car burnt out in freak accident insurance help

charlearose

I hope someone can help

last night our car an 09 plate audi tt convertible was in a incident
a neighbours car was set on fire deliberatly (there were several wittness to this who actually saw the person set fire to the car)

when it was on fire i imagine the brake cable burnt and the car then proceded to roll down the hill and slide into the space next to our car it was wedged against our car and our car was extensivly fire damaged as a result of the fire and the cutting equipement that was used by the fire brigade to seperate both the cars and its a total write off for sure
sounds totally unreall but this is what happend according the the police and the wittnesses



now i have 7 years no claim but a high excess 900 pounds what im worried about though is getting the settlement figure so thats its enough to pay of the rest of the finance /lease of the car i reckon it to be around 19-20k mark

I have never been in this position before so i have contacted insurance company but generally what happen the car is leased for 3 years and we are 18 months into it

Do my insurance pay out for my car then get it from the other persons insurance or do the other persons insurance pay out if this is the case will it take longer as it was definatly arson on his car

how do i get the best amount for the car i dont want to be out of pocket its only got 12 thousand miles on the clock full service ect and was untill last night in mint condition ect

Do i claim my excess from the other person insurance i dont want to have my insurance to go up because of this

any idea on how long a claim like this could take to sort out they guy is insured and i have his address .name he lives near my sister

obvioulsy i will still be making car payments for a car i no longer have untill this is sorted out

will i be able to claim this back from the other persons insurance

many thanks all

dacouch

You need to claim from your own Insurance policy, it is very very unlikely you will be able to claim off the other persons insurance or even recover your excess from them.

You may find your own policy has a lower excess for fire claims

epz_2

Is it a lease or a loan to buy the care, if its a lease then the absolute worst you can be out is is the excess + ncb I would guess.

how insurance companies argue it is beyond me though

jd87

Why do you say that dacouch? Why can't they claim from the other car's insurance? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just wondering what the reason would be.

dacouch

To be able to claim you would normally have to prove the other car owner was "Legally liable" this in effect is proving the fire damage to the OP's car was "Reasonably avoidable". It is unlikely they would be able to argue that the other car owner could have reasonable have avoided the fire damage to their car and that the brake cable would fail and cause it to roll into another car.

You could try claiming off the other car but I would be surprised if they entertained it. There is a very outside chance if the other car owner was aware that their car was likely to be torched due to a threat from someone else etc although it is difficult to prove this

forgotmyname

The owner did nothing wrong for you to claim anything from them i guess, If your car was stolen and crashed
would you pay out for all damage they caused with your car?

vaio

I think there is something in the rules that means my insurance company has to pay if my car is used without my consent and does damage to a TP.

It just might be that the fact that the car rolled down the hill and into yours means that this rule comes into play.

Hintza

^^ Agree with the above.

The only thing you might try and find out is why it rolled into your car ie did the owner park it negligently. But even then I think any negligence would be very hard to prove. Try and get a report from the fire brigade if possible.

charlearose

Thanks for that guys
the car is leased we have 18months left of payments then its handed back

from the information that i got from the police at the scene the person who torched the car actually put a petrol can underneath the car and then when it wasnt burning enough went back and poured more petrol on it so it was definatly arson

the car was actually broken down and it was on the rd waiting to go into the garage opposite on monday

i find it hard to stomach that through no fault of my own i will lose my NCB and my excess which ok is high ( my choice) but have no way of reclaiming this back from anywhere and my insurance will go through the roof as well when i get another car

the guy even said he was trying to think who he !!!!ed off :cool:

charlearose

have put the claim in with my insurance company today
i always though that if your car was damaged by another persons car then you claimed off your insurance and the insurance company went to the other insurance company for this money as it there clients car that has caused the damage to my car and is insured for accidents /damage to a third party

sassy_one

That's IF the other person is even insured.....