Courtesy car rights after a no-fault write off

geeba88

I was in an accident on June 3rd (no liability on my part). I was informed on the 14th June that my vehicle was being written off. I agreed on a settlement figure (that will still leave me £700 short on settling the car finance agreement), received an email from the claims settlers on the 20th saying that payment had been sent to my finance company.

I’ve done everything in my power to line up a replacement car as soon as possible. I placed an order on the 15th June and after much hassling of the dealers, I’m due to take delivery of my new vehicle on the 30th, only 16 days after notified that my original car was being written off.

What I’m incredibly frustrated about is the fact that I was forced to hand back my courtesy car on the 24th June, which has forced me to take out a private hire vehicle until my new car is delivered. Furthermore, I’ve contacted my finance company today who say that they’ve yet to receive the settlement payment, some 8 days after I was notified that payment had been issued.

Do I have any just grounds for complaint here? I know that insurance companies are notoriously tight when it comes to courtesy cars, it feels really unjust to me that I’m having a pay for a hire car when, to my eyes the claim hasn’t yet been fully settled.

Any advice appreciated

InsideInsurance

Who is providing the courtesy car? Your insurers or the third party insurers?

From the liable party you are entitled to replacement suitable transport for up to 1 week after the settlement is received for the total loss of the vehicle.

vaio

Nah, from the at fault party you are entitled to all reasonable costs incurred to put you back in the position you would have been in had the accident not happened. If this involves a couple of months hire car whilst awaiting your new car then so be it.

You are required to mitigate these costs but on the face of it I'd say you have done so and so the third party insurance will pay for the hire car.

Have a think about any other costs you are going to incur and add these to the claim, eg is there an early repayment cost on the finance?

To be absolutely water tight it might be worth contacting the third party insurance and giving them the option of giving you a car until your new one arrives.

InsideInsurance

vaio wrote: »

If this involves a couple of months hire car whilst awaiting your new car then so be it.

Not correct, if you belive it is then provide case law.

Credit hire companies certainly wouldnt be taking people out of hire a week after they receive the settlement cheque if they could possibly be allowed to keep them in hire for "months more" as you suggest.

ABI wrote:

The hire period ends not later than 24 hours after repairs to the customer’s vehicle have been completed, or, in total loss situations, not later than 6 days after the settlement cheque has been received by the customer or his representative.

geeba88

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Who is providing the courtesy car? Your insurers or the third party insurers?

From the liable party you are entitled to replacement suitable transport for up to 1 week after the settlement is received for the total loss of the vehicle.

I think it was arranged through my insurers.

So does the fact that I only have the claims companies word (the email i received on the 20th) that they've issued payment count for anything? As mentioned in my opening post, the finance company say that as of today, (28th) they haven't received any payment.

Thanks

InsideInsurance

If it is a courtesy car then it makes little difference as it is down to the T&Cs of your policy and the third party basically has nothing to do with it. If your policy says you get it until payment is received then you can argue, if it says X days from payment sent then its harder etc.

Now, it could be that if your insurers have conformation that the TP has accepted liability that they may be willing, with the agreement of the TPI, to extend the car until your maximum amount of time allowed for reclaim (ie 6 days after settlement received) but they'd be under no obligation to.

Alternatively you can approach the TPI directly yourself and see if they can provide hire for those extra few days, hire a car and add it to your uninsured losses (remembering how long you can claim for) or approach a credit hire company.

vaio

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Not correct, if you belive it is then provide case law.

Credit hire companies certainly wouldnt be taking people out of hire a week after they receive the settlement cheque if they could possibly be allowed to keep them in hire for "months more" as you suggest.

To clarify…

If you are claiming on your own insurance then the T&C of your policy can (and usually do) arbitrarily limit the amount of time you can have a hire car for.

If you are claiming direct off an at fault third party then there is no arbitrary limit on how long you can have a hire car for or indeed any other consequential costs.(to be strictly accurate I think some companies do impose a limit on third party damage claims but it’s in the £millions so of no effect in the vast majority of cases)

You are entitled to be put back as far as is possible to the position you would have been in had the tort not been committed so any reasonable consequential costs like car hire etc will be paid however this doesn’t give you an open cheque book as you have a duty to mitigate the costs as far as is reasonable.

If your car was a 3 year old euro box then a week after receiving the pay out could be considered a reasonable amount of time to source a replacement as 3 year old euro boxes are ten a penny and available from just about every cars R us site. Thus it would be unreasonable to have a hire car for significantly longer than that.

On the other hand if your car was only two months old or specially modified/converted (say disabled or specialist industrial) so getting a replacement involves a waiting list of weeks or even months then you are entitled to all reasonable transport costs incurred whilst awaiting a replacement and if that involves having a hire care for a couple of weeks/months then so be it.

It basically comes down to what a judge will consider reasonable, if you want a hire car so you can wait a few months to find exactly the right spec, colour & price 5 year old mondeo then I’d say it’s likely to be held unreasonable. If you happen to have a C4/C5 SCI and getting a replacement car adapted to your needs is going to take 3 months then I’d say it would be reasonable to provide you with alternative transport in the mean time.

In the OPs case, having a hire car for an extra two weeks whilst awaiting delivery of a replacement car I’d say is certainly reasonable and will be paid

As for case law, pick any tort book, start with the snail in D&S and work your way forward