No fault accident – Can I claim direct from third party's insurance company?

Sand_castle

To cut a long story short my parked car was hit by anotherdriver and substantial damage was done to my car, police attended, it was the other drivers fault.

I have been in contact with my insurance company who want me to go with their approved repairer who has a very poor reputation in this area. Another repairer has been recommended to me but my insurance company say that they would take over a month to even look at any quote from my preferred repairer and even then may not approve the work to be done. They are really giving me no option other than to go with their repairer.

As at the end of yesterday my insurance company ‘s preferred repairer has not been in contact to collect my car for repair and my car remains in my drive.

It has been suggested to me that I could contact the 3rd party's insurer directly and as liability has been admitted by them, ask if they would be willing to deal directly with me and my preferred repairer and simply sort things out with them rather than my own insurers.

Is this allowed?

Am I already obliged to go with my insurers approved repairers who they say have already been contacted although this garage has yet to contact me?

magpiecottage

Do bear in mind that if your insurer arranges the repair then the repairer acts as their agent. If the work is substandard then you can complain to your insurer rather than the garage.

If necessary, you can take the insurer to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You will have no such protection if you choose the repairer or you use a garage selected by the other insurer.

Quentin

You have the right to have the repairs done at your choice of garage. Your insurer is making things difficult for their own advantage.

You can approach the third party insurer direct.

Cancel your claim with your insurance company. You can always go back if you have a problem.


Then contact the other side and ask if they have an innocent third party claims department.

If so they will look after you. Tell them where you want to take your car in and they will liase with the garage. And they will sort a replacement car when you need it.

Other advantages include no excess to pay and have to reclaim and no temporary loss of ncd.

If they don't want to deal directly with you then consider using a claim handler.

Sand_castle

Thanks for the replies, I am beginning to see that my insurance company is trying to make as much money out of the situtation as possible without any interest in what I want whatsoever. I am finding this really stressfull especially as I was not at fault and not even in my car at the time. The whole situation is leaving a sour taste

ILW

Quentin wrote: »

You have the right to have the repairs done at your choice of garage. Your insurer is making things difficult for their own advantage.

You can approach the third party insurer direct.

Cancel your claim with your insurance company. You can always go back if you have a problem.


Then contact the other side and ask if they have an innocent third party claims department.

If so they will look after you. Tell them where you want to take your car in and they will liase with the garage. And they will sort a replacement car when you need it.

Other advantages include no excess to pay and have to reclaim and no temporary loss of ncd.

If they don't want to deal directly with you then consider using a claim handler.

Where is that stated?

InsideInsurance

Sand_castle wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I am beginning to see that my insurance company is trying to make as much money out of the situtation as possible without any interest in what I want whatsoever. I am finding this really stressfull especially as I was at no fault whatsoever. The whole situation is leaving a sour taste

Most insurers will not "make money" from vehicle damage and so it is a case of limiting the cost rather than anything else (personal injury and credit hire is another matter but they are totally independent of where vehicle repairs are done).

In most cases you can chose your own garage however they wont have pre-agreed rates nor delegated authority/ routine visits etc which can make the process much smoother for most customers rather than needing to get a quote, await an engineer visit to be scheduled etc etc.

As has been pointed out, if you use your own insurer and their approved repairer you will certainly get protection of the Financial Ombudsman Service and may well get an extended warranty on the repairs (subject to the T&Cs of your policy). Going to your own garage reduces the FOS protection you have and going via the TPI totally removes FOS protection (even if you use their approved repairers)

In most cases it is easiest to deal directly with the TPI and loss of FOS protection isnt an issue but you should be aware of the limitation before making your decision of which route to take

Quentin

magpiecottage wrote: »

......If necessary, you can take the insurer to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You will have no such protection if you choose the repairer or you use a garage selected by the other insurer.

Though true, this is a bit of a red herring.

The advantages of not using your own policy to claim off when you have a liable third party to claim from outweigh this.

And all the other non insurance work carried out by bodyshops is done without the benefit of the FOS to turn to in the event of a problem! (and there are other agencies to turn to should a problem arise - eg trading standards)

Using the third party has big advantages:

1) No excess to pay

2) No (temporary) loss of NCD, which can impact if your renewal comes due before the insurer has been fully reimbursed.