Is this unfair insurance terms?

bigdave2015

I had a non-injury accident on black ice two days ago where my financed BMW met with a high kerb. End result is approximately £12k worth of suspension, steering and wheel/tyre damage.

My insurer, eSure, indicated on the phone that I am required to pay the following excess charges:

+ voluntary excess (£150)
+ compulsory excess (£200)
+ electing my own repairer excess (£200)

This was all despite the vehicle being owned by BMW (i'm financing it through them), therefore requiring the full warranty to be preserved, and also, based on the damage, it will require diagnostic and programming from BMW HQ in Germany which I am led to believe that only a main dealer can perform.

Is this a fair term that I am basically forced to pay extra to use the main BMW dealer which I am required to use (and frankly, only feel confident using them too) ?

It does feature in their Policy Handbook which is available online (google search for ... ) es_motor_booklet_may_2011.pdf :

"If you decide not to use our recommended repairer then an additional excess of £200 will be applied. This
excess will be in addition to any other excesses shown on your policy schedule." [page 21]

Foxy-Stoat_3

Whether it is fair or not, it is in the terms stated the policy booklet that you would of read and accepted.

£550 excess is not bad considering £12,000 (ouch) worth of damage you caused, I guess they don't make'em like they used to !

Spicy_McHaggis

bigdave2015 wrote: »

I had a non-injury accident on black ice two days ago where my financed BMW met with a high kerb. End result is approximately £12k worth of suspension, steering and wheel/tyre damage.

My insurer, eSure, indicated on the phone that I am required to pay the following excess charges:

+ voluntary excess (£150)
+ compulsory excess (£200)
+ electing my own repairer excess (£200)

This was all despite the vehicle being owned by BMW (i'm financing it through them), therefore requiring the full warranty to be preserved, and also, based on the damage, it will require diagnostic and programming from BMW HQ in Germany which I am led to believe that only a main dealer can perform.

Is this a fair term that I am basically forced to pay extra to use the main BMW dealer which I am required to use (and frankly, only feel confident using them too) ?

It does feature in their Policy Handbook which is available online (google search for ... ) es_motor_booklet_may_2011.pdf :

"If you decide not to use our recommended repairer then an additional excess of £200 will be applied. This
excess will be in addition to any other excesses shown on your policy schedule." [page 21]

It's a bit late to question the terms after a crash. You thought they were fair when you agreed to them.

Twelve grand is some claim.

Herzlos

Their recommended insurer should still be able to satisfy the warranty requirements.

bigdave2015

Spicy_McHaggis wrote: »

It's a bit late to question the terms after a crash. You thought they were fair when you agreed to them.

Twelve grand is some claim.

It wasn't actually that spectacular, just total loss of traction, and hit kerb - my passenger-side wheels absorbed all of the impact, which ruined the suspension and steering rack. The car was actually drivable, but I'm not sure with hindsight how safe it was to do so.

harveybobbles

Why not just let your insurance company get it repaired where they want? Wont that save you the 200 quid?

dont see what the issue is.

bigdave2015

harveybobbles wrote: »

Why not just let your insurance company get it repaired where they want? Wont that save you the 200 quid?

dont see what the issue is.

The terms of the finance agreement through BMW stipulate that it has to be BMW who repairs the vehicle to uphold the warranty of all affected components (and secondary affected components).

InsideInsurance

bigdave2015 wrote: »

My insurer, eSure, indicated on the phone that I am required to pay the following excess charges:

+ voluntary excess (£150)
+ compulsory excess (£200)
+ electing my own repairer excess (£200)

This was all despite the vehicle being owned by BMW (i'm financing it through them), therefore requiring the full warranty to be preserved, and also, based on the damage, it will require diagnostic and programming from BMW HQ in Germany which I am led to believe that only a main dealer can perform.

Is this a fair term that I am basically forced to pay extra to use the main BMW dealer which I am required to use (and frankly, only feel confident using them too) ?

If only a main dealer can do bits of the necessary repair then their bodyshop would have passed the vehicle over to BMW to do those parts and would have done the non-technical aspects themselves.

If you dont own the vehicle and are required to use a BMW garage then why choose a policy where there is an additional excess for using a garage of your choice?

Wouldnt touch eSure myself but Aviva have the same additional excess and certainly their website and telesales people make it very clear that the additional excess exists if you go outside of their network. I did try to do a dummy quote on eSure but they wont touch my vehicle and threw an error when I tried my last car.

GJ_WRX

I agree with Herzlos, the insurers repairer would be able to fix it to a standard that would maintain the warranty. And if a job required specialist BMW expertise then they would get BMW to do that part of the repair.

The extra £200 is really down to you wanting the peace of mind that BMW are working on it. For the sake of £200 you should do it as I suspect you would always be sceptical of the quality other wise.

Just make sure that your nominated dealer has it own body shop and doesn't just outsource it to the insurance approved one!

neilmcl

GJ_WRX wrote: »

Just make sure that your nominated dealer has it own body shop and doesn't just outsource it to the insurance approved one!

Now wouldn't that be ironic

marlot

bigdave2015 wrote: »

The terms of the finance agreement through BMW stipulate that it has to be BMW who repairs the vehicle to uphold the warranty of all affected components (and secondary affected components).

If that's what you've signed then, I think that's what you have to do. Unless you can somehow show that the agreement is unfair.