Claim against insurance company in liquidation

PrincessLou

*I'm posting on behalf of my husband* The following is his question:

I'm in a difficult position regarding an accident claim on my motor insurance.

Back in April I had an accident that was not my fault. It was clear what had happened and I had a witness. The other party was a foreign national in a hire car.

Following the accident, I put down an excess for my car to get repaired whilst the liability was being settled. It was dragging on for a long time but I was told this was usual for hire cars and I don't think the other driver had explained properly what had happened.

Last week i spoke to my insurance company and they informed me that the other party's insurance company was Enterprise, a Gibraltar based company that has recently begun proceedings to go into liquidation. They informed me that there would now be a very lengthy process to try and claim back their money and my excess from that insurance company and i should be prepared not to get it back.

They also told me that as this would likely go into my next policy year and beyond it would be treated as a "my fault" accident whilst the money has not been recovered. This would put my premiums up for years to come.

I've been offered legal advice as I have full legal cover, but wanted to get some view on here on where I stand.

Is it likely I will get my excess back? Would my claim not be covered by the UK/Gibraltar FSCS?

Is it right that my premiums go up when it is not my fault? Should unrecoverable losses in this case be treated as accepting liability?

paddyandstumpy

Fault/non fault when disclosing a claim isn't determined by who was to blame for the accident, it's determined by which insurer paid both parties.
Unless your insurer recovers their outlay, they'll chalk it as a fault claim.