Car insurance - claim through third party or go private?

lisyloo

You should be fine with a courtesy car.
It's credit hire, where a seperate company tries to make a lot of money by charging insurers high prices where there can be problems.
You should be able to claim back reasonable costs like a courtesy car or a car hire at decent rates (it's £35 per day round my way).
It's unreasonable costs that are the problem.

Natbag

Ah, ok, so as long as I check the cost and that it's not credit hire I *should* be ok?
It would be great to have a courtesy car for the day, but I don't want it to create further problems!

lisyloo

Ah, ok, so as long as I check the cost and that it's not credit hire I *should* be ok?

If it's provided by the repairer as part of your comprehensive insurance policy and not by a seperate credit hire agreement the you *should* be ok, especially if you are going to wait until liability is agreed.
If you don't wait until liabiilty is agreed there are two main downsides
1) Short term it counts as a "fault" claim until liabiilty is agreed AND all the money is settled. It's possible you may need to renew your insurance whilst this mark exists again you. Clearly the chance is higher if you have to renew in 1 month rather than 11 months.
2) There is always a tiny chance (however small) that the other party will come up with some pack of lies and say it wasn't them. If you have no witnesses/CCTV or other evidence then you may be unable to prove it.

If you can live with the damage and don't want to sell the car then you can always wait.

Natbag

lisyloo wrote: »

If it's provided by the repairer as part of your comprehensive insurance policy and not by a seperate credit hire agreement the you *should* be ok, especially if you are going to wait until liability is agreed.
If you don't wait until liabiilty is agreed there are two main downsides
1) Short term it counts as a "fault" claim until liabiilty is agreed AND all the money is settled. It's possible you may need to renew your insurance whilst this mark exists again you. Clearly the chance is higher if you have to renew in 1 month rather than 11 months.
2) There is always a tiny chance (however small) that the other party will come up with some pack of lies and say it wasn't them. If you have no witnesses/CCTV or other evidence then you may be unable to prove it.

If you can live with the damage and don't want to sell the car then you can always wait.

Yeah I can live with it for now until liability is admitted. He's admitted it three times on the phone and I have a handwritten admission with full company details on it, so I don't think he'd change his mind.
It should be a cheap repair job and their XS is high, so I might get a quote and proceed from there. Plus I don't really want another claim on my insurance in the same year as even though they say it won't affect my renewal price, it no doubt will.

rev_henry

Natbag wrote: »

Yeah I can live with it for now until liability is admitted. He's admitted it three times on the phone and I have a handwritten admission with full company details on it, so I don't think he'd change his mind.
It should be a cheap repair job and their XS is high, so I might get a quote and proceed from there. Plus I don't really want another claim on my insurance in the same year as even though they say it won't affect my renewal price, it no doubt will.

Not a claim, but a non fault incident, for which they may or may not load your premium (but it won't be very much if they do). Regardless of how you proceed with sorting it out, that damage is done now because you have already notified the insurance company.

If I were you I would either go to the 3rd party's insurance company and have them sort it (XS doesn't apply to 3rd party claims),

OR get a cash price quote (including courtesy car for the day) from this place your insurance company uses and have the 'boss' pay cash for this.

Tbh this 'boss' does seem to be being perfectly reasonable about it, which is unusual in this day and age unfortunately, so I'd be inclined to help him out to a point. His offer of a car is kind but possibly not so well thought out. I'm guessing you do not have the 'drive other cars' provision on your insurance for some reason? Are you under 25?

Quote

Good grief. What a kerfuffle.

Natbag

I'm over 25 and I think I can drive other cars on my policy, although not sure. I didn't use to have that cover because my former job excluded me (journalist), and although my new job is rated lower (I work in insurance, how ironic!) I can't say either way and wouldn't like to chance it. I have no idea where my certificate is at this moment. Plus it would only be third party and I'm not entirely comfortable with that!

This boss is being really good about it, he has answered all my questions so far honestly and without protest, he has admitted liability to both me and the car park landlord, verbally and in writing, so I have security there, which you're right is refreshing these days and I would like to help him out - it's not his fault his employee has been a bit careless.

I'm going to get a quote to have it repaired at the nearest accident repair centre tomorrow, then I'm going to call him with the quote. I'm only getting that one quote though as they are a professional, well-known and reputable firm and I don't have time or petrol to make appointments and travel between several repairers. I may also ask to add a hire car fee, which is about £25 for a day from Nationwide, although I'm not sure how the insurance would work on that?

I also need to find out what my insurance company will say if I decide not to pursue the third party claim through them?

rev_henry

Natbag wrote: »

I'm over 25 and I think I can drive other cars on my policy, although not sure. I didn't use to have that cover because my former job excluded me (journalist), and although my new job is rated lower (I work in insurance, how ironic!) I can't say either way and wouldn't like to chance it. I have no idea where my certificate is at this moment. Plus it would only be third party and I'm not entirely comfortable with that!

This boss is being really good about it, he has answered all my questions so far honestly and without protest, he has admitted liability to both me and the car park landlord, verbally and in writing, so I have security there, which you're right is refreshing these days and I would like to help him out - it's not his fault his employee has been a bit careless.

I'm going to get a quote to have it repaired at the nearest accident repair centre tomorrow, then I'm going to call him with the quote. I'm only getting that one quote though as they are a professional, well-known and reputable firm and I don't have time or petrol to make appointments and travel between several repairers. I may also ask to add a hire car fee, which is about £25 for a day from Nationwide, although I'm not sure how the insurance would work on that?

I also need to find out what my insurance company will say if I decide not to pursue the third party claim through them?

Ask Nationwide about that. They may include it with that £25 a day or they may want you to pay a little more to them for insurance. Its possibly a bit unusual because I imagine their courtesy cars are usually insured for their customers by the insurance companies who send them customers, if you see what I mean.

Its not up to your insurance company to decide how you deal with this, just tell them, don't ask them! They may be annoyed because they will miss out on a juicy commision payment for handing it over to a claims management company but so what.

Chaquan

Get in contact with his insurance company to see if they have an "innocent third parties" who the Department will be glad to take care of you, so you replace the car, etc.

rev_henry

dasankita wrote: »

It will be better to contact your insurer.

Well thank you for clearly reading all of the thread and offering poor, unsubstantiated advice.