car accident question

Quentin

CHRISSYG wrote: »

They have written off the car ,[cat c] they are letting me keep it and paying the value of it . We are taking it to a local garage Tuesday to get a complete breakdown of whats required, If it is just the axle we will get it replaced.

The hire car goes back the same day the payment is made [Monday] so through no fault of my own I will be without transport until the car is fixed and vosa have inspected it .

You have chosen not to buy a replacement car. Who's fault is that?


You are getting your cake and eating it - you cannot expect the third party to pay you the value of the car AND pay you for a hire car whilst your repairs are done too!

lazer

As your claiming of the third party - you can actually claim any additional costs incurred by the accident - such as travel, time off work to sort it out etc - but it may not be worth the effort if it is a small amount.


I was claiming off my own insurance and got a courtesy car for 7 days only.


I think you could argue that you need the car for at least 2-3 days after payment as you need to be able to get the money to pay for repairs/car etc

System

Quentin wrote: »

You have chosen not to buy a replacement car. Who's fault is that?


You are getting your cake and eating it - you cannot expect the third party to pay you the value of the car AND pay you for a hire car whilst your repairs are done too!

What I expect is not to be hit by some bimbo who cant read road signs!

I don't expect to be inconvenienced AT ALL .

OnanTheBarbarian

I get your point, but the issue with your case is that the car is deemed not economic to repair by the insurer of the at-fault party. So you get paid for the pre-accident value and the presumption is that you go and buy another car with that money.

Being aware that your car is a write off and that you would need to go and buy another means you could start shopping for one before the money even lands, maybe put a deposit down, meaning once the cleared funds land you go and do the deal and there is no longer a need for the hiring of a replacement.

Your decision to have your car repaired (this is not a criticism) is your own choice and it is most likely that you know the car, can get it repaired for a lesser amount by using your own repairer and maybe pattern parts or 2nd hand parts etc. BUT the decision to repair a write off is a secondary action essentially and the liability for the responsible party and their insurers to continue covering replacement vehicle costs ends when you have cleared funds plus a bit of leeway of a few days.

Quentin

CHRISSYG wrote: »

What I expect is not to be hit by some bimbo who cant read road signs!

I don't expect to be inconvenienced AT ALL .

It doesn't work like that.


Every innocent party is inconvenienced to some extent.


It is your decision not to use your payment to buy a replacement car.


You can't expect the costs of this inconvenience to be paid as well as the write off money you have agreed to accept.

System

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Your decision to have your car repaired (this is not a criticism) is your own choice and it is most likely that you know the car, can get it repaired for a lesser amount by using your own repairer and maybe pattern parts or 2nd hand parts etc. BUT the decision to repair a write off is a secondary action essentially and the liability for the responsible party and their insurers to continue covering replacement vehicle costs ends when you have cleared funds plus a bit of leeway of a few days.

Hastings don't give any leeway, I have been told the money will be in my account Monday between2-5 pm and ive had a call from Enterprise telling me that the car has to be back by 6pm Monday as Hastings have told them to terminate the contract.

OnanTheBarbarian

Hastings are just low rent insurers. Presumably they arranged the hire via Enterprise for you?

A credit hire co would have beasted another 7 days hire out of this so you would have got longer before losing the car.

The perils of dealing with an insurer directly they call all the shots.

System

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Hastings are just low rent insurers. Presumably they arranged the hire via Enterprise for you?

A credit hire co would have beasted another 7 days hire out of this so you would have got longer before losing the car.

The perils of dealing with an insurer directly they call all the shots.

I didn't have a choice but to deal with them they insured both parties.

Aretnap

CHRISSYG wrote: »

I didn't have a choice but to deal with them they insured both parties.

It's a bit late now, but using a credit hire company would still have been an option. Obviously your insurer will be less keen than normal to refer you to one themselves when they also insure the other party, but Google will bring up a list which you can contact directly.

Another option is to hire a car yourself for a few days and to reclaim the cost from Hastings (from their own third party claims department, not via your own claims handler). You might have to be quite assertive to get the money back though.

David_InsDef

Aretnap wrote: »

Another option is to hire a car yourself for a few days and to reclaim the cost from Hastings (from their own third party claims department, not via your own claims handler). You might have to be quite assertive to get the money back though.

I agree.

To the OP, everybody's opinions around how you choose to approach the repair of your own vehicle and what you should and shouldn't expect in terms of recompense are just that - opinions.

What you're entitled to under your insurance policy is entirely different from your entitlements under common law. There's no question that being without your (or a) car is an inconvenience thrust upon you through somebody else's negligence and to a degree, the costs of removing that inconvenience should be borne by and are recoverable from the other driver or their insurance company.

If you put your car into the garage to be repaired and hire a car whilst it is in there - as long as you can demonstrate the hire costs and duration are reasonably incurred (and you've made all other reasonable efforts to mitigate your losses) - then the other side can't realistically argue.

In your situation, I'd ask the garage to check the availability of parts and to provide a likely completion date for the repairs. Then, give this information to Hastings and offer them the option (preferably in writing) of providing you with a car for the duration or you'll go out and hire one yourself and present them with the bill.

The key is remaining 'reasonable' in your requests / expectations and if it came to pursuing it through Small Claims (and there's very little likelihood of that) then it should set you in good stead.