£300 excess cannot pay in not or fault accident? what can we do

lillymay1975_2

Hi all last wed. night a woman went into the bacl of us while we were stationary on a junction waiting for traffic to stop before my hubby went, and CRASH this stupid womn hit us and hit us so hard we were quite a way over the line and nearly got hit again by oncoming traffic. Anyway we assmed that we had insurance with the AA, but we don;t yet agin they were only the brookers, we are with HSBC, who we hate and currently chasing charges from then, anyway got a letter this morning saying that when we pick our car up from the ford garage, not sre when they only took it Sat, and it could be a right off, that we have to pay the excess of £300 which we do not have now or in the next month,can someone advise what we can do? i am so worried we are living on the edge at the moment and have been for months and this is just a huge blow for us, we cannot afford christmas as it is, only buying somehting little for family, and we are not buying at all for one another this year, any advice would be appreciated, thanks:eek: :eek:

jonesMUFCforever

Ask them to take the £300 excess from your claim.

lillymay1975_2

can you do that?

soolin

Firstly, breathe...

OK, what exactly has happened so far, be clear and you will get better responses. Who took the car to the garage..did the insurers pick it up and if so did they say anything at the time to give an indication as to whether it was likely to be written off or repaired.

Secondly what are they telling you on the phone when you talk to them about the accident? (You are talking to them constantly aren't you?). Are they agreeing to chase the other person, has the other person admitted liability or are they attempting to do it knock for knock..if so what sort of insurance do you have only if you have fully comp you should fight them to recover your excess from the person who hit you.

What have you said in your paperwork , have you supplied witnesses, was the accident reported to the police, did the other person drive away or was their car towed as well.

lastly, you apepar to be worrying about a £300 excess without actually knowing what is going on..before you do anything else you need to know what you are collecting from the garage..ie a repaired car or a car that has merely been quoted on. If it has been written off it would seme unlikely that you are supposed to be collecting it as it is unlikely to be legal to drive on the road.

lillymay1975_2

right? i'm breathing honest????
1) Ford Took the car to a ford garage as it's a ford? they were told to pick it up by my insurers AA/HSBC, the mechanic who picked the car up said as my car is old R reg they may well right it off, but he does not know that?

2)insrance are great, well AA are HSBC we haven't heard nothing from them and we cannot get through to speak to someone

3) is it down to us to chase the stupid !!!!! who hit us?? as the police told us not to approtch her as she was so nasty and thretening the night of the accident?

4)we have full comp insurance?

5)we have completed the report form, no police we called at the scence due to no injurys but as soon as we got home ,we reported it as she was thretening us, the police gave us an incident number, no witnesses, noone stops these days apart from 3 10 year olds on bikes, who were given abuse by the lovley lady who hit us as well as us? the cars were not towed away we drove ours home as it was only about 300 yards from our home, and she drove hers

have i answered everything for you?

lillymay1975_2

hello anyone?

lisyloo

the mechanic who picked the car up said as my car is old R reg they may well right it off, but he does not know that?

Firstly this is the opinion of a mechanic just looking at the car before doing a proper inspection, so bear that in mind.
Having said that repairs are expensive so low value cars can get written off quite easily these days.

IF the car is written off they will deduct the excess from your payout so you won't have to actually find the money although you will receive £300 less (which will make it harder to get a replacement if money is tight).
It's quite common for insurance companies to offer low values when cars are written off. Often you have to reject their offer, ask for more, provide evidence of 2nd hand prices etc. Don't panic, they are just doing their job to try to minimise their costs.

Can you drive the car at the moment?
If it's driveable then carry on using it and don't get it repaired until later.

If the car is repairable the garage will want your £300 and they won't release your car until you pay the excess to them.

is it down to us to chase the stupid !!!!! who hit us??

OK, let me explain how it works.
Often it can take weeks if not months to sort out who was at fault (because their story will be somewhat different from yours).
Initially your claim will come from YOUR insurance until such time as liability is agreed. If it's agreed that it's 100% her fault then HER insurance will pay and you will get a clean record, your full no claims re-instated and your £300 back, however this does take TIME (sometimes loads of time).
This is why I advised not getting the car repaired if it's driveable as in the meantime you have to find the £300 because until it's settled you've claimed off YOUR insurance so it's a claim against you.
I'm not saying it's your fault but insurance companies aren't interest in that. They are interested in who foots the bill and whilst your insurance company are paying it counts against you.
So no, you should not be chasing this person directly, your insurance company shoudl be sorting it out.

Have you tried calling at different times of day?

no witnesses

This is bad news, although a rear shunt is almost always the fault of the person behind (I won't say always because someone will come up with an extreme example of when it isn''t).

noone stops these days apart from 3 10 year olds on bikes

Did you get their names and addresses?
It really is very valuable to get indepedent witnesses (even if they are only 10) as it's not your word against hers).

Rear shunts are usually the fault of the person behind but she could say you got angry and reversed into her and you have NO evidence that you didn't.

I'm sorry to say that no witnesses severely affects your chances.
I'm not saying there's anything you could have done, but just preparing you for what might happen.

My expectation is that she will lie through her teeth and make something up about you vindictively reversing into her.
The insurance can't prove it either way so your insurance may have to pay for your repairs and you'll be stuck with a £300 bill.

Sorry to say that, but it's what I think might well happen.

So in the meantime, can you drive it without being repaired short term?
If so tell the garage NOT to proceed with repairs ASAP.
You then have the choice of NOT making a claim on your insurance OR delaying the repairs until liability is settled OR until you have the £300.

You clearly need to think about the long term situation.
Can you manage without a car?
Could you pay someone else to get lifts? ride a cheaper scooter? or get public transport?

I'm not being negative, just that if things are stretched to the limit then you need to consider how you are going to manage in future.

lillymay1975_2

Hi

I have just had a call from direct line the woman's insurance comapany asking for hubby and asking if they can collect the car as she has admitted liability? the car has been removed on saturday by ford and our insurers, and no it cannot be driven.
Also we have had a hire car since thursday last week, part of or full comp insurance?

what shall i do now, i am waiting for ford assessor to ring me with details of how much it will cost, we only paid £800 for the car in June

lillymay1975_2

p.s can we still hold off the repairs until it all goes through and keep the hire car?if it can be repaired? as we need it my hubby needs it for work everyday? the hire company told me last week that we can keep the car for upto 52 weeks ?

astonsmummy

I'd be surprised if it wasnt a write off, i have a 1997 peugeot, was hit in august and the car was written off, i managed to get it back for nothing and fixed it with my settlement money.
I'm no expert but Would the garage not have to wait for the car to be inspected by the insurance company before starting any repairs?

lillymay1975_2

hi

in a letter i got this morning it says:
Repairs can normally be authorised within 24hr of estimate being recd from the garage. Immediately following authorisation, the repairer will arrange a conveniant time for the repairs to be carried out. When repairs have been completed ford will ask you to pay the £300 excess.

God if they write it off and we only paid £800 for it a few months ago, that means we will have £500 to get a new one??? oh my god, what the hell are we going to do?