Advice following accident with a drunk driver

InsideInsurance

lovemilk wrote: »

it seems that I do have a credit hire car from the third party insured.

If its credit hire its not "from" the other insurer.

Credit hire works by a company, normally your insurers or your garage, selling your details to a company like Albany, Helphire, Enterprise etc. That company then provides you a car on credit with a view to recovering their outlay from the third party insurer once the claim is complete.

Most insurers have signed up to the scheme so that there are guaranteed rates, the delivery/collection is free etc but the hire car is typically 3-4x the normal hire costs. Some insurers havent signed up to the scheme and these will argue the hardest against the bill when its presented to them.

In the terms of the agreement you signed it will state what happens if for some reason the hire car company cannot get the money back in full from the other side. In most cases, as long as you've been honest, they will write it off and this is part the justification of the high charges. Helphire used to hold you liable for them unless you paid ~£1.50 a day for an insurance against it.

It is possible to get a hire car from the third party insurers when liability/ indemnity isnt an issue but this isnt credit hire

adouglasmhor

Rodney_Trotter wrote: »

Any crime could result in violence, but for crime recording purposes and common sense excess alcohol is not a violent crime.

Which is why I did not say it was a violent crime. I said violence could occur.

lovemilk

InsideInsurance wrote: »

If its credit hire its not "from" the other insurer.

Credit hire works by a company, normally your insurers or your garage, selling your details to a company like Albany, Helphire, Enterprise etc. That company then provides you a car on credit with a view to recovering their outlay from the third party insurer once the claim is complete.

Most insurers have signed up to the scheme so that there are guaranteed rates, the delivery/collection is free etc but the hire car is typically 3-4x the normal hire costs. Some insurers havent signed up to the scheme and these will argue the hardest against the bill when its presented to them.

In the terms of the agreement you signed it will state what happens if for some reason the hire car company cannot get the money back in full from the other side. In most cases, as long as you've been honest, they will write it off and this is part the justification of the high charges. Helphire used to hold you liable for them unless you paid ~£1.50 a day for an insurance against it.

It is possible to get a hire car from the third party insurers when liability/ indemnity isnt an issue but this isnt credit hire

Yes I'm with Enterprise - I was only told to put down a £1 payment with my debit card. I was told I won't pay anything else. It's up for review on the 20th. Do you think it will be extended if the settlement amount is still in dispute? The solicitor is looking at my asking the reimbursement of petrol back. Is this really worth fighting for (nearly £40) or will it just affect my insurance in the future? Thank you.

InsideInsurance

lovemilk wrote: »

Yes I'm with Enterprise - I was only told to put down a £1 payment with my debit card. I was told I won't pay anything else. It's up for review on the 20th. Do you think it will be extended if the settlement amount is still in dispute? The solicitor is looking at my asking the reimbursement of petrol back. Is this really worth fighting for (nearly £40) or will it just affect my insurance in the future? Thank you.

I havent dealt with claims for a good few years and the courts do change their minds over time. In my day disputes over valuations didnt justify an extension of the hire car payable by the at fault party or their insurers. I used to deal with TP/PI claims and so we would refer the person back to their own insurers and tell them to include it as part of their complaint to them.

You claiming or not claiming back the £40 petrol will not impact your insurance at all in the future. You've made a claim and so that will have whatever effect it will have.

lovemilk

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I havent dealt with claims for a good few years and the courts do change their minds over time. In my day disputes over valuations didnt justify an extension of the hire car payable by the at fault party or their insurers. I used to deal with TP/PI claims and so we would refer the person back to their own insurers and tell them to include it as part of their complaint to them.

You claiming or not claiming back the £40 petrol will not impact your insurance at all in the future. You've made a claim and so that will have whatever effect it will have.

Update - the drunk driver also went into my neighbours parked car. She has had to pay for the car from enterprise out of her own pocket when they took it back while her insurance co. try and get it back. She wasn't told this upfront, neither was I. How can this be? Will I have to pay when I give my car back tomorrow? Can I refuse to pay?

Also she has been told by her insurance co, the claim in in dispute. How can this be when the driunk driver was charged and appeared at the crown court last week? Is it because being drunk makes his insurance valid? How long will we be battling to get our excess back etc? Surely it's an open and shut case?

When do you get the motor insurance bureau involved?

Thank you.

Rodney_Trotter

lovemilk wrote: »

Update - the drunk driver also went into my neighbours parked car. She has had to pay for the car from enterprise out of her own pocket when they took it back while her insurance co. try and get it back. She wasn't told this upfront, neither was I. How can this be? Will I have to pay when I give my car back tomorrow? Can I refuse to pay?

Also she has been told by her insurance co, the claim in in dispute. How can this be when the driunk driver was charged and appeared at the crown court last week? Is it because being drunk makes his insurance valid? How long will we be battling to get our excess back etc? Surely it's an open and shut case?

When do you get the motor insurance bureau involved?

Thank you.

Are you sure about that?

Quentin

lovemilk wrote: »

How can this be? Will I have to pay when I give my car back tomorrow? Can I refuse to pay?
.......she has been told by her insurance co, the claim in in dispute. How can this be when the driunk driver was charged and appeared at the crown court last week? Is it because being drunk makes his insurance valid? How long will we be battling to get our excess back etc? Surely it's an open and shut case?

........ How long will we be battling to get our excess back etc?


.............When do you get the motor insurance bureau involved?

As you have a credit hire car there will be provision in the contract for them to make you pay if you haven't been truthful in reporting the circumstances of the incident or why you need the car

If the "claim" is in dispute as you say, (rather than liability), this sounds as if the insurer is not happy that the claimant has told the truth.

But if it is "liability" in dispute, then the criminal charge is a different matter to a civil dispute, and not necessarily conclusive.

You do need liability to be agreed before you can get your excess refunded.

The MIB can be called on if you are dealing with an uninsured or untraced third party. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

Aretnap

Being drunk doesn't invalidate his insurance - certainly not the third party element - so it will have no effect in your right to claim against him. It also doesn't actually mean that he's automatically liable for the accident - liability depends on his bad driving being the cause of the accident so it's the fact that he drove into a parked car rather than the fact that he was drink while he did it which means that liability should be fairly straightforward here.

alleycat`

I'm amazed they got him into court so quickly.
I know when my dad was broadsided by a drunk driver (also 3+) times over the limit, that she didn't go to court for quite some time afterwards.

The insuarnce still paid out but the "courtesy car" aspect was a bit of a farce and seems to be the norm.
The "under valuing" of your vehicle also appears to be the norm.

You'll need to look around various sites (e.g. autotrader) to get examples that are close to your vehicle to get you back to the situation you started from.

I know from the original offer to the payout was a difference of well over £800 and that included the fuel in the vehicle (he had a receipt for filling it up only a few days before).

Rodney_Trotter

alleycat` wrote: »

I'm amazed they got him into court so quickly.
I know when my dad was broadsided by a drunk driver (also 3+) times over the limit, that she didn't go to court for quite some time afterwards.

The insuarnce still paid out but the "courtesy car" aspect was a bit of a farce and seems to be the norm.
The "under valuing" of your vehicle also appears to be the norm.

You'll need to look around various sites (e.g. autotrader) to get examples that are close to your vehicle to get you back to the situation you started from.

I know from the original offer to the payout was a difference of well over £800 and that included the fuel in the vehicle (he had a receipt for filling it up only a few days before).

Only takes a week to 10 days to get to court though I doubt it's crown court. As the police haven't seen him driving there would have been an interview before charge. Wonder if he invented or there was another vehicle he's trying to blame. His insurance may drag things out until conviction.