How to proceed with a car accident claim

Heliflyguy

This afternoon my wife was waiting to enter a roundabout when the car behind her thinking she had moved off drove into the back of her car.
Not a lot of damage to the car(s) though I have yet to see it.
The other driver has admited liability, reg numbers and contact details taken, no witness.
My wife has third party insurance.
The other driver will contact us tonight and we will exchange insurance details.
I have only ever had fully comp insurance so any accident has been taken care of by the insurance company once all the paperwork has been completed.
I have checked her insurance company website and we need to inform them within 48 hours.
How will it work in the case of TPFF insurance, what will we need to do to get the car repaired and claim from the other drivers insurance.
I dont believe any of this can be arranged by her insurance company being that its TP can it?
Many thanks.

greendollar

Yes , your insurers and theirs should deal with it .

Beware though , even though the other driver has admitted liability doesn't mean you'll automatically get re-imbursed for the damage done to your car though .

They could try to stitch you up and say the accident was 50/50 leaving you out of pocket .

Then again they may be super dooper insurers and you'll be back on the road in your soon to be repaired car in no time .

Duncombe

You need to inform your wifes insurance company and they should advise you what action to take. When my brother was involed in an accident (a woman ran into the back of him actually on a roundabout) last November, he phoned his insurer to let them know of the situation. He was only 3rd party too
All correspondance from then on was done via my brother and the other womans insurance company.

Quentin

Greendollar's advice is wrong.

As you only have third party cover, then your insurer will NOT deal with this.

It's down to you to pursue the third party, either direct with them or their insurer.

Heliflyguy

Thanks Quentin.

vaio

As Quentin says, your insurance company will not deal with it (unless liability is disputed) although you do need to inform them.

As the TP drove into the back of your car liability should be clear cut, contact the TP insurance company and hopefully they will sort everything out for you including an alternative car if yours is undrivable.

If they mess you about then there are plenty of claims/accident management companies out there who would be only too happy to have you as a client.

Heliflyguy

Having now looked at the car it appears to be just a big dent in the centre section of the plastic bumper, the whole thing will need replacing or it will look a bit odd but its is a 1999 car.
No creases in the base of the boot or underneath that I can see but a more trained eye will be needed, it was very low speed impact.
To be honest it could be repaired by me as cheap as a breakers bumper would be assuming thats all thats needed but as the TP was driving a A class Merc that would probably be FC? then they will no doubt go down the insurance route which we will be ok with as long as its just the bumper and our car doesnt get written off.
Will call our insurers as soon as we have the other persons insurance details
Thank you all for such quick responses.

oscarward

My brother was in a small accident last year, cracked light lens and scratched bumper when a coach reversed in to him. The coach driver admitted liability.

He contacted the other insurance company who had a look and decided a S reg Vauxhall Omega needing a new bumper and rear light unit was going to be a write off.

He wanted to keep the car as he intended to put it in for the scrappage allowance when the new reg's came out in September. The garage wouldn't accept it if it was a write off he had bought back and it was worth more scrapped than the write off value.

So he contacted the other insurance and offered them if they replaced just the light unit would they not write it off please.

Which they accepted.

Heliflyguy

Well we contacted our insurance this morning who have, as vaio offered as an option, passed the claim straight to an accident management company (helphire) who will handle the claim as long fault is with the TP.
We were advised to accept this option now as if we choose to handle the claim ourselves we could not go back and accept later, at least not via our insurer
Helphire said they will arrange to get an engineer to access the damage (I guess subject to fault being confirmed) then decide if our car is repairable or to be written off, helphire were very helpful.
They seemed keen to repeat about getting a hire car arranged if the car is to be repaired but to be honest we can manage easily without, and I would rather keep things simple.
Here's hoping that its just a low cost repair.

Quentin

Heliflyguy wrote: »

We were advised to accept this option now as if we choose to handle the claim ourselves we could not go back and accept later, at least not via our insurer

Using a claim handler is fine - they do the work at no cost to you, and will know the ropes on what other uninsured losses to claim for apart from your repairs.

Your insurer has done the hard sell on you though!

(They will get a commission from helphire for providing them you as a "qualified" lead, hence them wanting your instructions there and then)

Some claim handlers will pay you an initial commission for going straight to them (ie cutting out the insurance company acting as a middleman).

vaio

Heliflyguy wrote: »

Well we contacted our insurance this morning who have, as vaio offered as an option, passed the claim straight to an accident management company (helphire) who will handle the claim as long fault is with the TP.
We were advised to accept this option now as if we choose to handle the claim ourselves we could not go back and accept later, at least not via our insurer
Helphire said they will arrange to get an engineer to access the damage (I guess subject to fault being confirmed) then decide if our car is repairable or to be written off, helphire were very helpful.
They seemed keen to repeat about getting a hire car arranged if the car is to be repaired but to be honest we can manage easily without, and I would rather keep things simple.
Here's hoping that its just a low cost repair.

Yep, you can be sure they will push you towards having a hire car as that's where they make a lot of their money, did you speak to the TP company to see what their reaction was?