Accident and Insurance Company not doing as they promised.

Terrysdelight

Hello

Wonder if anyone can offer any advice please:

My niece had a car accident yesterday - she believes it is not her fault and the other car went into the side of her.

She is fully comp and when she took out the policy she was told she would have a courtosey car and legal cover included in her premium.

Insurance company are saying her car is a write off and other party is not admitting liability. Insurance co have also said she can't have a courtesy car.

Obviously I need to have a read of the small print for her - she got quite injured and is resting.

Has anyone got experience of this no car scenario?

Many thanks

Quentin

She needs to read the policy to see what the replacement car covers.

A "courtesy car" isn't a "replacement car" which is what she needs as her car is a write off - a courtesy car is provided by a garage whilst your car is in for repairs.

She will be able to use her "legal cover" to recover her uninsured losses, (eg excess, necessary car hire etc), from the third party if they are found liable.

They will be anxious to help her get injury compensation too, (assuming she wasn't at fault), though she may wish to instruct her own PI solicitor. (If she googles cashback injury solicitors she'll find companies prepared to pay a commission (£100s) for getting the case (they normally have to pay a fee to the insurer for referring clients, and are happy to pay you direct and cut out the middleman!)

BertTheRaccoon

As quentin has said, the "courtesy car" element is usually put on by the approved repairer of her insurer. But the garage are not interested in letting her have one of their courtesy cars if they are not going to have a car to repair (because hers is a write off).

Her only other option is a credit hire / accident management firm, but if there is a liability dispute, they won't be too keen on giving her a credit hire vehicle because they may not get all of their hire charges back if the case goes split liability.

forgotmyname

Mines the same. Not wanting to add silly extras i did ask about the courtesy car.

If my car is in the garage being repaired they will supply one. But as in your situation. If its being written off no car will be provided.

I thought if that was the case i would just go and buy another car anyway.

Terrysdelight

Thanks for all replies.

I've had a look at the document and it does say 'guaranteed courtesy car' - then it tells you to refer to section 6 - and guess what ? Niece can't find the booklet.

We think we can safely assume as it is a write off she won't get courtesy car anyway.

We have just found out the other drive had not tax, and the driver was purporting to be the owner of the car, but was in fact someone else. So, not even insured.

There are witnesses so fingers crossed her own insurance company will pay out regardless as she is fully comp.

InsideInsurance

Most of the "guaranteed" courtesy cars are not normal garage provided cars but hire cars. If you look online you should find a PDF version of the policybook to read the terms. Many of these types of cars you do get when your vehicle is a total loss (its part of the guarantee) but they're a maximum 14 days or such irrespective of how long repairs take etc (so swings and round abouts over which is better).

As long as he had a certificate of insurance then the other insurer will still have to pay out even with those indemnity issues (but they can get their money back from him after) but it can take much longer.

You can approach a credit hire company if the courtesy car doesnt get you anywhere but given both liability and indemnity issues most wont be interested