/2023 - 21:15

    how come paying more premium gonna cost them more than this headache?

  • Zapwap on 30/09/2023 - 21:27
    +1

    My brother's been through somewhat the same situation and one thing for sure, the premium never increased for him. Rather when he switched the next year after accident, he paid less compared to prior to the accident.

    Just try to convince your customer by showing these comments maybe and ask, even if premiums go up (which is highly unlikely) is it worth his peace of mind at this old age?

  • Punda on 30/09/2023 - 22:18
    +1

    If the other party is a fault, then your guy’s insurance will pursue the claim.

  • DingoBlue on 30/09/2023 - 23:43

    Doesn’t the sheriff do this?

  • spaceflight on 01/10/2023 - 00:04

    Registered mail (Received, but claiming flat mate singed for it who no longer lives there.)

    Have you asked Australia Post if they can provide you a digital copy of the signature that was captured?

    • joelmuzz on 03/10/2023 - 10:25
      +2

      What is the point? You dont know what their signature looks like anyway and those doorstep signatures look nothing like a normal desk signature.
      If someone is evading "being served" then they will deliberately scribble a random signature rather than their own since that gives them denyability.

      It doesnt matter anyway since the court will be satisfied that reasonable attempts were made to get them to settle before court.
      That requirement is just there to avoid court time being wasted without an attempt to agree out of court.

  • helpme on 01/10/2023 - 03:05
    -1

    I know someone who got their windscreen replaced after a crack. No excess, would've only cost $300 ish to repair. Insurance premiums sky rocketed after that. So I don't blame him

    • chris666 on 03/10/2023 - 20:20

      Had 2 windscreens replaced on my policy last year no increase nrma

  • Jameslee on 01/10/2023 - 08:29

    Bikies ? Is that they really do these recoveries ?

    I thought, it's just in movies only and not in real life.. at least in Australia 🌏

  • quick-dry on 01/10/2023 - 09:18
    +6

    how much has this guy already eaten in costs to avoid using his own insurance?!

  • Muppet and Crumpets on 01/10/2023 - 11:42
    +1

    it sounds like even if you can prove that the letter of demand is "served", this person is just going to ignore it. Unless you are willing to escalate and take things to the next step, its not likely going to go anywhere

  • Ninelivescat on 01/10/2023 - 11:55
    +1

    Tell them to go through their insurance. If they have fully party insurance and they can prove it wasn't their fault through dash cam.

    Provide everything to the insurance company and they won't pay any excess or have higher premiums.

    The insurance company will then take ownership of collecting payment from the at fault other driver.

  • Dabbler68 on 01/10/2023 - 12:10
    +5

    I don't get it. An elderley person you know well and you are pursuing a path that is more than likely going to cause a lot of stress and he may never see the money. Maybe the culprit is the sort of person who would take vindictive action.

    Why not make an insurance claim so the insurer becomes the one having to take action. Elderly gent can then relax and forget about it.

    If you cover the cost and the culprit gets away with it he will most certainly try it on with the next person if it arises again, as well as giving such advice on what to do his mates.

  • capslock janitor on 01/10/2023 - 12:30
    +4

    contact a lawyer and have them served/taken to court.

    Is this really cheaper than increase premiums ? ..

  • drprox on 01/10/2023 - 12:49
    +1

    Took me so long to figure out we were talking about "brought".

  • liability on 01/10/2023 - 14:41
    +1

    Just start proceedings in NCAT. You do not have to prove that the other party received your letter of demand. NCAT will post out the paperwork to him, and then as far as NCAT is concerned he has been served with the NCAT documents.

    If he doesn't respond to NCAT you will be able to get a judgement against the other party, and then you will have to go to the Local Court to have it enforced.

    Most people will pay up once they get an NCAT claim.

  • Ughhh on 01/10/2023 - 15:20
    +3

    Going outside of insurance is good if the at fault party are decent responsible people. But if they show any signs of being a scum, go through insurance, unless you got time and like to play games.

    • Brick Tamland on 02/10/2023 - 11:07

      Exactly. You’re a gluten for punishment trying to pursue this outside of insurance.

  • kaleidoscope on 01/10/2023 - 15:21
    +1

    just use the damn insurance… any additional costs you have to bear by beating around the bush far outweighs any insurance premium increases and not to mention the headache and worries

  • drfuzzy on 01/10/2023 - 15:37
    +1

    In a related post the OP suffers cardiac arrest but does not want to use the healthcare system and is looking for other ways to survive.

    • capslock janitor on 01/10/2023 - 15:40

      link

    • capslock janitor on 02/10/2023 - 12:18

      my dad was having chest pains and drove himself to the hospital bruhhh some oldies built different

      • gromit on 02/10/2023 - 14:08

        that is not a positive thing!

        • capslock janitor on 02/10/2023 - 14:11

          nope it aint and told him could be dangerous to all

          hes come from a generation/country that do mostly himself wherever he can, so possible cultural barrier too

          • gromit on 02/10/2023 - 14:19

            @capslock janitor: yup, my parents used to be the same. Thankfully they eventually came around in senior years.

  • newjerseydamo on 01/10/2023 - 18:41
    +1

    How much time and effort has already been used to get this far by you and your customer?
    How much is your time worth? How much extra time are you willing to give up to help your customer?

    At some point you will have to draw the line and tell your customer to do it themselves due to how much time you've taken and thus lost income.

    Time to just be harsh and tell your customer that they must lodge via insurance and stop helping them.

  • AlanHB on 01/10/2023 - 20:28

    You don't have a claim against the at fault party - your contract is with the customer. If they don't want to use insurance, they'll pay you for the work and make the claim against the at fault party for the damages. I have no idea why you are helping the customer with a situation that they themselves have created.

    Edit: So keep out of it and just do the work if you get paid.

    • SpainKing on 02/10/2023 - 16:09

      OP has a positive pre-existing relationship with the customer and wants to help out his fellow human being. The customer didn't create the situation, they had a not-at-fault car accident. They also didn't create the insurance scheme they pay for (which may or may not have more expensive premiums after lodging a claim)

      Sometimes it's just good to look out for others and try to help them when they're going through a rough time and you have the means. This selfish mentality of "Why would I help you? This is your fault" goes against the cooperation that allowed our societies to progress

  • conza on 01/10/2023 - 21:34

    My comment isn't funny but it's the closest on the poll.

    They should use their insurer, and then they opt to select you to do the repair.

    If the insurer decides to increase premiums the following year, do a quote with them, for the same conditions, tell them no claims in the past 5 years, then use the quote to price match against themselves, they'll match it.

    I do that every year anyway, to minimise premium increases normally, so if the premiums rise due to them knowing you've (you being the customer's perspective) had insurance work done, this gets around that.

    Hopefully a better comment than just 'they won't increase, just use them'.

  • OhmyRyzen on 01/10/2023 - 22:27

    (Personally saw their dash cam footage and no I cant "get you a copy").

    "Didn't ask, but ok".

    • Succulent on 02/10/2023 - 08:39

      Knowing ozb, if this was not mentioned, someone will definitely ask the moment "saw the dashcam" comment is made.

      • OhmyRyzen on 02/10/2023 - 14:23
        +1

        I want to see the Colonoscopy!

  • batteriesnotincluded on 01/10/2023 - 22:39
    +4

    Source: My local magistrates court

    I once had to serve notice on another party, and I had the option of the registry of my local magistrates court posting the papers out for me. The court registry said they would send the papers by regular post, no signature, no tracking. I asked them what would happen if the other party claimed not to have received the papers. The registry bloke said it was a non-issue, the court would deem them as served a certain number of days after posting.

    As it turns out, I won a default judgement against the other party — who didn't turn up at court, and later claimed not to have been served. By that stage, their only recourse was to lodge their own action and actually turn up at court and try to argue that they hadn't been served, which of course they didn't do.

  • JP on 01/10/2023 - 22:44

    If they actually have comprehensive insurance tell them to claim and from experience if you can identify the at fault party they will not have to pay or have an impact premiums.

    Not worth the headache!

  • Succulent on 02/10/2023 - 08:36
    +1

    All those delivery fees, time being spent + if the customer decided to go with lawyer + court cost etc, it might have been equal to few years premium increase from not at fault declaration.

  • FlyingMiffy on 02/10/2023 - 09:05

    Just call their insurance…

  • Wilson Wallace on 02/10/2023 - 12:43

    Do you know who they are insured with?

  • mmd on 02/10/2023 - 20:54
    +1

    Where's the option for ACA/today tonight?

  • joelmuzz on 03/10/2023 - 10:18
    +1

    They have to take it to court.
    But the other party knows that is more effort and cost than $1500 so is playing the game of ignoring them and so far it is working.

    They have made reasonable efforts to give a letter of demand and the court will be satisfied by that. But nothing more happens now until they take it to court.
    At that point the other party will probably hand it to their insurer, who will then look at if they want to admit liability and if they think the quote was reasonable. At which point they will either settle out of court or inform your party that their expert barrister says it is shared fault or no fault and see you in court vs their lawyer who does this every day.

  • syousef on 03/10/2023 - 13:22
    +1

    Why are you dealing with this? You provide an invoice for the work on the car. Your customer works out how to get it paid.

    • Protractor on 11/10/2023 - 10:56

      Customer has hot daughter or wife

  • Protractor on 11/10/2023 - 10:55

    https://courts.nsw.gov.au/office-of-the-sheriff-of-nsw/servi…

    Go the court road, avoiding a lawyer to begin with? ^

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