Insurance Excess rulings?

l0v31l

Hello,

After some advice, around 7 weeks ago i was involved in a minor no fault car accident. Usual exchange of details etc but no witnesses. I contacted my insurance (Adrian Flux so a broker) to report the incident and was informed i had two options:

Option A: Pay my Excess (£400) and get the car repaired straight away
or
Option B: wait for the other party to accept liability then get my car repaired without having to pay my excess (unsure to the timespan as there were no witnesses)

As the damage was only cosmetic, and i had no rush to get the repairs done i opted for option B. The car was brooked in about 1 month ago as i had a call from the garage to say they had got authorisation (Insurance assessor had been to visit and deemed the car repairable). and on the 2nd of this month i had a call to inform me that the third party had accepted liability. Everything still seemed to move relatively fast and there was no mention of having to pay my excess through the process. Until today when i had a call to say the car was ready for collection and the guy at the garage said id need to pay my excess on collection. I did question this with the garage who then contacted my insurer, leading to a call from my direct insurer (Not adrian flux) to say i had to pay the excess.

Although i had the means to pay the excess i do question if there are any rulings around this? surely it should of been mentioned before being able to book the car in for repair that this would require my excess to be paid or even when dropping the car off based on the fact i had been given the option to not pay my excess and wait at the start of the claim. If i were in a different situation this could lead to me paying on a credit card or having a short term loan just to get my car returned (i can't see the garage allowing the car to leave without payment of the excess if this is what they've been told and rightfully so) with no time scale as to when id get the funds returned.

Quentin

This does look a mistake/misunderstanding/lack ofcommunication


Your excess isn't covered by your insurance, (though why they gave you an option to wait and not pay it is a concern)


To resolve this quickly send a letter to the third party insurer asking them to reimburse you the excess (and any other uninsured losses you have experienced) enclosing a copy of the garage receipt, and proofs of any other losses you want paying


Then if you want, make a complaint about the misinformation you were given to your insurer