Idiot Farmer Insurance Woes

[CortinaDave]

Had the misfortune to slide the 406 on a patch of black ice on saturday morning into a ditch which has dented the wing and buggered the steering. Since its not worth doing anything with I left it there with a note in the window to say I've arranged for it to be collected ASAP and rung the scrappy who are picking up Thursday AM.

 

Problem is a farmer has rung the plod to say I'm blocking access to his farm track (its not a track - just a ditch which leads nowhere ) and that he wants to claim against me for demolishing a large section of his fence.

 

The car simply slid into the ditch and I certainly didnt hit any fence, but now the plod are after me for not reporting the accident etc. Great! What's the way forward?

 

Going to have a run past this eve to see if there even is a fence nearby - but are my insurance co likely to pay him anyway without any proof?

[Volksy]

Speak to the police in the first instance, explain that no one else or others property were damaged or involved - and as the car is still there they can check should they wish to visit the accident site.

 

Explain that the farmer is trying it on, and see what they say.

[Cheggers]

^^^WHS^^^

 

First priority is to speak with plod, certainly before setting off to do any Hercule Poirot-ing of your own. Then get yourself out to the scene with a camera.

[dollywobbler]

If you didn't damage property or people, there is no obligation to report an accident to the coppers. I can understand that Mr Farmer might be a bit miffed to find a car looking dumped on his land but hopefully an honest explanation will get this all sorted.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Tell the farmer that you will never go to another farmers market ever again, and will buy all your milk that from the ‘big four’ supermarkets and hope they shaft him into oblivion.

 

Also complain that he should be working his fields to get the most food out of the subsidy money you’ve given him rather than pissing about pretending to be ‘claims direct’.

 

Finish off by putting in a claim for whiplash on his NFU ditch insurance and tip off the Excise people that he’s running his car on cherry. SORTED

[gtd2000]

Perhaps you could go back and put mud on the road and say you skidded on it and there was no sign advising of the road condition too

 

On the other hand, I had an incident that involved calling the police a couple of years back where a car clipped and damaged my mothers door mirror - the car slowed then drove off.

 

This event was witnessed by myself and another third party. We gave the full details of the car to the police and they found out who the driver was etc but nothing ever came of it...

[Cavcraft]

A farmer trying it on? Now there's a novelty

 

Go back, throw some cow shit over the road, take a load of pictures and threaten to sue him for not having a notice warning you of it.

[cobblers]

I suggest taking a picture of his car, photoshopping a pair of white moccasins into it and posting a copy through his letterbox.

[gtd2000]

A farmer trying it on? Now there's a novelty

 

Go back, throw some cow shit over the road, take a load of pictures and threaten to sue him for not having a notice warning you of it.

 

Great minds think alike eh?

[ashmicro]

If you didn't damage property or people, there is no obligation to report an accident to the coppers.

 

This. (Don't be surprised if plod don't actually know this.)

[worldofceri]

Even if you damaged property there is still no obligation to report it to the police provided the parties involved have exchanged details.

 

(This I was told by plod last time I crashed a car.)

 

Hard to exchange details with a ditch, really though...

[Mr Lobster]

Hammer a smaller farmer over the top of him?

[cort16]

At least the airbags couldn't go off. I'd get some pictures of the crime scene then get the car shifted as soon as you can (mainly to destroy the forensic evidence).

The problem with old shitters is they look like they've demolished half an acre of fence posts without actually hitting anything.

[Lankytim]

Could you soothe the farmers angryness by giving him the car for scrap? Farmers ususally have a sizable scrap pile.

 

If he's still faffing about regarding the fence you didn't damage then maybe Google street view could be used to show it was already smashed up?

[Des]

Just send off your logbook with an imaginary persons details, dated last Friday, and let the farmer go swivel.

[Albert Ross]

Ring him up, and ask him if the car in his ditch is for sale... see if he tries to sell it to you, and get him transported to Australia.

[eddyramrod]

Wait for a dry day, then go back and torch the car, see how much fence THAT takes out!

 

*I never said that...

[Guest]

Hammer a smaller farmer over him.

 

The problem will vanish like a farting cloud.

[CreepingJesus]

I clicked on this, thinking I'd read about your problems with another of Sir Tom Farmer's excellent value*,top quality*, motoring/football enterprises. Imagine my disappointment when...[/Daily Mail mode]

 

Seriously tho', I had a similar problem in December '92, when I lost my van on black ice, up in the Campsies. Round it went, and landed on its' side across a ditch, off the road. In the time it took me to thumb a lift, make phonecalls, wait for the tow truck, and get back to the van; the farmer whose 4"x4" and a few scabby planks fence a couple of tons of Midi had landed on, had removed it to his yard.

When the insurance claim came thro', instead of the 40-50' of fence which I had wrecked, there was a bill for about 10x that. My boss counterclaimed for the Midi's knackered back axle*, obviously incurred when he illegally removed the van. Before long, the claim was resolved down to some posts and boards. About 50' worth.

Moral of the story is: stand up to bloody farmers making exorbitant claims about fences. It's just too easy a scam for them to resist, so it seems.

Never mind the farmer I used to work for, who conveniently parked 4 scabby old tractors in the hay barn the night it happened to catch fire...

[face]

I suggest taking a picture of his car, photoshopping a pair of white moccasins into it and posting a copy through his letterbox.

 

 

This, job done.

[Taff]

Just send off your logbook with an imaginary persons details, dated last Friday, and let the farmer go swivel.

 

you can register it with my boss, if you like? he's a tool, and would get on well with your new farmer mate

[HBR]

My dad is a farmer, my brother is a farmer, 3 of my cousins are farmers, my girlfriend is a farmer*, at least half my mates are farmers, 90% of the customers at work are farmers & I've lived in the countryside all my life. I KNOW BETTER THAN YOU LOT WHAT THEY'RE LIKE!!!!!!! Like any walk of life you'll find a few arseholes ( I know a couple round here & no bugger likes them!) & this fella may indeed be one of them but there are many posts here tarring all with the same brush & it's not fair, I've not seen any farmer round here try it on in this manner but I've know a good few (my family just for a start!) that have had to make repairs out of their own pocket to fences etc after some tosser has stuffed his motor into the scenery & plenty more who've not been paid a penny in thanks when they've got up in the middle of the night to tow someone out of a ditch**.

 

If you think farming is an easy living off the fat of the land & your taxes think on:

As for the subsidy thing, yes there are those that know how to work the system & they're often not farmers really, more businessmen involved in farming & the less of them around the better but at least in hillfarming it's rarely like that. If you're on a rented place it's likely they'll ask for much what they expect you can get in subsidy as rent, so that's it cancelled from the start for many. & it's only possible to make a profit & therefore a living after the subsidy, it's not some cherry stuck on top of the cake! If you think it'd be better without them then think about this, farming would have be done on a large industrial scale to make it pay, do you want that? Even then it's doubtful if it could be done in competetivly against imports from countries with poor standards of animal welfare, regulation of drugs, growth hormones etc, areas that would be uneconomical to work would not get used & that means much of the areas of "natural" beauty which looks that way because its been farmed like that for centuries would become a wilderness.

It's no easy job, you are your own boss so it is at times possible to decide on a morning to have an easy day but how would you like to have be at work for an absolute minimum of one hour in the morning & another in evening everyday of the week all year with no exceptions? & if you want a break from that you have to pay someone else to do it for you at mabye £15 an hour? Your plans to do whatever socially are subject to being buggered right up because there's a cow going to calve earlier or later than expected etc, if you're farming sheep for a couple of months at lambing time you'll be doing hours in all weather that would make a junior doctor think they'd got it easy. You need to make decsions months in advance & besides all the normal variables of market fluctualtions that every business has the weather can fuck you about in a way most outdoor workers such as builders etc would have nightmares about. Your pay cheques come in variable lumps spread over the back end of the year & you dont know how much it's going to be because you sell your produce at auction after production but the bills come in all year round.

I grew up with it & decided it wasn't for me & if you're wondering why they do it then it's a bloody good question, but as you sit down to your sunday dinner you just be glad that they do!

 

As for this particular problem with the car in the ditch, I'd agree with the first 3 replies from Volksy Cheggers & Dollywobbler.

 

 

 

*She is not my sister, or any other relation!

**Been on both sides of this particular problem!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Tell him that he's welcome to take you to court. Don't give him your insurance details. Write to the police saying that it was a single-vehicle accident, it is a purely civil matter (someone has to say that to them at some point!) and that they should keep out of it.

 

WARNING: OFF TOPIC POST etc etc

 

While I agree with your point re not tarring everyone with the same brush, the subsidy thing is ridiculous. If it's not possible for a textile mill to compete against the Indians, it closes, the owner goes bankrupt (or is forced to liquidate the assets at a knockdown price) and the workers go on the dole. If a farm can't produce meat at a price that is competitive with imports from Argentina or the Ukraine, the EU steps in and just makes it viable with a subsidy! Instead of helping new, high value-added industries out, we're just cutting the costs of an industry that's important but not really viable with our cost structure. It has RUINED whole regions in Spain and Greece, making people cultivate commercially useless cotton instead of highly sought-after asparagus!

[RedSparrow]

[Cavcraft]

I don't want to start an argument off here HBR, but if I were self employed doing crazy hours for crap money and struggling to get by I'd find something else to do, so I don't really understand why those who are still farming but complaining about it carry on. Also surely farming is done on a large industrial scale (albeit by lots of farmers rather than a handful) and surely if the industry isn't paying then it's oversubscribed?

[dieselnutjob]

he wants to claim against me for demolishing a large section of his fence.

 

The car simply slid into the ditch and I certainly didnt hit any fence,

 

That's fraud and possibly perverting the course of justice which are criminal offenses and maybe the farmer needs to be reminded of this.

[dollywobbler]

Ever been to a farmers' auction? It's staggering how much they'll pay for a knackered Land Rover or tractor. There's a lot of money out there if you know what you are doing...

 

However, I do also know plenty of farmers who struggle to make ends meet. There are quite a few people I know around here who own smallholdings. Now that's a lot of work for sod all financial reward. Some people would rather do that than sit on the dole watching daytime telly and spouting Daily Mail-esque hatred at anyone who'll listen though.

[pompei]

Hundreds of years ago, I used to work for the County Council's estates department and we had to manage a number of smallholdings. There was not much in it for them at all. That is almost certainly another world from the big boys, some of whom are awash with money.

 

I still have a prejudice against farmers after being forced off the road by one pulling a flat bed on the wrong side of the road and ending up in a ditch. He didn't stop. His mate who was following slowed down, peered in at me and then sped off.

 

I reported it to local Plod who funnily enough couldn't locate or identify two fucking massive tractors and flatbeds in the locality...

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Tell the farmer that you will never go to another farmers market ever again, and will buy all your milk that from the ‘big four’ supermarkets and hope they shaft him into oblivion.

 

Also complain that he should be working his fields to get the most food out of the subsidy money you’ve given him rather than pissing about pretending to be ‘claims direct’.

 

Finish off by putting in a claim for whiplash on his NFU ditch insurance and tip off the Excise people that he’s running his car on cherry. SORTED

 

You forgot to mention setting fire to his hay barn for a laugh. And shagging his Daughter.

[gtd2000]

If it's not possible for a textile mill to compete against the Indians, it closes, the owner goes bankrupt (or is forced to liquidate the assets at a knockdown price) and the workers go on the dole. If a farm can't produce meat at a price that is competitive with imports from Argentina or the Ukraine, the EU steps in and just makes it viable with a subsidy! Instead of helping new, high value-added industries out, we're just cutting the costs of an industry that's important but not really viable with our cost structure. It has RUINED whole regions in Spain and Greece, making people cultivate commercially useless cotton instead of highly sought-after asparagus!

 

This +1000