home outer wall damaged by a car

acde220

Hi all,

I live in a fairly busy street and early this morning a car ploughed in to my outside brick wall and damaged a part of my wall and a fairly well maintained garden. The car in question is a complete write-off and the driver has admitted that he swerved to take avoiding action and hit the wall. ( the insurance company might find it hard to believe his version of events when he claims he was driving at the legal speed limit on that road). Luckily being very early there were no kids (house is right next to a school) or people on the footpath or kids playing in my garden and thanks to good motor car building these days, the driver walked out unscathed.

The police have told me to claim for damages by calling my home insurance who will in turn call the motor insurance company and claim for damages etc. other friends are advising me to call his motor insurance company directly and deal with it.

Which is the fastest way of claiming damages?
How long does it normally take to settle these claims or getting this fixed through insurance?

Is calling my home insurance company preferred over calling the car insurance directly?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

InsideInsurance

For non-injury claims most would recommend claiming directly against the third party's insurer assuming they report it to them in a timely manor and liability isnt an issue.

Most insurers do multiple lines of business and so can deal with "Home" damage within the Motor claims team but a few dont write other classes or just arent set up for these cross line type claims and so may not be as helpful as they'd be if it was your car they'd driven into.

I assume by "outer wall" you mean just a garden wall rather than a structural wall thats part of your building?

Quentin

The advantage in claiming directly off the driver's insurance is you won't have to pay and then reclaim your excess.


As the car involved is a write off, you must assume the driver will be claiming (unless he only has third party cover) and so no point trying to keep this away from insurance by seeing if he wants to pay for your wall.


If you decide to go direct to the third party you still need to tell your insurer about the incident. Explain you don't want to claim and are reporting for information only.

bryanb

Quentin wrote: »

If you decide to go direct to the third party you still need to tell your insurer about the incident. Explain you don't want to claim and are reporting for information only.

Does this really apply to buildings insurance?

InsideInsurance

bryanb wrote: »

Does this really apply to buildings insurance?

Increasingly but not universally.

acde220

Thanks for the replies.
Yes, I do mean the brick wall surrounding the house and not the structural wall that is the walls of the house.
It is an old property and has a solid (roughly 1ft) thick brick wall surrounding the front and sides of the property which the car was smashed against.