Can any motor insurance specialists help pls?

Randy_Trouserman

Hi all,

I'm wondering if there's anyone within the car insurance/broker industry that may be able to help with a little problem...

A wall (that belonged to the next door business), fell on my wife's car when it was in for servicing and the owner of the wall is willing to part pay the repair bill. Naturally, I want him to pay all of it.

Our insurance co (Admiral) is happy to look at it, but have warned we will have to pay the excess and lose 3 years no claims if our claim is unsuccessful.

I've had lots of layman's interpretations of it, and most see it from our perspective. I wondered if anyone in the industry might be willing to give me an insiders view if we should take put it through the insurance or not.

I can send pics to show the incident.

Here's hoping.

Many thanks RT

Lum

I'd contact a no-win no-fee type solicitor and pursue the claim that way if I were you. At least then your excess/NCB isn't at risk.

How badly damaged is the car? Still driveable?

McKneff

If the other party is completely to blame, leave yur insurance company out of the equasion and contact a claims management service.

Before you do this, write to the other partys, tell them that is what you are going to do if you do not hear from them within say 7 days.

They dont like Claims Management Companies, they cost a fortune, they will soon cough up.

Obviously your premium may go up even in a non claim with your ins. company but not all do. I would check with them.

Randy_Trouserman

Hi all,

the car is still driveable, and I have two quotes for repair in the region of £500 each.

How does the process with a claims management company work?

Cheers

Wig

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/witney/8906756.Wall_collapse_damages_cars/?action=complain&cid=9222713

?

I wonder if he thinks it's a party wall therefore both he and the garage are liable 50% each? It does abutt the garage carpark doesn't it and not the highway? From your previous post didn't you say the house/wall owner also owns the garage carpark and rents it to the garage guy?

You could ask on UK legal moderated here
http://groups.google.com/group/uk.legal.moderated/topics?hl=en&lnk

You need to describe where the wall is, e.g. between two properties his house and the garage carpark. If the remaining part of the wall is in disrepair. Who is responsible in the deeds for its maintenance.

You could also answer the points raised in the last post here (post #26)
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3096390

If I was going to post this onto uk legal I would write it so that all that information is in there.

myhooose

I'm certainly no expert but I'd have thought you would have claimed off the garage servicing you car as you had left the car in their care. They in turn could then claim off the neighbors insurance.

mcjordi

agreed myhooose.. the garage has a duty of care to look after your car while its in their posession.. ask for details of their insurer... they will have to pay up..
contact a no win no fee solictor/claims company

dacouch

The situation with these types of claims is basically the following, the person responsible is only liable for your claim if they have been negligent. This is very basically could the actions of a reasonable person reasonably avoided the incident.

For instance if the wall was blown over in very high winds, they would probably not be liable, if the wall fell over due to a vandal pushing it they would probably not be liable. If however the wall was obviously in need of maintenence and they had not carried it out they probably would be liable.

Unfortunately just because a wall falls on your car does not (In UK law) automatically mean the person responsible for it is liable. You have to prove negligence refer to above examples.

The garage is only responsible for your vehicle in what the law says they are legally liable for, again this boils down to could the damage have reasonably been avoided

bigjl

Surely the responsibility is firmly on the Garage that the car was given to for the service.

They should repair the car then claim f their Insurance, if they aren't properly Insured then they need to pay out their own pocket and sue the bloke whose wall it is, or is it shared wall, in which case he may be within his rights to pay half and the garage should pay the other half.

dacouch

bigjl wrote: »

Surely the responsibility is firmly on the Garage that the car was given to for the service.

They should repair the car then claim f their Insurance, if they aren't properly Insured then they need to pay out their own pocket and sue the bloke whose wall it is, or is it shared wall, in which case he may be within his rights to pay half and the garage should pay the other half.

The garage is only responsible for what they are legally liable for eg if you took them to court what the court would rule on. They do not have a blanket liability to cover anything that they are not (In law) responsible.

Having said that some garages would pay the repairs for the sake of good customer relations

harveybobbles

Randy_Trouserman wrote: »

A wall (that belonged to the next door business), fell on my wife's car when it was in for servicing

Why was the wall being serviced?