Car drove through fence, damaged garden, insurance won't cover damage

Bellevue22

Hello all

Recently a car crashed through my in-laws back fence and came to an abrupt halt in their garden. The police attended as it was quite a serious RTA. No other vehicles were involved and the driver was 100% at fault. Fortunately my in-laws were inside at the time so they weren't hurt but they were quite shaken by the crash. They have been told to claim off their own household insurance and let their provider deal with the driver's insurers. As they're in their 80s they're not going to be able to put the garden back together themselves and will require assistance from a landscaping company. The cost of the new fence, posts, landscaping (removal and replacement of a mature tree) ornaments and plants is well above the £1,000 limit they have on their own policy and their insurer is refusing to cover any excess. They're not looking for betterment, they just want to get the garden back into the condition it was in before the accident.

Should they give notice to the other driver that they'll be invoicing them for the remainder with the intention of taking them to the small claims court if their bill isn't paid? Or should this remain as an insurance issue with complaints up the chain until it reaches the Ombudsman?

Thanks for your time.

dacouch

They can claim directly from the drivers Insurers their details can be obtained from www.askmid.com
Their home Insurance will have limited cover for the actual garden where as when you claim against the vehicle Insurance you can claim to repair / replace whatever is damaged.
The vehicle Insurers may ask you to obtain quotations for repairs / replacements

Bellevue22

dacouch said:

They can claim directly from the drivers Insurers their details can be obtained from www.askmid.com

Thank you - I'm not sure why they've been told to claim off their own policy.

Bellevue22

Apparently they are claiming off the drivers insurance but the driver's insurers won't offer any more than what their own home and building policy allows for. It's being termed as an impact claim against their insurance (not caused by the household or their fault). Is this normal policy?

Sandtree

Bellevue22 said:

dacouch said:

They can claim directly from the drivers Insurers their details can be obtained from www.askmid.com

Thank you - I'm not sure why they've been told to claim off their own policy.

Who told them to?

There are certain advantages of claiming off your own insurance, for instance (but not applicable here) home insurance is normally on a "new for old" basis whereas the TP insurer would settle on a "old for old" basis, similarly if things go wrong you can take your own insurance company to the Ombudsman whereas the TP insurer you can only take to court.

Depending on if your insurer does Motor then they should be able to confirm the third party insurance company and policynumber if you wish to either claim the amount above the £1,000 from the TP Insurer or wish to switch the whole claim to them. The latter may be a bit problematic if your insurers have already incurred costs.

Jfk1988

Bellevue22 said:

the driver's insurers won't offer any more than what their own home and building policy allows for.

That's not the case, the motor insurer is liable for up to 20 million pounds of third party damage.

By that logic if the house had no insurance then they would receive nothing at all!

All I can think is that the home insurer will only pursue the motor insurer for their £1000 limit and wash their hands of the extra. 

mgfvvc

If their home policy includes legal cover, then they should use that.

Sandtree

mgfvvc said:

If their home policy includes legal cover, then they should use that.

Legal protection insurance on Home tends to explicitly exclude incidents involving a motor vehicle but may be worth checking if they arent comfortable dealing with matters themselves.

mgfvvc

Sandtree said:

mgfvvc said:

If their home policy includes legal cover, then they should use that.

Legal protection insurance on Home tends to explicitly exclude incidents involving a motor vehicle but may be worth checking if they arent comfortable dealing with matters themselves.

I don't believe that's correct. They would typically exclude incidents involving a motor vehicle owned
or driven by the policyholder.
I would expect claims where a third party has damaged the property to be covered, regardless of whether a motor vehicle was involved. Of course I am no expert, but a quick Google doesn't find a blanket exclusion for incidents involving motor vehicles.

[Deleted User]

Bellevue22 said:

dacouch said:

They can claim directly from the drivers Insurers their details can be obtained from www.askmid.com

Thank you - I'm not sure why they've been told to claim off their own policy.

Someone trying it on, hoping that they don't have to pay out.

Aretnap

mgfvvc said:

Sandtree said:

mgfvvc said:

If their home policy includes legal cover, then they should use that.

Legal protection insurance on Home tends to explicitly exclude incidents involving a motor vehicle but may be worth checking if they arent comfortable dealing with matters themselves.

I don't believe that's correct. They would typically exclude incidents involving a motor vehicle owned
or driven by the policyholder.
I would expect claims where a third party has damaged the property to be covered, regardless of whether a motor vehicle was involved. Of course I am no expert, but a quick Google doesn't find a blanket exclusion for incidents involving motor vehicles.

I think you're right. I've just checked the legal cover attached to home insurance from three insurers (Direct Line, page 23; Admiral page 53; and Aviva page 5) and none of them have an exclusion which would be relevant to the OP's parents. All say that they will cover claims relating to damage to you home (provided the other boxes are ticked, like having a reasonable chance of success), and say nothing along the lines of "unless your home is hit by a car".

Some of them do have an exclusion for personal injury claims arising out of an accident where you are driving (so the product doesn't overlap with motor legal protection that comes with car insurance), but that's not relevant in this case.