Paying car insurance excess when not your fault, and fault admitted by other person?

mjrs85

Hi All,

After a bit of advice....

To summarise the incident, I damaged a friend's car by reversing into it in our work car park, completely my fault, I can't contest otherwise, nothing more to it than that.

We've both reported to our insurers, my friend to make a claim for the damage to his car, and myself just to report the incident and give my insurer a heads up that a claim will be made against me (very minimal damage to my car which I would just get sorted myself at a later date if I feel the need)

Now my understanding, under normal circumstances, would be that my friend either wouldn't have to pay his excess, or would eventually get it reimbursed, as I'm accepting it's completely my fault, so surely my policy will have to cover the cost of repairs / hire car / etc. Am I right in thinking this?

The problem we seem to be having is that we're both with the same insurer (Hastings if that matters). Nothing is set in stone yet, but they're being a bit cagey with my friend over whether he's having to pay his excess or not at the moment (which being the decent human being I am, I will be covering!). I can only assume this is because whatever outcome is decided, not that there's a contest on this, it's still Hastings that will have to pay for repairs or the write off, so they're hoping to recover some of their money?

Now I totally acknowledge that when we enter into a contract of car insurance, we agree a certain amount to pay in excess for any repairs, and we're only let off this if our insurer manages to recover the full costs from elsewhere. But even though we're both with the same insurer, do they not have a legal obligation to treat the claim in the same way as if it were 2 different insurers? We are 2 different policies after all!

As I said, nothing is set in stone with this yet....just neither of us like how cagey they're being considering how straight forward our situation is, and I'm wondering if anyone can offer advice??

Thanks in advance :-)

Matt

DUTR

Unless I missed it, has the 3rd party been asked to pay an excess?

forgotmyname

If he claims through his policy then yes he pays the excess which he then claims back.

He needs to claim from your policy. Which is probably being clouded by you both being with the same insurer.

mjrs85

As I said above, they're being cagey over whether he has to or not. They did initially mention he would, which he questioned seeing as not his fault, and I've admitted fault. Since then they haven't really given a straight answer, just "that'll be decided by the total loss team", who I believe he's speaking to tomorrow. Sounds like a bit of a fob off.

DUTR

mjrs85 wrote: »

As I said above, they're being cagey over whether he has to or not. They did initially mention he would, which he questioned seeing as not his fault, and I've admitted fault. Since then they haven't really given a straight answer, just "that'll be decided by the total loss team", who I believe he's speaking to tomorrow. Sounds like a bit of a fob off.

They maybe doing some checks to fathom if possible fraud is being commited, I don't think it matters that the underwriters are the same, but more that the two party's know each other. Insurers factor in unrecoverable losses on their profit forecasts.

Aretnap

His excess is the part of his policy which isn't covered by his insurance policy. His fault, your fault, nobody's fault in particular - he has to pay it unless his insurers decide to waive it as a gesture of goodwill.

If the accident is your fault then what he can do is subsequently reclaim the excess from you - or in practice your insurers. You don't have to put your own hand in your pocket for it - it will (ultimately) be covered by your policy. If you want to lend him the money until he reclaims it from your insurers, that's up to you.

Obviously when you're both insured by the same company the terms "your insurers" and "his insurers" get a bit wooly, but in practice it should work the same way - you will have two different claims handlers, one dealing with you and the other dealing with him.

Added - alternatively he can bypass his own policy and deal with "your insurers" as a third party - either directly or by using an accident management company. That way there'll be no excess to pay. Normally in a clear no fault claim Hastings would have referred him to an accident management company themselves, but they won't do that if they also insure the at fault driver, and they don't want an accident management company encouraging him to run up an expensive bill for a hire car, which ultimately they'll end up paying for. There's nothing to stop him finding an accident management company off his own back though.

dacouch

You don't need to reimberse him his excess, your policy will cover this along with any other of his uninsured losses.

Realistically have to wait between about 2 weeks and 2 months, depending on how insistent he chases it.

If he cannot afford to be without it for a few months perhaps you could loan it to him until your policy pays out to him.

Hintza

Why he put the claim through his insurers is what has gone wrong. If you have no fault claim the easiest way to deal with it is through the offending party's insurer. Because he hasn't done that then as others have said his insurer will want the excess paid until the claim is finalised.

DUTR

Hintza wrote: »

Why he put the claim through his insurers is what has gone wrong. If you have no fault claim the easiest way to deal with it is through the offending party's insurer. Because he hasn't done that then as others have said his insurer will want the excess paid until the claim is finalised.

That is correct , the excess is for the insurance company to administer the claim, legal cover can recover the unisured losses.