Non fault accident - uninsured losses

vaio

InsideInsurance wrote: »

As it is clearly a small track court case if you employed a solicitor they wouldnt be able to claim the costs back from the other side as legal fees are excluded from small claims court other than in exceptional circumstances. So no they wouldnt be acting for free but you as the claimant would have to pay for them. This will also be why the LE provider isnt too interested in the case as the will most likely be doing it free of charge! That said, if they arent doing their job complain to the insurance company as the fact the job is done for free is of no relevance to your contract of insurance and they have an obligation to fullfil their obligations.

You are legally required to mitigate your claim as far as possible and so if you have the choice of turning down a £600 job to make a 30 minute call or making that call during your lunch break at no loss of earnings you would have to have a damned argument to show you did mitigate your losses other than by saying you like to sit down for a sandwich at lunch to claim back the £600.

Yep, if the OP employed a solicitor then they wouldn’t be able to claim small claim court costs (limited to £80?) but that’s not what I was meaning.

I mean if the OP employed a solicitor/claims handling firm to deal with the claim then all phone call, letters collection & delivery etc etc needed to get the car repaired would be covered as part of the claim.

Similarly, if the other side don’t pay on the basis of the letter from the OP then any accountancy fees etc needed to produce the required evidence to convince them (or a court) would also be recoverable.

OP……… If push comes to shove you can represent yourself in a small claim, the insurance company won’t, they’ll send a solicitor so pragmatically, as long as your claim looks reasonable and isn’t for a huge amount than the other side will just pay (or make a good offer) rather than spending unrecoverable time & money on trying to defend it.

Sadly, often this decision to pay only gets made when the choice is “pay” or “court”, in the early stages where the choice is “pay” or “turn down and hope the punter gives up” then the turn down option is more likely.

lisyloo

To those who say you should be doing this in your lunchtime/evening for free I disagree

I can sympathise with that point of view but to try to claim every phone call meant missing out on a big contract would stretch credulity to the point where it casts doubt over the whole claim.
I would have thought it be in most people's professional interests to mitigate the interference to their business and that applies whether they are employed or self-employed.
As a few examples I would try to call a broker rather than travel or use email or the internet, use inclusive minutes, use saynoto0870 to avoid expensive calls and get the hire car delivered or collect it at a convenient time.
There is nothing wrong with claiming genuine losses, but it's professionally illogical not to mitigate them and when they stretch credulity it's casts doubt.

vaio

it's legally and logically required to mitigate but that's a different argument, you're now talking about credulity, I'm talking about principles.

danncus

The whole concept is bad.
Someone smashed my property. It is then up to me to take time to investigate, organise and execute the repairs (which are NEVER as good as before) This was at a time when there was snow and the phone calls to my insurance company were involving 45mins to an hour waiting. Driving round garages to get quotes. And I am expected to to do all this for free ?
I did not ask for this to happen.
Yet the so called solicitor and courtesy car hire can charge the earth?
The car that did this was a £33,000 new mpv on motorbility which i guess we all have paid for!

If there was a standard "inconvenience charge" of say, £300, maybe people might not claim for whiplash at every opportunity?

mikey72

danncus wrote: »

The whole concept is bad.
Someone smashed my property. It is then up to me to take time to investigate, organise and execute the repairs (which are NEVER as good as before) This was at a time when there was snow and the phone calls to my insurance company were involving 45mins to an hour waiting. Driving round garages to get quotes. And I am expected to to do all this for free ?
I did not ask for this to happen.
Yet the so called solicitor and courtesy car hire can charge the earth?
The car that did this was a £33,000 new mpv on motorbility which i guess we all have paid for!

If there was a standard "inconvenience charge" of say, £300, maybe people might not claim for whiplash at every opportunity?

Now it's a shame you weren't in the van!

lisyloo

it's legally and logically required to mitigate but that's a different argument, you're now talking about credulity, I'm talking about principles.

Could you please inform me of the principle for claiming for your "spare" time when you have not experienced an actual loss for future reference?
Cheers

lisyloo

It is then up to me to take time to investigate, organise and execute the repairs
Driving round garages to get quotes.

You don't normally have to get quotes when you go through insurance, even if you claim off a 3rd party.
You normally just take it to the garage (or get it recovered) and pick up the courtesy car at the same time.

danncus

lisyloo,

I understand what you are saying. but, you must agree, there are other losses apart from financial losses. I do not have any "spare" time. Time is a resource, like money. If I choose to spend it with my children that is up to me. If I choose to spend my time reading a book, that again is my choice. If someone's actions necessitate me to do something else and not what i would otherwise be doing, then I should be compensated. how much is a reasonable question...

I understand now this is not how it works. if you buy a washing machine which subsequently breaks down , would you be happy to waste a days annual leave waiting for an engineer?

danncus

The last time i had my car repaired by my insurance company, the paintwork started to flake after 18 months and my sunglasses were stolen.

lisyloo

but, you must agree, there are other losses apart from financial losses.

Yes pain, injury, inconvenice, time, stress, not having your vehicle repaired properly etc. etc.

how much is a reasonable question...

Yes and this is what I am trying to ascertain in post #17.
So for example if I earn say £20 per hour for 38 hours and £0 for the other £130, then what is it fair to charge?
You appear to want all the time you have spent at your highest earning rate. I'm not sure it's fair to charge £0 or £20.
Maybe £20 * 38/168 = £4.52 would be a fairer representation of the financial value of my time.

would you be happy to waste a days annual leave waiting for an engineer?

No I wouldn't. I would either
a) Get them to come at a convenient time - possibly an evening. They could look at it whilst I'm cooking/washing up, so taking up no extra time.
b) work from home
c) Get them to come at the best time possible and negotiate with my employer to make up the time.
d) Get a neighbour to give them a key
e) Ask a retired family member to wait in instead.

Similarly I would phone or email a broker rather than travelling to one. I would try to make phone calls in my tea/coffee breaks (I don't believe you don't drink/eat at all during working hours). I would also be willing to hang on the phone for 45 mins whilst working on a computer. I would also be wiling to wait on the phone whilst cooking/washing up/watching TV/being on the treadmill/ or the computer.
I would try to get a van/hire company that could deliver or one I could travel to outside of core business hours and would try to co-ordinate it with dropping off the vehicle for repairs - as an example the last time we had a claim the hire company brought the hire car to the repair garage so we could pick it up when we dropped off the car for repairs.

I do sympathise with the situation you've found yourself in and the inconvenience you've had to put up with but I would certainly find better ways of dealing with it than expecting to be paid top whack whilst I twiddle my thumbs in a phone queue.