AA insurance

CruelKaren

My partner was on his way to work before 7am on Thursday morning he was driving uphill on a country road and a woman was driving downhill and came round a blind bend at 45mph ( roughly ) and slammed on the brakes and hit him the drivers front wing and front wheel were badly damaged and his wing mirror.
He was doing 25mph ( punto 1.2 and has no power going up hill )
and the woman was driving a merc coupe 2.2.
His car the police got towed away, she managed to drive her car away.
But later that evening when I phoned her to get insurance details she said she had to get her car towed away later.
Ian ( my partner ) phoned insurance and they have said as neither gave way it is a 50/50 both parties are to blame, Ian disputed that although he didn't have time to come to a full stop there was enough room for her to get by as he was on the verge, any further over and he would have been in the farmers field.
obviously after impact his car was undrivable so he couldn't have moved position.
When the police came the parked right behind him and the tow truck which took him away managed to pass him with no problem.

The girl is also 3rd party, I spoke to the coachbuilders yesterday and their assessment is it is unrepairable but they need and independant assessor to double check their decision.

What I need to know now is what do we do?
the car is on finance and still has about 3000 outstanding
but we took out shortfall insurance which in theory should cover the excess the insurance don't pay.

also we pay AA insurance every month, but when we called on Thursday we were told it was actually alliaz insurance???
bloody annoys me how the do stuff like that.

Ian spoke to the police woman last night when he took in his docs and she was the same one who attended the scene and said it didn't matter her car was towed away later on Thursday she left the scene and her car was fine and they have 4 witnesses to testify that Ian ( his collegue ) and the two police officers.

Also Ian didn't get injured thank god but he did wake up on Friday morning with a huge bruise on his shoulder.
does he need to disclose that information??

sorry I know this may sound stupid but we are obviously first time claimers
and are totally thick on what the procedures would be

thanks Karen

Premier_2

If the decision is to write off your car, and as you have GAP insurance, you should get the full value insured back (less any excess). Usually the finance company get their cut first and you'll just get the remainder.

Then you need to buy another car if that is what you want.

I'm not sure what else you are asking (if anything)


Edit: this assumes you were covered fully comp. Can you have GAP insurance for accident damage you cause to your own vehicle if it's not covered fully comp?

CruelKaren

Premier wrote: »

If the decision is to write off your car, and as you have GAP insurance, you should get the full value insured back (less any excess). Usually the finance company get their cut first and you'll just get the remainder.

Then you need to buy another car if that is what you want.

I'm not sure what else you are asking (if anything)

We still have about 3000 outstanding, so doubt we will get anything back.
excess was only £100 so that nothing.

I just don't want to end up out of pocket still paying for a car that is written off and crushed if you know what I mean.
We will just be going for a new car using finance again
last time because he had no credit history ( he is a cash man )
the only folk her could get it through had monsterous interest rates of 40.8% so this time if we manage to get rid of the car and not be out of pocket he has a good credit history now, the car for 2yrs no defaults, suite no defaults and also home schooling for our soon 2yrs.
So should have no issues with credit.

Also just to add the paperwork side of things is a headbanger.
I have told them everything over the phone ( as he was a wreck and couldn't speak properly he was so shaken ) could they not have printed out what I said and then just sent out the form to be signed?
nightmare, no wonder folk hate insurers :mad:

Also should we persue the 100% damages against her or for a quicker settlement accept the 50/50 ( we have check insurance for another car accepting the accident as 50/50 and no claims and for 2 yrs no claims. and there is only £50 of a difference )

CruelKaren

Premier wrote: »

If the decision is to write off your car, and as you have GAP insurance, you should get the full value insured back (less any excess). Usually the finance company get their cut first and you'll just get the remainder.

Then you need to buy another car if that is what you want.

I'm not sure what else you are asking (if anything)


Edit: this assumes you were covered fully comp. Can you have GAP insurance for accident damage you cause to your own vehicle if it's not covered fully comp?

Yip we are covered fully comp, wasn't taking any chances with him being a new driver and using the car a lot, so the chances of a bump were really high :rolleyes:

Premier_2

CruelKaren wrote: »

...Also should we persue the 100% damages against her or for a quicker settlement accept the 50/50 ( we have check insurance for another car accepting the accident as 50/50 and no claims and for 2 yrs no claims. and there is only £50 of a difference )

That's a decision (and risk) you need to make yourself.
Either you allow the insurance the full rights to negotiate a settlement or you deny them that possibility and then they probably won't pay you anything so you'll be risking everything on getting a successful legal claim of your own against the other driver (who will use their insurance company and probably the best legal team to defend such action - cost being not an issue for the insurance company)

But what have you to gain from such legal action? (other than protecting no claims bonus if you win)?
In fact you could end up with less money even if you do win as the other driver will only be expected to repay the market value of the car (not the extra money you have GAP insurance for). You will be expected to settle the finance company the £3000 owed whichever way go about resolving the matter.

CruelKaren

Premier wrote: »

That's a decision (and risk) you need to make yourself.
Either you allow the insurance the full rights to negotiate a settlement or you deny them that possibility and then they probably won't pay you anything so you'll be risking everything on getting a successful legal claim of your own against the other driver (who will use their insurance company and probably the best legal team to defend such action - cost being not an issue for the insurance company)

But what have you to gain from such legal action? (other than protecting no claims bonus if you win)?
In fact you could end up with less money even if you do win as the other driver will only be expected to repay the market value of the car (not the extra money you have GAP insurance for). You will be expected to settle the finance company the £3000 owed whichever way go about resolving the matter.

Thanks
As I said we are first timers and Ian hasn't been on the road long so the NCB is not a great loss, think he was just wanting to stand his ground and get her to admit fault.
Insurance did say they will claim for full loss but it will almost certainly get challenged.

Then to make matters worse the insurance forms got delivered today and now I can't get a hold of the woman she is ignoring my calls.
I need her addy and home number and also her passengers name and number and her insurance company's addy.
Ian only got her name and mob number
I later called her for insurance company and policy number.
but since then she's not answering the phone :mad::mad:

Anyway Thank you for your feedback and advice it is much appreciated xxx

dacouch

You can get her Insurance details from here https://www.askmid.com

Quentin

You will have to pay though!

Just complete the form as best you can and your insurer will be able to get the insurer's details.

Premier_2

You don't actually need her insurance details - but you will need her address probably.
As the police were involved, contact them if needs be to obtain it.

CruelKaren

Data protection reasons police can't give out the information.
But they said giving the insurance company her reg plate number they will be able to find her address.

We have spoken to Insurance company Monday and the car has been wrote off the valuer (independant) valued it at £1400 ( which is about right ) so just need to wait and see what offer insurance offer us and then call our shortfall insurance before we accept the insurances offer.
We called our Finance company and they have gave us a settlement price, obviously the insurance money and shortfall money will pay off the car in under 2yrs ( it was originally took over 4yrs )
So fingers crossed all goes well now

She has claimed 50/50 accident and he has agreed to just let his NCB go for the sake of a quick settlement also have done a quote for insurance on a new car and there is only £50 extra for admitting a percentage of the accident so we can live with that.

The other ? is once we have settled the claim do we need to finish off paying the insurance for this years premium ( this is our 2nd year with the same insurer ) or can we cancel the policy and just pay the rest for this month? Or when we get a new car can they just adapt our payments.
Although their quote ( via compare the market ) was £800 dearer than our cheapest quote.

Fingers crossed it is looking almost straight forward :T

Quentin

Because of your claim, you cannot get any refund on your policy. Be prepared that they may deduct any premium owing for the year from the settlement.

You may be able to put your new car onto the policy - check the policy wording, as some insurers say that a write off payment ends the policy. If they quote so much more than others for a year's new policy, then there may be an increased premium to pay till the end of the year on the existing policy, and that may mean it's cheaper to go elsewhere.