Car Insurance Claim - No Fault?

Quentin

From your description your car isn't roadworthy.

It is a waste of time phoning to find out if a claim has been made (it's too early - insurance companies don't work that fast).

So if you are told "no", it means nothing at all! (And if you are told "yes", not a lot you can do about it at this stage.)

You are best leaving this in the hands of the claim handler, and let them earn their corn for you.

officerwubble

Thanks Quentin. You're right of course. My problem seems to be I'm some sort of control freak who needs to know what is happening. It's not good for my health!

Quentin

What you could do is be on the lookout for a replacement - assuming your car isn't worth a lot (as you haven't got it insured against damage to it)

That damage you posted looks expensive, and it looks like a possible write off, though along with your hire costs could well be a probable one!

officerwubble

Quentin wrote: »

What you could do is be on the lookout for a replacement - assuming your car isn't worth a lot (as you haven't got it insured against damage to it)

That damage you posted looks expensive, and it looks like a possible write off, though along with your hire costs could well be a probable one!

It's only worth about £2k really. I'll be gutted if it's written off. It's done me well, well cared for, low mileage etc, but I guess I'll just have to deal with it, if it happens.

I'll not get a lot for £2k, unless I'm looking at a Proton

My insurers have told me that they have written to the third party's insurers claiming he is fully liable. Just got to wait for their response. I think I might need some valium

Quentin

The liability issue won't affect the outcome (ie whether or not it's a write off).

(As your insurer has written to the third party regarding liabilty, then it would seem they have made a claim against you)

officerwubble

Quentin, they have! The cheek of it astounds me. In fairness I don't think they're saying I'm at fault, rather no-one is, but they're certainly looking at trying to recover some of their costs from my insurers.

Quentin

If their case is no-one is to blame, they wouldn't be making a claim against you!

officerwubble

I don't know Quentin. I've read so much about this recently, I'm losing track. I think the idea is they claim 50% of their costs back from my insurers and vice versa. Only I'm 3rd party, fire & theft so whilst he would get his full costs back, I'd only get half of mine. I'd also get a hike in my insurance and damage my no claims bonus.

I'm not going to accept this. It's not a no fault accident, he was clearly at fault. I don't honestly understand how they can think anything else, although it might have helped their thinking process if they'd also spoken to me before making a judgement.

Quentin

You are thinking of equally split liability (50/50) - in that case you would be able to claim 50% of your costs from the third party, and the third party able to claim 50% of their costs off you/your insurer. But that is quite differerent from them saying "no-one is to blame".

In cases like that where no fault is found against either party, then you would be responsible for 100% of your own costs (and none of the third party's). (This, of course, would be no use to you, as you would truly be responsible for your costs as you have no insurance cover for damage to your car).

officerwubble

Just had confirmation back via the engineers report that the car is Category C damage, uneconomical to repair. It's been valued at £2k, which is what I thought, less £100 salvage.

Does anyone know if this means I'll get my car back plus £1900 to get the repairs done myself?

I'm not really sure what to do, I'd have my car back repaired in a shot and I suppose I should be able to get the repairs done for less than £1900, but I'm worried about the cat c classification. It's obviously going to affect the value, that's fair enough, I'm not sure I'd be planning on reselling it anyway, but it's the insurance I'm worried about. Does anyone know if it's just a matter of it being valued lower according to the Cat C damage, or will I struggle to get it insured?

Thank you folks.