car insurance claim

shellie_eeyore

Hi there and thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me.
My husband and my daughter were involved in a RTA on Christmas Eve on the A1, the car in front of my husband (young driver only been driving 3 months) braked and braked harder than planned (emergency stop to be precise) my husband broke but was not able to stop in time and drove into the back of him, his car was badly damaged ( expected to be written off) the car he hit was not much evidence of damage. he did the right thing called police, off duty paramedic attended (just happen to be in traffic behind him) he called green flag and he spoke to emergency insurance claims, car was taken to a secure pound by them and my husband and daughter were left at a service station (i had to travel the 70 miles to fetch them)
so we spoke to the insurance company covea on boxing day, they told us they needed to recover the vehicle and would take 48 hours to decide if written off (but the initial reports from where it was is that it was definitely going to be unrepairable) in view of this and in view of the fact it was an own fault claim we could not have a hire car. they said after the decision is made it would take up to 10 working days to issue the money (car was financed so would go to them). My husband works 35 miles from home so has had to take annual leave since as we do not have a spare car to use. we have spoken to covea last Friday who then said, the car hadnt been seen by them yet so not written off but initial indications and reports said it will be and that we still had the ten working days to wait (taking us till 9th Jan with Christmas / new year weekends etc) so we still have no car (finance company will refinance as soon as received payment) so we are in limbo. we have lost all the call out pay my husband would have got for new year working, we are still none the wiser about what is happening with the car,
I am just about to call them (again) so wanted advice on
1, if they offer us a silly amount what can I do, we need enough to pay off the previous finance. I have priced up an equivalent car on line and it is between 4,000 - 5,500 we owe 3,800.
2, if they delay things can we claim for loss of earnings ?
3, is there any way they should be giving us a hire car until this is sorted ?
any advice on how I fight my corner would be great.

notanewuser

1. You need to be able to prove what the car was worth. If you can find adverts for identical models for sale, that's great, but those are asking prices and the prices paid will probably be lower. Your excess will be deducted from the settlement along with any outstanding premiums too.
2. No, you can't ordinarily claim loss of earnings. Can't you get a cheap hire car sorted yourselves so that he can work?
3. If your car had been moved to a garage then the garage may be obliged to provide a (basic) courtesy car. But only up to the point that the car was written off (potentially within an hour of being there if the damage is so bad.

Couldn't you have been looking for a new car over the past 2 weeks? Odds are no cash is going to head your way.

notanewuser

shellie_eeyore wrote: »

Hi there and thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me.
My husband and my daughter were involved in a RTA on Christmas Eve on the A1, the car in front of my husband (young driver only been driving 3 months) braked and braked harder than planned (emergency stop to be precise) my husband broke but was not able to stop in time and drove into the back of him, his car was badly damaged ( expected to be written off) the car he hit was not much evidence of damage. he did the right thing called police, off duty paramedic attended (just happen to be in traffic behind him) he called green flag and he spoke to emergency insurance claims, car was taken to a secure pound by them and my husband and daughter were left at a service station (i had to travel the 70 miles to fetch them)
so we spoke to the insurance company covea on boxing day, they told us they needed to recover the vehicle and would take 48 hours to decide if written off (but the initial reports from where it was is that it was definitely going to be unrepairable) in view of this and in view of the fact it was an own fault claim we could not have a hire car. they said after the decision is made it would take up to 10 working days to issue the money (car was financed so would go to them). My husband works 35 miles from home so has had to take annual leave since as we do not have a spare car to use. we have spoken to covea last Friday who then said, the car hadnt been seen by them yet so not written off but initial indications and reports said it will be and that we still had the ten working days to wait (taking us till 9th Jan with Christmas / new year weekends etc) so we still have no car (finance company will refinance as soon as received payment) so we are in limbo. we have lost all the call out pay my husband would have got for new year working, we are still none the wiser about what is happening with the car,
I am just about to call them (again) so wanted advice on
1, if they offer us a silly amount what can I do, we need enough to pay off the previous finance. I have priced up an equivalent car on line and it is between 4,000 - 5,500 we owe 3,800.
2, if they delay things can we claim for loss of earnings ?
3, is there any way they should be giving us a hire car until this is sorted ?
any advice on how I fight my corner would be great.

Posterity post.

Aretnap

As your husband drove into the back of the car in front it will almost certainly go down as his fault, notwithstanding that the guy in front braked a bit too enthusiastically, so he won't be able to claim for loss of earnings, hire car etc from the other guy's insurers. What he can claim for therefore boils down entirely to the terms of his own policy.

Most policies don't guarantee you a hire car - there may be one provided by the garage while the car's being fixed as part of its normal customer service, but if the car is a write off then it's not being fixed and that doesn't apply. If you need a hire car in those circumstances you have to buy an add-on for your insurance called "guaranteed hire car" or something similar. It's a bit late now, but if he needs his car for work it's worth considering taking this out in future. As above, if things drag on I'd suggest looking for a cheap hire car yourselves in the meantime, if it's that or him not working.

His insurance policy won't generally cover loss of earnings.

As for the valuation he can expect - see here http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

InsideInsurance

shellie_eeyore wrote: »

1, if they offer us a silly amount what can I do, we need enough to pay off the previous finance. I have priced up an equivalent car on line and it is between 4,000 - 5,500 we owe 3,800.
2, if they delay things can we claim for loss of earnings ?
3, is there any way they should be giving us a hire car until this is sorted ?
any advice on how I fight my corner would be great.

1) Read http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html on vehicle valuations

2) In the normal terms of a claim LoE is an uninsured loss and so cannot be claimed from your own policy. Obviously if your insurers take months to inspect the vehicle etc then you have grounds for a complaint and some compensation may be due for the delay but nothing so far has suggested any unreasonable delays. You will have to factor in time of year, bank holidays etc

3) Not unless you paid for an upgrade to a "guaranteed" or "enhanced" courtesy car which will give you a replacement vehicle irrespective of fault and if the vehicle is repairable or not. The downside of this optional extra is unlike a traditional courtesy car its for a maximum period of 14 or 21 days and so if the car is repairable but parts are out of stock or extra damage is found etc then it may have to go back before the repairs are complete

cajef

You say you had to travel 70 miles to fetch him, does that mean you have another car and if so why can't he use that for work?

shellie_eeyore

okay we don't have the funds for a hire car due to Christmas / new year and the long gap between pay dates, yes i have a car i am a community midwife so he is unable to use mine as i work full time and do on call as well. We have found another car but have to wait for the insurance to pay the finance company before they will refinance the new car, which the garage is holding till Friday for us.
I totally understand that it was his fault and am not disputing this i was mainly after advice on what i say if they come back with a figure that is less that what i think the car is valued for, or for any advice on how i can speed up the service.
Thank you for the link i am reading that now.