Car Crashed into my Property

edmund_blackadder

Last night a car crashed through my garden fence, completely destroying several fence panels, posts and gravel boards.


I have the person's insurance details and have contacted his car insurance company today, however they said that I'd need to contact my house insurance (!) to sort it out with them as they can't deal with me direct due to data protection for their client.


That doesn't sound right to me. I didn't think I'd have to involve my house insurance company at all?


Any advice, much appreciated.

FutureGirl

Easiest way is to claim from your home insurance, and give your home insurance company the drivers insurance details.

Your home insurers will deal with it as a normal claim, and will then recover the money from the drivers car insurance.

It's the norm in these instances.

Mr.Generous

Tell them you can either talk to a solicitor or they can deal with you, for all they know you don't have house insurance, it's not compulsory. They don't have to give you the drivers details to sort it out!

paddyandstumpy

Car v car I'd expect the third party to be able to help you, as they will be set up to deal with car claims.
Car v home I'd expect the home insurer to deal with it for the same reason.
They can look to recover costs, but that's their choice to do that.

Quentin

If you don't want to claim off your own policy then claim directly off the third party. (You will have to if you have no cover anyway - the third party insurers advice is just trying it on! Data protection doesn't come into it.

He/ she can either settle your claim or pass it to their insurer.

Or should they ignore you a mcol will focus their mind.

Lily-Rose_3

edmund_blackadder wrote: »

Last night a car crashed through my garden fence, completely destroying several fence panels, posts and gravel boards.

I have the person's insurance details and have contacted his car insurance company today, however they said that I'd need to contact my house insurance (!) to sort it out with them as they can't deal with me direct due to data protection for their client.

That doesn't sound right to me. I didn't think I'd have to involve my house insurance company at all? Any advice, much appreciated.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right unfortunately. A similar thing happened to someone I know. A lorry crashed into their house and did £30K worth of damage. It took 2 months to repair. They had to go stay in a hotel for the duration as the house was classed as unstable. She had to go through her insurance, and the lorry driver had to go through his insurance. It's quite normal.

ljonski

baldrick strikes again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVM4jR3TZsU

dacouch

Lily-Rose wrote: »

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right unfortunately. A similar thing happened to someone I know. A lorry crashed into their house and did £30K worth of damage. It took 2 months to repair. They had to go stay in a hotel for the duration as the house was classed as unstable. She had to go through her insurance, and the lorry driver had to go through his insurance. It's quite normal.

It's not quite normal.

The car driver's Insurer are either quoting the data protection act as they do not know their job and / or because many motor claims departments are not set up to handle property damage claims so they try and palm home owners off.

Quentin's advice is spot on, get two estimates (If possible) and get onto the third party or the third partie's Insurers

Lily-Rose_3

dacouch wrote: »

It's not quite normal.

The car driver's Insurer are either quoting the data protection act as they do not know their job and / or because many motor claims departments are not set up to handle property damage claims so they try and palm home owners off.

Quentin's advice is spot on, get two estimates (If possible) and get onto the third party or the third partie's Insurers

Yes it is. If a vehicle smashes into a house, of COURSE the insurance company responsible for the house insurance will need to get involved.

edmund_blackadder

Thanks for all the responses so far.


The car driver has now emailed me (and fortunately he seems very reasonable) and has said that he has been in contact with the insurers (rather than the brokers name he gave me) and has provided me with the correct contact details and policy number.


He will be making a claim against his own car insurance anyway and apparently his insurance company will be expecting my call to claim for the damage to my fence and garden.


I'll give them a call tomorrow and see how I get on. If they try and give me the run around, I'll just go through my house insurance and pass all the details on to them to get them to chase the car insurance company.

edmund_blackadder

In the meantime I shall be getting a couple of quotes. I have had one today already.