Advice on a car insurance claim

catherine21

Hi,

I'm fairly new to MSE but I really hope someone will be able to help me. I've had quite an unfortunate week, starting with having an accident in my car on the way to work. It was a bang with another car, my car is a bit dented and hit a bollard which caused more damage to it.

Neither party is accepting responsibility at the moment, and when I reported it to the insurance company they have arranged to have it repaired. I need to pay my excess of £350, and of course have lost my no claims.

This is all pretty distressing, but is one of those things and I was coping with it.

However, the garage have given me a courtesy car to use while mine is being repaired. Their terms and conditions state that while I use the courtesy car, my insurance is transferred to it.

Last night the courtesy car was parked on the road, and it has been badly vandalised but someone who has scratched big lines in the paintwork.

Does this mean a second claim on my insurance? Am I going to have to pay another £350 excess to repair the damage on this car, even though it's not my fault and not something i could have avoided.

Sorry for the very long post, any advice anyone could give would be very much appreciated.

dacouch

It depends on who your Insurance is with and any paperwork you signed, however it is likely it will be on your Insurance and will thus be another claim on your policy and mean you have to pay the excess.

catherine21

The thing is I haven't actually signed any paperwork, does that make a difference? I asked the garage to deliver the car to my place of work, but they said that was too far for them to go. They told me instead that they would deliver it to my house, and post the keys through the door. they posted the keys and paperwork with the t&c, but I haven't signed this or returned it to them.

It's just so frustrating as if it had been my car that was scratched, I'd have just lived with it and not made a claim to save the excess and having an additional claim on the policy.

dacouch

The obvious thing to do is to read the terms and conditions they have put through your door, this should let you know the situation.

If there is not a great deal of damage you may find the garage are happy for you to simply pay them for the damage without going through the Insurance. After all they are a vehicle body shop so won't care who pays as long as they get their money