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

lillymay1975_2

no it's only a small company he lcky to get holiday pay yet alone milege allowance? my mm just said tell them until you can afford a car for the vaule we paid for the fiesta tell them we are keeping the hire car? could we get away with that?

roddydogs

"Write off"

astonsmummy

roddy, it really doesnt matter :rolleyes:

lillymay1975_2

no your right i think i have a bigger problem than spelling mistakes???? could we keep the hire car for a few weeks? or does it have to back as sson as Ford say that's it with our car?

mattymoo

Usually yes because the Ford garage are providing the courtesy car on the assumption they are getting a repair job out of it. That is not the case so nothing in it for them.

There is a distinction between hire car and courtesy car. Courtesy cars are provided by the garage. Hire cars are provided by the insurers but very few policies offer this.

Best advice is to change tack and claim from the third party who have since admitted liability. You can reclaim hire car costs from them.
The vehicle payout will be made without deduction of excess.
As they will be paying hire car costs, it is in their interests to settle matters as quickly as possible.

Alternatively, you could look for assistance from a firm like Helphire who will loan you a car and do all the chasing for you. Be aware that if they do not succeed with the recovery, you could be liable for the car hire costs. You should also check they are charging under the ABI General Terms of Agreement. This is a price agreed between insurers and after event hire car firms. Insurers will refuse to meet the costs in full if they are inflated above the GTA.

soolin

lillymay1975 wrote: »

no your right i think i have a bigger problem than spelling mistakes???? could we keep the hire car for a few weeks? or does it have to back as sson as Ford say that's it with our car?

When my car was written off two years ago I had a hire car arranged by the company working for the other party's insurers as they had admitted full liability. However as soon as my company informed me that my car was written off I had to give the hire car back as at that point I was deemed to be settling with my insurance company. That left me without a car for about two weeks, which was the time between my company telling me my car was a write off and me buying a new car. My settlement cheque actually arrived a day or so after i bought my new car.

astonsmummy

I had a hire car from helphire, even though liability of my claim is being settled 50/50 i still dont have to pay anything, i had to pay for the insurance for it which was about £1.50 a day capped at £40.
I also had 7 days from the day i received my cheque to give the car back, i got my car back for free, put it through an MOT and had some of the damage fixed before i got my cheque too so i gave the car back sooner.

astonsmummy

BTW that was arranged through my insurers, i suggest phoning them to tell them you will be without a car once you have to give the courtosey one back, they might arrange the hire car for you.

lisyloo

She cant claim against the other party because they simply cant be bothered or afford to get a new car as the claim has been settled

I just want to query something here for a minute.

...and lets be aware that what insurance companies offer you may be different to your statutory rights.

Clearly the OP cannot just go and get a car instantaneously the minute the cheque drops on the mat.
I've been out to purchase cars before and the process of viewing and getting mechanical inspections etc. does take time.
Last time I did it we took 3 weeks but the first car had a poor RAC inspection so the first sale fell through. Adminitedly we were only spending weekends but it will still take a minimum of a few days.

Isn't the OP entitled to carry on work at that time (or get paid for their unpaid losses).
Given that there is an obligation to mitigate losses and a hire car is probably cheaper than the enforced time off work the isn't the OP entitled to a hire car.

i.e. regardless of any insurance comapnies cover, they are entitled to be not financially worse off as a result of this accident and the 3rd parties insurance must pick up the bill whether that be compulsorary time off work or a hire car (although I would point out there is an obligation to choose the cheapest).

I think any suggestion that the OP simply "can't be bothered" is fairly offensive as this is clearly not the case.
It's simply someone with zero cash who cannot buy a car up front and can't do without one either.

lillymay1975_2

Hi all

thanks for the advice, well as of now 3.35pm we haven't heard from
1) Ford garage
2) the woman who hit us, her insurance
3) our insurance
4) solicitor

i have been sitting here all day waiting, and as they told me not to ring them, i am a bit annoyed.

I will be asking about how long we cn keep the hire car for, as we need to go and find a new one, but until we have the money for ours we cannot afford to buy a car, so were a bit stuck?