Question about settling a claim without insurers involved...

horsepills

Just looking for some quick advice....

My car was stationary on the road the other night, at a friend's house. Someone hit my car and scraped the front bumper quite badly (no other damage, just the bumper). Fortunately, the guy who did it was good enough to tell me he'd done it and gave me his details.
I've just been contacted by his company as he was driving his company car, who have left a message saying they are looking to settle my claim for damage outside of the insurers as "it will be quicker". Fair enough as far as I'm concerned, but is there anything I should look out for, or stipulate when dealing with it this way???

InsideInsurance

There is less real worries about private settlement when you are the non-fault party as there will never be a late PI claim made against you.

The main issue is simply agreeing (a) cost and (b) if you pay upfront and they reimburse you or if they will settle directly with the garage etc

You are in theory still obliged to inform your insurers of the incident but that the TP is paying for your damages directly

Quentin

You should insist on your choice of repairer, and that they pay all your costs, not just the repairs (eg car hire whilst your car is in for repair)


And be sure that this is just a scrape and not more serious hidden damage (which often occurs where bumpers are concerned)

horsepills

So I've provided this chap's company with written quotes for the damage (+ car hire).
They have emailed to confirm they are happy for me to carry out the repairs, and will reimburse me once I've sent them the invoices afterwards.

I can't say I'm happy about paying for it all upfront myself, as it means I will be several hundred pounds out of pocket until they decide to pay me (and if I'd gone down the insurance route I wouldn't have had to pay anything myself). I suspect it's because they can't sign off payments without an invoice, but that's hardly my problem.

Is it reasonable to expect them to pay me upfront based on the written quotations?

InsideInsurance

horsepills wrote: »

So I've provided this chap's company with written quotes for the damage (+ car hire).
They have emailed to confirm they are happy for me to carry out the repairs, and will reimburse me once I've sent them the invoices afterwards.

I can't say I'm happy about paying for it all upfront myself, as it means I will be several hundred pounds out of pocket until they decide to pay me (and if I'd gone down the insurance route I wouldn't have had to pay anything myself). I suspect it's because they can't sign off payments without an invoice, but that's hardly my problem.

Is it reasonable to expect them to pay me upfront based on the written quotations?

Are you actually hiring a car or just using the courtesy car from the garage.

If you get a proforma invoice from the garage they should be able to pay off of that - just make sure it lists the actual price of paint/ parts as some will just say + parts and paint at list price (or equiv)

horsepills

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Are you actually hiring a car or just using the courtesy car from the garage.

If you get a proforma invoice from the garage they should be able to pay off of that - just make sure it lists the actual price of paint/ parts as some will just say + parts and paint at list price (or equiv)

I sent them a quote for car hire (which I'll arrange myself) and they've agreed to pay for it. the proforma just has "paints, polish & labour" as seperate entries but no more detail than that - I doubt I could convince them to do another one.

I'm starting to wish I'd just insisted on insurance company dealing with it - it would have been much less hassle than doing all this myself and paying upfront. Particularly frustrating as I wasn't at fault, and the driver who was hasn't had to lift a finger.

Quentin

If you aren't happy to pay up front tell the third party.

And ask them for their insurance details so that you can now claim directly off them with no upfront payments to make and reclaim. They will also provide you with a replacement car

oscarward

Some larger companies have a large excess (£10k at the company I worked for) so when dealing with minor bumps the company pay the costs directly.


That was the case when I had a company car and had a fender bender once (1999). The accountant asked me to verify the details then just wrote a cheque out.

horsepills

oscarward wrote: »

Some larger companies have a large excess (£10k at the company I worked for) so when dealing with minor bumps the company pay the costs directly.


That was the case when I had a company car and had a fender bender once (1999). The accountant asked me to verify the details then just wrote a cheque out.

Unfortunately, this company won't just write a cheque out (even though it's less than £500) or pay me upfront at all - despite admitting fault in front of two witnesses.
They have now offered to pay the garage directly for repairs - after the work has been done - but the garage have said they won't release my vehicle until payment has been received. Not ideal.
I've asked for the insurance details but so far they haven't given me them - they say they are still attempting to "settle it themselves" but so far it isn't working....:mad:

Ironic that I'm the "victim" in all of this, and yet I've had to do all of the running around getting my vehicle assessed, faxing quotes, etc... whilst the chap who drove into me has had to do nothing!

InsideInsurance

oscarward wrote: »

Some larger companies have a large excess (£10k at the company I worked for) so when dealing with minor bumps the company pay the costs directly.

There wont be an excess payable on a third party claim.

Now there are other mechanisms that can bring the cost of the claim back into the company as insurance is about unpredictable events and its inevitable that if you operate a fleet of over a million vehicles (like Enterprise Rent a Car globally) you're going to have a number of claims every year and there is no point paying an insurance company money to cover that basic baseline of claims each year as you'll be pay it + their profit margin + Insurance Premium Tax

Quentin

horsepills wrote: »

Ironic that I'm the "victim" in all of this, and yet I've had to do all of the running around getting my vehicle assessed, faxing quotes, etc... whilst the chap who drove into me has had to do nothing!

You chose to do the running around!

You can get their insurance details yourself from askmid.