Motor Accident

Being insured by the same insurance company does not make the claim any more awkward, if anything it should simplify matters. If you have video evidence of the crash that does clearly show fault of the other driver (speeding is contributory as opposed to cause - I presume you are on a narrow lane and other driver has come at you at speed).

If your cover is fully comp then claim on your own policy, pay the excess and then look to recover the excess and out of pocket costs from the other policy. Noting the Assessor's comments I am assuming you are on a third party policy and so rely on the other policy paying out.

In this case, you need to get the insurer to state whether or not they accept liability on the other policy and then it is down to whether or not you accept their valuation of the vehicle. If the vehicle is not economically repairable, once it is assessed get their agreement you can dispose of it and get it scrapped for best value you can get - this amount will be deducted from any eventual settlement.

As the assessor is telling you to contact a solicitor it sounds as if they are not accepting responsibility of the van driver, that being the case and, noting you have video evidence I would ask an impartial viewer to look at your footage to ensure that you really are 100% innocent here. Also, ask the insurer to confirm they have reviewed your footage, its possible that their claims handler doesn't have it, couldn't play it or simply hasn't reviewed it yet. Also possible their client hasn't formally notified the incident to them or has counter footage/argument.

A solicitor will probably take this on but, there will be a cost and that must be weighed up against how much you expect to recover from the insurance company.

You have no evidence of their speed. Opinion only. So don’t rely on it.

Was there road markings on the road?

Does the footage show the van driver on the wrong side at the time of impact?

Have you make a formal claim on their policy? Has it been rejected? It can take many weeks/months for the investigator to decide liability. If you have no car in the mean time you can claim on your own and pay the excess.

Were you pulling out of a driveway? To be honest, this does not sound as cut and dry as you think. You have no proof of what speed they were driving, no markings on the road to imply that they were driving on the wrong side. I’d say it’ll end up 50/50 unfortunately.

Although none of us have actually seen the footage…

I 100% agree that the vantage point may not be as solid as OP thinks but, then again, it may, we haven't seen the video to know distance from camera the collision occurred, field of vision nor angle of the camera to the collision.

Depending on how long delivery vehicle remains in frame speed may be determined to a degree relevant to a motor insurance claim. Speed only has to be extensive for the prevailing conditions, not necessarily within the terms of the legal speed limit.

Agree, there are a lot of unknowns here including OPs own actions prior to the collision and field of vision OP could have had to see the oncoming van - all we can do is provide general advice to the OP which, is what I have tried to do - I have not at any time suggested OP is in the clear nor can I based on what is known, even with the alleged video with supports their version.

exception prove the rule. After a claim insurance goes up as risk rating goes up. Citing the 1/100 where it goes down (likely due to other reasons is not really helpful).

You are right. Insurance usually goes down after a claim. **** knows why I thought different.

Just went and cancelled my no claims protection. Thanks for the intelligence anyway. Much appreciated.

No you are right.

This forum is littered with examples of peoples who’s premiums went down after making a claim.