Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi, we request your advice on a collision that happened with a Virgin Media/O2 van in the private car park of our block of apartments. Your point of view would be highly appreciated, as me and my wife are shaken after all what happened. This is the story.

1) This Virgin Media/O2 van driver entered the private car park at a speed, without the necessary green visitor badge. Signage is on site and at the entrance of the block. Not sure if he checked what the rules are with the flat owner/tenant he was visiting.

2) He parked initially in the private car park of flat no. 18 and then quickly reversed, still at speed, moving into no. 10 private car park, but all of a sudden he moved up again for the 3rd time to go into no. 4 private car park. None of these car parks had anything to do with him, as he went instead to work in flat no. 17 (we have evidence of this and spoke with the no. 17 tenant). In first instance, he shouldn't have been at all in that area, as he didn't have a green visitor badge and indeed nothing to do with flats 18, 10 and 4.

3) He caused a collision with our car, while carelessly reversing and moving the van from one space to the other for 3 times, without any apparent logic. We have video of the collision, taken from the CCTV system of the apartments block.

4) He argued a lot with my wife, was not cooperative, and at the end of the conversation, he refused exchanging insurance details, including driver's name, the registered keeper's name and their address. We managed to see and therefore obtain only the vehicle registration number. This individual was driving a Virgin Media/O2 Van and wearing the full Company uniform. We asked for these details several times, including his badge number, but he refused. The tenant of flat 17 is a witness of this.

5) He also started recording and even threatened to call the Police on us (not sure for which reason).

6) After over an hour of this incident, the van was still wrongly parked in flat no. 4 private car park (while he was working in flat 17, which doesn't have a private car park) and still without any green visitor badge displayed.

- After all this, I had to report it to our block management company, which should issue the charge of £100 for misuse of the car park, as per signage and block regulations.
- I also had to report the incident to the Police, as this individual refused to exchange insurance details. Police gave me a case number.
- I'm sending a V888 form to DVLA to get the vehicle details of registered keeper, address, etc. For this, I need to obtain first a repair quote from a car body repairer.
- Obviously, I'm preparing the insurance claim, even if the damage is nothing to the van (photos were taken) and just cosmetic damages such as paint transference, scuffs, minor scratches on the rear left corner of our car.
- I'm going to open a very strong case/complaint with Virgin Media/O2. What is concerning is that this unstable individual while I write is still allowed to drive this way and even worse, enter people's homes.

Thanks for your opinions and advice on what to do. We are not "litigators", but this wobbling guy pulled us into all this.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Most of that post was wholly irrelevant. The simple answer is to report it to your insurer and leave it to them to deal with. Job jobbed.

All the stuff about visitor permits and reporting to management is a load of petty guff and entirely irrelevant as far as a collision is concerned.

Why submit (and pay for) a V888 form where you could simply contact the company whose name is plastered all over the van? I'm sure they will be interested if one of their vehicles was in a collision, especially if the driver never reported it. Don't go in all confrontational and hurling accusations about the driver. Just start by reporting that one of their vans has collided with your car, and the driver would not provide details, hence you contacting them. Only once that channel is established should you start any complaint about behaviour.

And, as mentioned, just let your insurer deal with it.

If your car was parked at the time, then liability is pretty obvious, especially if you have video. It should come back as a no fault claim, and you can claim any excess you incur from the other party.

The obvious (to me) question, assuming that the other driver was indeed at fault in (or for) the collision, is why give so much detail to paint the other driver in a bad light, but omit any detail of the collision itself. What is the OP trying to hide?

Just annoyed that someone cannot reverse a van?

From the OPs account I presumed that their car was parked, and they've, after the fact, obtained the CCTV footage of it being damaged.

The OP also hasn’t come back, so it can’t be that important.

So both vehicles were reversing, and the CCTV footage will presumably confirm this.

It appears that neither driver was exercising due care. Why do you think the insurers will apportion blame to the van driver, rather than 50/50?