Car Insurance - Cannot claim off 3rd Party

confusedandbaffled

Hello,

My partner has recently been involved in a freak accident. He was parked up in a supermarket car park. The car next to him caught fire and subsequently set his car alight also. In fact, 3 cars ended up being right offs including my partner's.

Fire engine, police etc were called and all involved got together and exchanged details.
My partner has since spoken to his insurance company who have said that they cannot claim off the third party insurance as there is no liability. So he has to lose his no claims, excess etc:(. We both find this extraordinary, as there is no dispute about whose car caught light first. It is suspected there was a petrol leak as when she started the car, that is when it went up. Luckily no one was injured.

Also, my partner is being told that he can claim for the 2 car seats that were in the car, but nothing else unless he has the receipts. We lost sat nav, bags and clothing and shoes in the car, none of which we have receipts for.

Is there anything we can do ?

Thank you!

Is there anything

InsideInsurance

You can only claim off of someone else if you can prove they were negligent.

confusedandbaffled wrote: »

My partner has recently been involved in a freak accident

It doesnt sound as if the other party did anything wrong and so it is, in your own words, a freak accident in which case each party carries their own losses.


Now, if there has been a product recall about leaking fuel lines on this car and the TP was told about it and never did anything about it then there are possibly 2 entities you could claim off of.

rudekid48

You may be able to make a claim for your personal possessions through your home contents policy. There would be an excess to pay on that as well though so worth checking if the cost of the excess plus increased premiums make it worthwhile...

thenudeone

Exactly the same problem arises if a driver has a heart attack at the wheel and causes an accident. Unless you can demonstrate negligence (eg: they were driving against medical advice, or hadn't taken their medication, etc.), their insurers will not pay for any damage, injury, or death caused to anyone else.

Aretnap

There are accidents which are someone's fault and there are accidents which are pure bad luck. As a rule of thumb where someone else is to blame you can claim from that person (or his insurers), but if you want to be protected against the ones which are pure bad luck you need insurance of your own.

The mere fact that someone's car triggered an accident doesn't make that person blameworthy. Roughly speaking you need to show that a reasonably careful driver would have been expected to do something differently which would have prevented the accident. In the case of someone driving into the back of you that's easy - a careful driver would have paid more attention to where he was going. In the case of a car catching fire it's more difficult - what do you think the bloke whose car caught fire should have done to prevent it?

Unfortunately unless you can answer that you're left with claiming on your own policy - the same as you would be for any other freak accident for which nobody in particular was to blame, such as a storm blowing a tree over onto your car, or a deer running out in front of you on a country road.

Tammer

Hi,
Apologies for jumping in but I was interested in the comments above.

My wife was in a supermarket car park and, when opening the car door on a day of exceptionally strong winds, the wind blew the door into the adjacent car.


Would that count as a freak accident or would she be too blame?

nobbysn*ts

Tammer wrote: »

Hi,
Apologies for jumping in but I was interested in the comments above.

My wife was in a supermarket car park and, when opening the car door on a day of exceptionally strong winds, the wind blew the door into the adjacent car.


Would that count as a freak accident or would she be too blame?

She's to blame. It was a day of exceptionally strong winds, so she should have expected the door to be blown, and taken more care.

InsideInsurance

Tammer wrote: »

Hi,
Apologies for jumping in but I was interested in the comments above.

My wife was in a supermarket car park and, when opening the car door on a day of exceptionally strong winds, the wind blew the door into the adjacent car.


Would that count as a freak accident or would she be too blame?

It really would depend on how much of a "freak" wind it was. It is predictable that you get gusts etc and you should be prepared for such things when opening a door.

That said, if it was truly a freak thing and a one off that day (or at least it was the first) then there is a small chance of defending a claim. Unless it got press coverage (the gust not the accident) etc then it probably wouldnt be worth the effort defending

confusedandbaffled

Thanks All.

It does seem unfair but I understand what you are saying.
I just thought that in a case like this, the car was obviously faulty. The owner had bought it a week ago for £900. She admitted smelling petrol earlier in the day.

To me, the fair thing would be for my partner's insurance company to claim off her insurance company. Then, her insurance company would then claim off where she bought it from. I believe that is where the fault lies.

But hey, life's not fair !:(

vaio

whilst the above comments re negligence are true, the revelation that the other driver smelt petrol and did nothing about it might change things as that could be negligent

Aretnap

IMHO a careful driver whose car smelt of petrol would be expected to get it checked out rather than continuing to drive it and hoping for the best... but it depends on the circumstances to some extent. If he'd only just noticed the smell he might not have had much chance to do anything about it yet. But there's at least an arguable point there - I'd go back to my insurers and raise it with them.