Help please, car written off by drugged driver, no admission of liability

cbtj

Hi

Some advice would be really appreciated. Our legally parked car was hit by a drugged driver who was arrested on the scene. We have a crime reference number, an independent witness's details. We did not see the accident as we were at work and the car was towed away.
Our car was 13months old and just been told it's a write off. It happened 16 days ago. We have had a hire car for 6 days as our insurance took a week to even collect the vehicle from the accident place it was towed to. They have collected the hire car back today so we now have no car. They won't provide us with one as they have been unable to get admission of liability from the driver's insurance company, we have to pay the excess, the settlement is reasonable, offered yesterday and told a cheque would be sent out after they recieve in writing that we are accepting it, but won't buy us a car that is like for like. We have lost a service pack worth £300 that they say we maybe able to claim back as an uninsured loss if they get liability. We are relying on lifts to work and have no car until we can buy one with the money we are yet to receive. I feel like we are fighting with our insurance company, which surely they are on our side? We have legal expenses cover etc but they say they can't help until liability is admitted.
Is there anything we can do to get a hire car, and we are going to be so out of pocket. Thanks

InsideInsurance

The people appointed under your legal expenses policy should be trying to assist you in most of these things (assuming they feel there is a reasonable prospect of success - namely in this case that the TP has insurance)

Credit hire is the normal route in non-fault accidents but if liability is disputed or theres indemnity queries with the TP's insurance then they may not be willing to risk giving you a vehicle on credit - though of cause you could approach one and ask anyway. That said, you only get to keep it for a relatively short period after the cheque is received and so you will certainly need to start looking for a replacement vehicle now.

The people acting for you will assist but obviously if you need to catch taxis or buses etc then keep receipts. If you are generally just walking, not making journeys or relying on goodwill of others then you can claim for Loss of Use instead (in my day it was £10/ day but it may have gone up since then) from the Third Party

chloo

do you have gap insurance? you may have got it when you bought your car.