Car insurance - recovering travel expenses

investme

Hi folks,

Trying to find some advice on the best course of action.

To give some context, my girlfriend was hit in the rear while stationary recently. The other driver admitted liability, and provided dashcam footage to myself and both of our insurers, so I can say with some confidence we're not concerned about the claim being her fault.

She is insured with hastings, who initially were very helpful. The claim was passed onto their accident management company, auxillis and she was provided with a hire car the next day and hers was collected for repair.

The issue she currently has, is that she is going on holiday this coming saturday (3rd August) and had booked and paid for airport parking. She has no other realistic way of getting to the airport than driving, due to flight times and other plans for myself/family members - hence why she chose to drive initially. Not to mention that nobody should have to put themselves out as a matter of principle due to a non-fault accident, but that's me rambling

The repairs on her car won't be complete before she goes, and the hire car company have said she isn't allowed to park the car at an airport and it would be collected before she goes on holiday.

She is now stuck without a way to travel, except fronting a taxi for around £300 return. On asking the insurers and auxillis if she can pay for this and claim it back as an uninsured loss from the other parties insurance as reasonable expense, she is being passed from pillar to post with no clear answer. Both auxillis and hastings have said she needs to ring the other parties insurer, which seems odd and incorrect to me.

The only other option she has been given is to appoint a solicitor to recover the cost, but they will only act if their is an injury claim. She was injured (whiplash) but wasn't going to claim for it.

Does anyone have any advise to offer?

I know insurance is a complete lottery and they tend to get out of anything possible. I am just trying to establish whether her trying to recover a £300 odd travel expense, plus a refund on her parking is likely to be accepted and recovered from the other parties insurer, or not. It feels like it should be, but my real concern is if auxillis or hastings will care enough to follow it through.

lisyloo

Is there absolutely no public transport to the airport, that’s unusual, most airports have a variety of rail, bus and coach.
No family/friends who would give her a lift?

If a £300 taxi is the only way then she is entitled to have this loss reimbursed.

Did she take out legal insurance either as an add-on or separately?

If she did then she should be using the legal insurance for her uninsured losses.
If she did not then she’ll need to pursue this herself, I’d start with the 3rd party insurer.

It’s not hasting job to do this as it’s not covered under her insurance.
What does her contract with auxiillis say?
They like to cherry pick the profitable stuff but i would be checking that contract.

investme

lisyloo wrote: »

Is there absolutely no public transport to the airport, that’s unusual, most airports have a variety of rail, bus and coach.
No family/friends who would give her a lift?

If a £300 taxi is the only way then she is entitled to have this loss reimbursed.

Did she take out legal insurance either as an add-on or separately?

If she did then she should be using the legal insurance for her uninsured losses.
If she did not then she’ll need to pursue this herself, I’d start with the 3rd party insurer.

It’s not hasting job to do this as it’s not covered under her insurance.
What does her contract with auxiillis say?
They like to cherry pick the profitable stuff but i would be checking that contract.

Thanks for the reply.

It is very hard to get transport from where we are to the airport. Her flight is 6am. Even without accounting for the time, to get a train she has to go into london, then back out, and there are no trains to london at that time from our location.

The national express coach is an option, but by the time you account for a taxi to that pick up point, two coach tickets and the same return, the difference is negligible.

She did not have legal insurance no, Hastings have put her through (I think Carpenters was the company name) but as you've said, they are cherry picking and aren't interested without an injury claim.

When you say start with the third party insurer - what do you mean? I've honestly never had an insurer this unhelpful, whether it's in T&Cs or not, due to the cars i tend to drive i've always had specialist cover through a broker so whenever i've had an issue i've dealt with one person throughout the whole process who's managed to resolve everything for me (would definitely recommend this to anyone, btw!)

dacouch

Try ringing the third party Insurers directly

lisyloo

investme wrote: »

When you say start with the third party insurer - what do you mean? I've honestly never had an insurer this unhelpful, whether it's in T&Cs or not, due to the cars i tend to drive i've always had specialist cover through a broker so whenever i've had an issue i've dealt with one person throughout the whole process who's managed to resolve everything for me (would definitely recommend this to anyone, btw!)

She is not insured with Hastings for this loss.
It’s called an uninsured loss.
She turned down legal insurance so it’s up to her to claim this money DIY (or pay a solicitor but that’s overkill in this case).

She should write to the 3rd party insurer regarding her uninsured loss.
Personally I like to send these kind of things recorded delivery for an extra 75p and then I know it’s been delivered.
Legally it’s not necessary but it avoids the “lost in the post” excuse and often you get a signature that you can see on line on royal mails site.

I agree that there’s an issue with people doing insurance DIY and not understanding what they have or haven’t got.
Before computers this was usually done via a high st broker.
She decided not to buy the legal insurance so now she has to follow this up herself or pay a solicitor (overkill for £300).

As the 3rd party insurer has accepted liability it may not be a big issue and may simply require a letter.

There is a general duty to mitigate losses so to avoid to/from questions I would suggest she explains why a taxi was necessary (as you have done) and include proof of the pre-booked holiday.
They should pay it, but they won’t be in a rush.

I have legal for both home and motor for these things and use memonline which cost me £28 for 4 vehicles and £13 for home.
However I would write a letter for this.

oscarward

if her flight is 6am is it a possibility to stay at a hotel at the airport the night before.


Did that last time I went to spain, hotel was cheaper than paying for parking and got to check in stress free @ 4am

TSx

Whilst a expect a claim for the taxi would be successful (assuming there is no cheaper way of doing it), she won’t get a refund on the parking - that was a cost she already had to pay so if they reimbursed it, she’d be in s better position financially.

Caz3121

investme wrote: »

She is now stuck without a way to travel, except fronting a taxi for around £300 return.

has she looked at one-way car hires? is there a car rental company that is local plus at the airport?