Claim for replacement car from other insurer

Throbbe

Hello all

Unfortunately I was rear ended on the way to work this morning. Traffic stopped on a trunk road, the driver behind me had the sun in his eyes and didn't brake until far too late. Annoying, but worse things happen at sea!

I don't have courtesy car cover on my policy as we have a second family car and historically my wife commuted to London by train. Unfortunately she has changed jobs, so now needs her car in the day.

I'm aware of the dangers of credit hire, and also my obligation to limit my losses. If I were to arrange my own hire car and seek to claim this would it generally be accepted as reasonable, and if so what is usually considered a reasonable period of time to have the car?

I could probably arrange lifts to work, or cycle it some days (210 miles a week, and I'm not fit enough to do every day!) so if there is a risk of being out of pocket I'd just as soon suck it up and make alternative arrangements.

Thanks in advance.

Retrogamer

When i claimed directly from the other insurer when they admitted liability in my accident, they arranged a suitable hire car for me.
Might be worth contacting them yourself to see if you can settle the claim with them directly and request a hire car.

Yellabowley

A friend at work went through a firm of local solicitors. They arranged a like-for-like hire car. He was given a 3 litre Merc convertible. This ended up costing an absolute fortune (more than his car cost to repair). At the end of the day it was the solicitors who arranged it and they are currently fighting it out with the insurance company, who refused to pay stating that the amount was excessive.


It's obviously of no concern to my friend. He had a fantastic sports car for a month.


Moral of the tale is that if you arrange it yourself and hope to claim it back the insurance company might try and get out of paying it which leaves you in an awful position. If you are going to do it I would get the insurance company to either agree in writing a price per day that they will allow you to spend or simply get them to supply you with a car.

Marktheshark

Yellabowley wrote: »

A friend at work went through a firm of local solicitors. They arranged a like-for-like hire car. He was given a 3 litre Merc convertible. This ended up costing an absolute fortune (more than his car cost to repair). At the end of the day it was the solicitors who arranged it and they are currently fighting it out with the insurance company, who refused to pay stating that the amount was excessive.


It's obviously of no concern to my friend. He had a fantastic sports car for a month.


Moral of the tale is that if you arrange it yourself and hope to claim it back the insurance company might try and get out of paying it which leaves you in an awful position. If you are going to do it I would get the insurance company to either agree in writing a price per day that they will allow you to spend or simply get them to supply you with a car.

I would tell your friend to read what he signed, there may be trouble ahead.

Throbbe

Retrogamer wrote: »

When i claimed directly from the other insurer when they admitted liability in my accident, they arranged a suitable hire car for me.
Might be worth contacting them yourself to see if you can settle the claim with them directly and request a hire car.

Presumably then I would have no liability for excessive charges on the car hire because the other parties insurer has already agreed the costs by putting me in touch with them?

Retrogamer

Throbbe wrote: »

Presumably then I would have no liability for excessive charges on the car hire because the other parties insurer has already agreed the costs by putting me in touch with them?

Unfortunately not. I still had to have a £1 charge put on my debit card before i was handed the keys in case it became damaged whilst i was using it.
I never damaged it and my £1 was refunded and got no other charges. Car was a good like for like as well.

Retrogamer

Unless you mean actual hire car charges?

For them, then yeah. They put me in touch with them after they confirmed they were liable and they absorbed all the hire costs with no problems.

InsideInsurance

Yellabowley wrote: »

A friend at work went through a firm of local solicitors. They arranged a like-for-like hire car. He was given a 3 litre Merc convertible. This ended up costing an absolute fortune (more than his car cost to repair). At the end of the day it was the solicitors who arranged it and they are currently fighting it out with the insurance company, who refused to pay stating that the amount was excessive.

Or reword it, they sold his details to a credit hire company which the OP advises they want to avoid.


Assuming the TP has reported the incident and liability isnt an issue then the TP Insurer (TPI) is likely to be willing to provide you a hire car directly and avoid you going either the credit hire route or paying it out yourself and reclaiming it.

If liability is an issue or the TP hasnt reported the claim etc then you would be entitled to hire a car yourself and claim it back from the TPI as an uninsured loss. You would need to demonstrate you did what you reasonably could to minimise the cost and that the hire period is proportionate to the time the vehicle was undrivable/ in for repairs. This may mean not leaving it in the garage waiting for parts etc.

The only times when you get unstuck with this is either if liability/ indemnity dont go the way that you expected or where hire costs are ridiculous in proportion to the vehicle's value. EG you have a £1,000 car but spend £15,000 of your own money on a hire car whilst issues are resolved etc, the TPI may argue that if you could afford that hire you could have bought a replacement car for a lot less and thus mitigate the claim. These are inevitably relatively rare cases.

Throbbe

Retrogamer wrote: »

Unless you mean actual hire car charges?

For them, then yeah. They put me in touch with them after they confirmed they were liable and they absorbed all the hire costs with no problems.

Yep, I'm perfectly happy to accept liability for damage, but am a bit wary about hire given the publicity around insurers contesting excessive charges.

Yellabowley

Marktheshark wrote: »

I would tell your friend to read what he signed, there may be trouble ahead.

No trouble ahead for him. The solicitors have said they arranged it and will fight it out with the insurance company. He's been told that he is not liable for any payments regardless of which way the case goes. Liability has already been admitted by the other company (his car was parked legally when the other car hit it so they didn't have much choice) so there's no issue from that perspective.


Somewhat off topic anyway. All I was saying is be careful if you arrange it yourself. As Joe Public you wouldn't want to be in the position his solicitors now find themselves.

Throbbe

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Assuming the TP has reported the incident and liability isnt an issue then the TP Insurer (TPI) is likely to be willing to provide you a hire car directly and avoid you going either the credit hire route or paying it out yourself and reclaiming it.

That's great thanks (and also Retrogamer for the same answer). I'd think that being hit from behind in almost stationary traffic is pretty clear on liability, so I'll approach the other parties insurer directly.

I'll check the policy wording properly when I get home, but I assume I'll need to notify my insurer, but make it clear that I'm not making a claim. Or are you saying claim for the damage on my insurance and allow them to chase the TPI but contact them directly about a hire car?