Small non-fault accident - I'm disabled, I'm struggling, please help

snowathlete

I was parked in McDonald's last night when suddenly hit by a van in the drivers door. I couldn't get out and there was no-one in the van. Basically, the guy either left his handbrake off or it failed, and rolled down the slope into my car. I took a photo on my ipod while it was still stopped against my door, from inside the car.
He came out and moved it and was a bit puzzled, but agreed it had to be his fauly. Said it was an MOD van and he would need to report it to them which he has done and we have his details etc.

The damage is not massive. Basically a few non major dents and marks on the door and perhaps surrounding area. Ideally it can be fixed locally probably in one or two days, while I borrow a courtsey car or hire car. It's probably £500 of repair work, but I guess if they hear the word 'insurance' it would require a new door and so on and the price would suddenly go up.

I'm dependant on my car and don't want to be without it for long. The 'authorised' garage the insurance company (Aviva) have on their site is miles away and my experience with these 'authorised' garages is that they do poor work and take an age. But there is a £200 excess for using a non authorised garage. My voluntary excess on the policy is also £350.

I don't have motor legal cover through my policy. I did sign up to freemotorlegal but my guess is that they wont be terribly interested as its such a small claim.

In summary, I think they will admit fault, don't expect a problem there. I just want it fixed local and quick, and will need a car while its being done as I am disabled and can't walk far. I don't want to be out of pocket because I'm on the breadline.

What's the best thing to do?
Should I just report to Aviva? Will they let me get the work done locally? What about a temp car? And excesses? It should all be recoverable through the MOD's insurance company in theory, right?

molerat

One problem is that this is not a clear cut "other driver at fault" situation, he may or may not have left the hand brake off so could be arguably a mechanical fault that they could not forsee. I believe the MOD self insure so they will not be using an insurance company but either an internal department or an accident management contractor. Have you spoken to anyone from their side yet, did you get any contact details, were you given an F/MT3 slip ?

You need to report the accident to your insurer in any case, at this stage for information only.

Unless your car is an expensive niche marque and quite new any repairs will usually be carried out by a standard body shop, the run of the mill dealerships do not do their own repairs any more but contract it out to the few specialists. Many of them will collect your car and deliver a courtesy car at the same time.

snowathlete

molerat wrote: »

One problem is that this is not a clear cut "other driver at fault" situation, he may or may not have left the hand brake off so could be arguably a mechanical fault that they could not forsee. I believe the MOD self insure so they will not be using an insurance company but either an internal department or an accident management contractor. Have you spoken to anyone from their side yet, did you get any contact details, were you given an F/MT3 slip ?

You need to report the accident to your insurer in any case, at this stage for information only.

Unless your car is an expensive niche marque and quite new any repairs will usually be carried out by a standard body shop, the run of the mill dealerships do not do their own repairs any more but contract it out to the few specialists. Many of them will collect your car and deliver a courtesy car at the same time.

Thanks for the reply and advice.
My car is a 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe. In my non-professional view, it doesn't need any special treatment, just for the dents to be pulled out, some sanding and paint. Standard body shop repair as you say, and there are a couple locally.

The MOD base is local, same small town. Many of my neighbours work there. I think you're right about them being self-insured and they use a claims management company to handle stuff, these guys apparently:
http://www.gallagherbassett.co.uk/

Not given a F/MT3. Don't know what one is?

I hope they don't try to wriggle out of it. Surely they'd have to prove that it was unavoidable, and not driver neglegence or insufficient maintainence? Whatever happened their van rolled into mine while i was stationary, parked up. I really hope they don't do something like that, but I see what you're saying they could try to say.
It was bloody lucky though because my wife had just put our 3 year old daughter in the seat behind me, walked round the car and got in her side, then it happened within a second or two. If they were ten seconds later leaving McDonald's then they could have been crushed between the two vehicles. Whatever happens with this business now, I thank God that they weren't hit. This all sucks, it was my birthday yesterday too, and we were only out because my daughter was sick and had to go to see an out of hours doctor.

magpiecottage

snowathlete wrote: »

my experience with these 'authorised' garages is that they do poor work and take an age.

Generally speaking, if your insurer arranges for the work to be done then if the work is faulty they are responsible - and you can take them to the Financial Ombudsman Service over it if necessary.

If you get it done yourself and it is unsatisfactory your insurer will not be interested.

InsideInsurance

snowathlete wrote: »

I hope they don't try to wriggle out of it. Surely they'd have to prove that it was unavoidable, and not driver neglegence or insufficient maintainence? Whatever happened their van rolled into mine while i was stationary, parked up. I really hope they don't do something like that, but I see what you're saying they could try to say.

You have to prove what they did wrong and they'd have to provide contrary evidence that it wasnt their fault and then the judge decides which is more likely to have happened.

You say you took photos, does the handbrake appear to be on or not?

snowathlete

magpiecottage wrote: »

Generally speaking, if your insurer arranges for the work to be done then if the work is faulty they are responsible - and you can take them to the Financial Ombudsman Service over it if necessary.

If you get it done yourself and it is unsatisfactory your insurer will not be interested.

That's true technically, but I've been there before and what actually happens is that the place that has your car doesn't see you as the customer, the customer is the insurance company and this has serious drawbacks. For instance, I once had a crash and took it to the authorized garage. It was a moderate amount of damage to the bodywork on a very new car. Several MONTHS later I still didnt have my car back. Every week I was being told it's almost done. It was so bad in the end that I thought they must have lost track of where the car was or crushed it by accident or something. It was insane. This was with DirectLine by the way. Who I now avoid like the plague.
Finally my car came back and there was shody work all over the place. Basic things like serious overspray onto the windscreen and stuff, panels not securely fitted. It wouldnt have passed an MOT on one or two bits. It then took months to get the work done up to standard because the insurer didnt care. In the end I had to get independant reports done on the state of the car, had to get my MP involved and the ombudsman. Eventually, Direct Line were forced to pay someone to fix it and it got sorted but it still was never as good as it should have been and was sooooo much hastle and stress. If you have it done somewhere local where their reputation in your community matters, and you know they do good work then chances are it will be right first time and if not, they are more likely to sort it in my view.

Anyway, to update about this specific situation: we phoned our insurance company, Aviva, and informed them about the accident. They said they'd speak with the MODs claim management company on Monday and try and get stuff agreed about the claim settlement before we go ahead and make a definate claim, so that we shouldnt end up out of pocket. So we'll see but hopefully that won't be too much of an issue, and then hopefully we can get the ok to get it sorted locally. I'll try and remember to post back here what happened in case anyone else finds themselves in a similar situation.