A badger has hit my car, what cover do I have?

henrygregory

Does anyone know if animal damage is covered on car insurance? I hit a fox or badger this evening.

vij

Wildlife damage is covered on all comprehensive policies but it will be a fault claim due to badgers not carrying liabilty cover.

You will need to pay your excess

If you do not have protection on your no claims, it will be stepped back by 2 years meaning an increase on the base rate + increase of around 20%.

If you do have protection on your no claims your premium may still increase due to the base rate of your insurance changing, and you will lose one of your strikes against the NCD if you do not have protection for life

I dont know what the scale is for increasing the base rate, I doubt your insurer will be able to advise you either as each year you will have other increases as well. You may be able to geta rough idea by running some online quotes and comapring them with your current price, remember the price may go up by next year but it will give you a feel for the prices in comparision to the current premium

Write off occurs when it is not economically viable to repair the car, rule of thumb here is that it will cost more than 50% of the vehicle value to repair the vehicle

You need to advise your insurer of the incident asap, they will arrange for the vehicle to be repaired and to get you a courtesy car if this is part of your cover. Some insurers will only provide the courtesy vehicle while yours is in the shop for repairs, others will provide while you are off the road.

At least you are home safe.

geri1965_2

vij wrote: »

it will be a fault claim due to badgers not carrying liabilty cover.

That made me laugh.

Worst accident I had on my bike was when I braked to avoid a squirrel and flew straight over the handlebars and hit my head on the path.

Poor badger.

vij

Im glad I got someone to smile this morning

jackieb

I hit a deer and it caused over £500 of damage. I'm with Direct Line and they paid out. I had protected No Claims though, so it didn't affect my premiums.

angelfire

Will you stop 'badgering' us with your irrellevant posts?!

Your insurance should pay out and like those above have said, you'll just have to pay your excess. My partner hit a meandering fox a few months back, caused loads of damage but we just paid the excess...

henrygregory

Thanks for all of your help and for taking the time to post!

dacouch

Give your Insurers a ring and report the claim, they will normally get their local approved repairer to come and collect the car on a low loader. Some will bring a courtesy car with them as well.

The weather has been reasonable recently so you should find the garage will have plenty of courtesy cars and can repair your car fairly quickly.

Most of the big Insurers have their claims departments open on Sundays others have a message taking service.

For the future it would be worth having your Insurers claim number in your mobile as you can ring some from the roadside and they will arrange the collection of the car for you. (The only problem I have found with this method is that if you are a long way from home some will take it to the nearest repairer to the accident and then leave you to make your own way home. You then also have to get back to the garage to collect the car yourself)

northwest1965

Henrygregory- I was in same situation as you a couple of weeks ago, only mine wasnt a badger but an unconsiderate driver in the middle of the night. Hit my car and just drove off.
I too have protected No Claims bonus and excess of £250. Ouch that hurt the most.
My renewal is just in and has increased £60. I think from what I can make out if I change my policy and go with another insurer, its a lot more expensive to protect the NCD. I cant get any cheaper and have tried loads of companies.

lisyloo

Your insurer will sort everything out.
They will have "approved" repairers (this doesn't mean they are any good, jsut that the insurer has a discount there).

The loading in future depends on a number of factors IME, but on of them is the size of the claim.

I had a small claim, no injuries. I have 9 years NCD, in my forties, no convictions.
Sometimes it appears there is no uplift, other times it's small (£20).
Other people have had different experiences, so I think it depends on MANY factors and not just one, but the size of the claim will have an impact.
If there were no injuries in your case and just car damage then that's favourable.

northwest1965

northwest1965 wrote: »

Henrygregory- I was in same situation as you a couple of weeks ago, only mine wasnt a badger but an unconsiderate driver in the middle of the night. Hit my car and just drove off.
I too have protected No Claims bonus and excess of £250. Ouch that hurt the most.
My renewal is just in and has increased £60. I think from what I can make out if I change my policy and go with another insurer, its a lot more expensive to protect the NCD. I cant get any cheaper and have tried loads of companies.

Almost forgot, ring the insurer they will give you an approved garage they use and if your insurance allows - you get a hire car