RAC - Reclaiming Policy Excess HELP!

AndyBSG

Hoping someone can advise me on this!

I was in an accident and the other party refused to admit liability at the time so I had to go through my insurance, RAC, fully comprehensive protected no claims.

My car was written off and I was paid out less my £200 excess.

The other party have now admitted liability after I supplied dash cam footage and my underwriter, Covea, have informed me of this and told me to contact my broker, RAC, to reclaim my excess.

RAC have just informed me that I will not be getting my excess back because I don't have the optional legal cover.

Surely this is complete nonsense because the other party have admitted liability because looking online everywhere, including citizens advice, tells me that the other parties insurance should be paying me this out.

AndyBSG

OK, looked into this a bit more and it appears I don't have legal cover on my fully comp policy so they will not recover uninsured losses on my behalf(i.e, the excess)

However, when I reported the accident I initially wanted to go through the other party's insurance but they would not accept liability so I was advised to go through my insurance.

At the time I specifically asked the question, once they admit liability will my excess be refunded and was told yes.

I can't remember if this was my broker(RAC) or my underwriter(Covea) though.

I'm asking both of them to pull all the telephone recordings relating to this claim to confirm this but not holding my breath they'll do it.

So, it seems my next step is to try and claim it myself directly from the other party's insurance company(QBE insurance), anyone have experience of doing this?

I'd prefer to lodge a claim and give them the opportunity to pay me before issuing small claims proceedings but no idea how to go about it.

Car_54

Surely it's the TP or his insurer who should be paying you, not the RAC.

gzoom

^ I didn't pay for extra legal cover on my policy (Directline), just received letter in the post this weekend stating now that the third party has admitted liability I will NOT be charged/pay any excess related to my accident.


I think the problem is you have already paid the money, even an accident management company wouldn't be interested in your case as recovering £200 of excess payment would leave them little room to cover their own costs.


Hope you get it sorted one way or another!!


Out of interest why didn't you send in the dash cam footage ealier, I sent in my dash cam footage the same day, even than it took them 2 weeks to admit liability.

AndyBSG

Car_54 wrote: »

Surely it's the TP or his insurer who should be paying you, not the RAC.

All depends on when liability is admitted.

My wife had an accident and they admitted liability straight away as the vehicle was unoccupied at the time. So, everything was done through his insurance with them collecting, repairing the vehicle and providing a hire car. So, our insurance was not involved other than being notified.


In this case they would not accept liability so I had to go through my insurance who settled the claim and paid me out for the write off, less my £200 excess.

Now that liability has been established my insurance company will recover all of those costs and fees from his insurance but apparently that does not include the £200 excess.

Chased it up again this morning and been told I now have to claim it direct from his insurance myself...

Why my insurance company didn't just tell me "We don't pay that, you need to get in touch with his insurance and claim it yourself" instead of me having to dig around and wheedle the information from my broker, my underwriter and his insurance in several different phone calls I don't know!

AndyBSG

gzoom wrote: »

Out of interest why didn't you send in the dash cam footage ealier, I sent in my dash cam footage the same day, even than it took them 2 weeks to admit liability.

It wasn't my footage, it was actually an ambulance that was behind me when it happened and I didn't take the names of the drivers.

At first I didn't think they'd dispute liability since it was a clear no fault but they did so I then had to get in touch with the ambulance service, track down the drivers and hope they still had the footage which all took a good 3 weeks

I didn't even know they had dash cam footage and was just hoping for witness statements from them

debtdebt

An excess is an uninsured loss therefore your insurer are not under a duty to recover it on your behalf. The same as if you injured yourself or broke a pair of glasses you were wearing as a result of an accident.

It's down to you to seek recovery of your uninsured losses not your insurer. In the absence of Legal Expenses Insurance, try to get hold of the details of the third party claims department for QBE and try to make contact. They'll probably ask you for proof of payment of the excess and they should issue a cheque.

stator

Write a formal letter of complaint to your own insurer. Ask them specifically what amount they have recovered from the other party. Then compare this to how much they have repaid you.
If the other party has fully reimbursed your insurer then surely they should fully reimburse you.
If they refuse then you might end up taking the other party (and insurer) to small claims court to recover the loss.

debtdebt

The OP's insurer will have recovered their outlay minus the £200 excess which the OP has paid. The £200 excess is down to the OP to recover himself. He chose this level of excess at the inception of the policy.

The OP's insurer has done nothing wrong!

Nodding_Donkey

gzoom wrote: »

I sent in my dash cam footage the same day, even than it took them 2 weeks to admit liability.

I sent mine to the TP insurer the day after the accident happened and told them that if I hadn't heard from them by close of business with a proposal of how they would settle I would be contacting the biggest bunch of ambulance chasers I could find.

By 15.00 they were on the phone offering me a hire car and I had the money through within 8 days.:)

rudekid48

stator wrote: »

Write a formal letter of complaint to your own insurer. Ask them specifically what amount they have recovered from the other party. Then compare this to how much they have repaid you.
If the other party has fully reimbursed your insurer then surely they should fully reimburse you.
If they refuse then you might end up taking the other party (and insurer) to small claims court to recover the loss.

Aside from being a waste of time doing this, it would take the same initial effort writing to the TP insurer with proof of payment of your excess & asking them to reimburse you.

This is all standard stuff...