Last November I had a bit of a freak incident in my partners new Golf. I was pulling into a petrol station forecourt when a large chunk of concrete which was in a pothole pivoted under the wheel and got dragged by the wheel around the inside of the wheel arch causing some fairly serious damage to the wheel arch before it dropped back out onto the ground.

I took some photos, informed the garage owner (whom admitted responsibility) then took his details and left.

It may or may not be relevant to add that the car is an NHS fleet solutions lease car.

The next day I informed the insurance company and passed on all the relevant details. They arranged for the car to be taken and repaired a week or so later, which it was, but they told us that we would have to pay the £250 excess upon delivery of the vehicle from the repair shop, which we did and that we would get the £250 back once the claim had been settled with the garage owner.

Now nearly 5 months on and nothing has happened, we have called the insurance company several times and all they tell us is that he replied to them at first and said he wanted to pay it directly rather than through his insurance company so they were perusing that, but that now he is no longer responding to them.

They don't seem at all concerned or making any effort to pursue him

What can we do? I find it very annoying that he admitted liability at first but is now unwilling to cooperate, do we or the insurance company have any rights to force him to pay via his insurance company?