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Hoping to get a bit of a steer if I can take deliveroo to court.
Deliveroo cyclist damaged my car, whilst cycling wrong way up a one way road and then ran off. Damage around £1k. Later that evening I found the same cyclist, managed to get his rider ID but he refused to give name etc and ran away again.
Raised this will Deliveroo, who made me fill in a form, and passed me onto their 3rd party company called collective benefits.
Collective benefits emailed me: "I wanted to confirm that we have your third party claim form and are waiting for Deliveroo to confirm the riders details. Once we have these we will then pass your claim to our Claims Handling specialist. The Claims handlers will be in touch with you shortly and may require further detailed information. At this time we are not able to comment on liability, just whilst we complete our investigations. However, if you have any queries in the meantime then please feel free to reply to this email address."
They then passed me onto Zurich "Good afternoon. Thank you for the notification. We are in the process of chasing a formal report of the same from our insured’s cyclist via their brokers, as under the terms and conditions of this policy: We cannot get involved until we have this in writing from them. There is a strict £150.00 excess for all Deliveroo cyclists/riders that is payable to the claimant or their insurers subject to claims cost and liability. Just for the file in the event they do report this to us, please provide colour photos of the damage and the repair account for the damage or two independent quotes."
I gave Zurich the details filled in their form, gave them the dashcam footage, pictures etc. I chased a few times, and almost a year later they said
"The rider has not responded and we have now denied cover under the policy. Please accept my apologises that we were unable to resolve this for you. Our file is now closed."
I asked Zurich for the riders details as I only had the rider ID and they said " Zurich are not the data owners or the custodians of this information, and we do not have permission to share this information with you. The riders are self-employed. As previously advised that the policy is just a benefit policy to provide the rider with cover should he be involved in an accident with a member of the public. He has to meet the conditions of the policy and as previously advised he has not confirmed he was involved and given us permission to deal with your claim".
Sounds like a dead end, getting nowhere at all. Rider has buried their head in the sand and not responding. I then raised a letter before claim to deliveroo and this was their response
"In your email you assert that you believe Deliveroo is responsible for the alleged incident. Please note that any claim against Deliveroo would be misconceived as riders in the UK are engaged as self-employed independent contractors and provide services to Deliveroo (and other platforms) on their own account. The status of Deliveroo riders has been considered by the UK courts, with the UK Supreme Court confirming last year that riders are not in an employment relationship with Deliveroo. It therefore follows that Deliveroo is not, and cannot be, liable (either by way of vicarious liability or otherwise) for the acts and/or omissions of the riders it engages with. As such, to the extent that a rider is responsible for any loss or damage to your vehicle, such a claim falls to the rider personally (to the extent that insurance coverage has been declined) and not Deliveroo. For the avoidance of any doubt, liability for the alleged incident is not admitted."
My question
-Can I actually raise a small courts claim against Deliveroo, or will I most likely lose the claim?
Deliveroo cyclist damaged my car, whilst cycling wrong way up a one way road and then ran off. Damage around £1k. Later that evening I found the same cyclist, managed to get his rider ID but he refused to give name etc and ran away again.
Raised this will Deliveroo, who made me fill in a form, and passed me onto their 3rd party company called collective benefits.
Collective benefits emailed me: "I wanted to confirm that we have your third party claim form and are waiting for Deliveroo to confirm the riders details. Once we have these we will then pass your claim to our Claims Handling specialist. The Claims handlers will be in touch with you shortly and may require further detailed information. At this time we are not able to comment on liability, just whilst we complete our investigations. However, if you have any queries in the meantime then please feel free to reply to this email address."
They then passed me onto Zurich "Good afternoon. Thank you for the notification. We are in the process of chasing a formal report of the same from our insured’s cyclist via their brokers, as under the terms and conditions of this policy: We cannot get involved until we have this in writing from them. There is a strict £150.00 excess for all Deliveroo cyclists/riders that is payable to the claimant or their insurers subject to claims cost and liability. Just for the file in the event they do report this to us, please provide colour photos of the damage and the repair account for the damage or two independent quotes."
I gave Zurich the details filled in their form, gave them the dashcam footage, pictures etc. I chased a few times, and almost a year later they said
"The rider has not responded and we have now denied cover under the policy. Please accept my apologises that we were unable to resolve this for you. Our file is now closed."
I asked Zurich for the riders details as I only had the rider ID and they said " Zurich are not the data owners or the custodians of this information, and we do not have permission to share this information with you. The riders are self-employed. As previously advised that the policy is just a benefit policy to provide the rider with cover should he be involved in an accident with a member of the public. He has to meet the conditions of the policy and as previously advised he has not confirmed he was involved and given us permission to deal with your claim".
Sounds like a dead end, getting nowhere at all. Rider has buried their head in the sand and not responding. I then raised a letter before claim to deliveroo and this was their response
"In your email you assert that you believe Deliveroo is responsible for the alleged incident. Please note that any claim against Deliveroo would be misconceived as riders in the UK are engaged as self-employed independent contractors and provide services to Deliveroo (and other platforms) on their own account. The status of Deliveroo riders has been considered by the UK courts, with the UK Supreme Court confirming last year that riders are not in an employment relationship with Deliveroo. It therefore follows that Deliveroo is not, and cannot be, liable (either by way of vicarious liability or otherwise) for the acts and/or omissions of the riders it engages with. As such, to the extent that a rider is responsible for any loss or damage to your vehicle, such a claim falls to the rider personally (to the extent that insurance coverage has been declined) and not Deliveroo. For the avoidance of any doubt, liability for the alleged incident is not admitted."
My question
-Can I actually raise a small courts claim against Deliveroo, or will I most likely lose the claim?
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