Alby,
I am tending to agree with you , on the point you make.
I always , with out fail inform the customers and any other people to be aware of hoses, in fact I might even voice record the initial conversation re. aware of hoses, whether this is legal, I don't know. !!
I will wait and see.
geoff
Recording isn't admissible, unless the other party is asked for consent to being recorded, which is why call centres always state that the call is being recorded if that is the case (although stating isn't asking permission, so it would be interesting to see that challenged in a legal setting).
One thing you may have in your favour if common sense doesn't prevail is the driveway, when you say it's shared it could depend on how it's marked on their deeds, say for example the house you were at was on the left as you look up the driveway, and the van was parked in the middle, and she lives on the right, why did she have to go onto neighbouring property to access her house, when she could have taken the logical route to the right, document anything odd about it, so that should you need to contact your insurers it's there infront of you.
I hate people who try to make something out of nothing for financial gain, so what, she fell over and bruised her knees, no doubt she'll have a sick note by now saying she can't work for a couple of weeks because of the pain to her joints so she's suffered "financial loss", if you know her full name it wouldn't hurt to take a look at her facebook and see what she's upto over the next week or so, any mention, or pictures of physical activity, trips out etc, get a screen shot and keep it safe, so if she plays the old "stuck in doors, feet up" routine then says "lovely day out at the park/wherever" it shows inconsistancies in her story.
A mate of mine recently sledged a car up the backside, he was following it, got distracted and the car in front braked hard, fair play, it was his fault, he asked the bloke driving if he was okay, did the paperwork exchange etc etc, then a few days later the letter comes through the door, the bloke was claiming whiplash (okay, that takes a few days to show usually), but so was his girlfriend, who was waiting for him to pick her up, and had been stood 100 metres away on the pavement when the accident happened.
After telling the insurance what happened, and that she wasn't in the car, she still got paid out, the barstewards don't like to argue, they just want rid as cheaply as possible.