Insurance claim query

Gers

The other day I my car was hit by a taxi pulling out of a T junction into my passenger side doors.

My insurance company have been great, no problems, collision not my fault etc. I only had my uninsured loss to concern me, my £250.00 excess.

Today I received an email from the ‘recovery handler’ telling me (amongst other stuff) that my excess has been waived. As I didn’t understand why this was I rang the handler to ask. The explanation was unclear and she was obviously very busy, however I asked if the third party would be charged instead. She said no, as I wasn’t paying it there would be no claim made.

This is my first ever collision in over 40 years of driving so am new to the claims industry. Please can someone tells me how / why this excess waiver takes place? I’m just curious.

Thanks.

ThePants999

The key thing from your perspective is you want this to be recorded as a "non-fault" claim. Despite that sounding like it's to do with whether it was your fault, it's really to do with whether your insurance company suffered any loss as a result of it. If your insurance company pay out and don't manage to reclaim in full from the other party, it'll go down as a fault claim, affecting your no claims discount. Call them back and ask them about this - if you can't get a proper answer from this handler, just call your insurer's normal customer services line, who'll be able to tell you how it's been recorded.

Gers

It is recorded as non fault on my part. My NCB is protected.

How does that make the excess waived?

Thanks for your reply.

tasticz

Usually if third party insurers accepted liability or it is clear cut excess is waived. Ring back and confirm.

Are you claiming for damages to your car? If yes, is that through accident management company or direct with TP insurers?

glentoran99

Basically the 3rd party insurer is paying for the whole repair, if your insurer was then you would pay the first 250 of the cost, Or if there was a dispute over liability then you would pay it and if found in your favour reclaimed from the 3rd party

Gers

tasticz wrote: »

Usually if third party insurers accepted liability or it is clear cut excess is waived. Ring back and confirm.

Are you claiming for damages to your car? If yes, is that through accident management company or direct with TP insurers?

glentoran99 wrote: »

Basically the 3rd party insurer is paying for the whole repair, if your insurer was then you would pay the first 250 of the cost, Or if there was a dispute over liability then you would pay it and if found in your favour reclaimed from the 3rd party

Thanks for these replies.

Yes, my insurance company is dealing with everything, and so far very efficiently. I doubt there will be a dispute over liability as there are witness and my dash cam evidence, plus the other driver admitted it to the police. It's very clear that he pulled out of a T junction straight into the passenger side of my car.

The email is from my insurance company's recovery team:

I’m handling the recovery aspect of your claim and I wanted to email you to let you know the next step in the Recovery process and about contacting the Third Party Insurers about liability. I’ll await your repair documentation from the garage or if your vehicle is written off I’ll await payments in relation to this to be finalised. The claim costs along with our allegations will be sent to the other driver’s insurance company holding them at fault. I’ll then let you know when I’ve heard from them about liability.

Your excess has been waived so will not be payable on this claim. As you have Motoring Legal Protection cover I’ll look to recover any losses you have incurred.

I didn't understand this waiver, so thanks for helping explain it.

:beer:

Gers

Update:

Claim finalised and all’s well.

Car repair was approx £4,000; hire care £400 and excess waived with NCB unaffected.

Surprisingly I received a cheque yesterday from my insurance company repaying my excess, the excess I didn’t have to pay. I phoned to tell them and then shredded the cheque.

All in all, for my first ever involvement with an insurance claim everything was smooth, hassle free and handled very well by esure. Let’s hope it’s another 40 years until my next accident.