Auxillis non fault financial information

Madgebabes88

My car was driven into just over a year ago. Thankfully for me a witness happened to film the entire debacle of the car repeatedly reversing into my parked car. Given this it was assessed as a non fault claim by my insurer. I paid my excess to have the car repaired which my insurer provided me a cheque back for. Whilst it was in the garage I used a hire car which my insurer had passed me through to auxillis. I was assured there are 2 witnesses and video evidence that I didn't need to worry and it would be non fault and no cost to me. I therefore signed the credit hire agreement as advised by my insurer. Forward on one year and the third party insurer still hasn't paid. I have now had a letter informing me auxillis are pursuing them and may go to court and need to instruct a solicitor on my behalf. They have requested my financial information to see if I could have afforded a hire car upfront. At no point was I ever asked if I could I was advised to use the courtesy car on my policy.
What does this mean for me now? If I agree to them using a solicitor could I be liable for solicitor fees ontop of the potential car hire?
I can't recall exactly what I had in the bank at the time but I believe it would have been around £1000 so if they assess that I had enough to pay the hire car would this mean I would have to foot the auxillis bill? Feeling very stressed and confused and hadn't even considered I'd be in a position with someone not paying out with clear video footage. Advice welcomed 

tasticz

Just give them what they’re asking. You need to comply. As long as you haven’t lied about the incident (seems you have not) you’ll be fine

SteveWade

Madgebabes88 said:

My car was driven into just over a year ago. Thankfully for me a witness happened to film the entire debacle of the car repeatedly reversing into my parked car. Given this it was assessed as a non fault claim by my insurer. I paid my excess to have the car repaired which my insurer provided me a cheque back for. Whilst it was in the garage I used a hire car which my insurer had passed me through to auxillis. I was assured there are 2 witnesses and video evidence that I didn't need to worry and it would be non fault and no cost to me. I therefore signed the credit hire agreement as advised by my insurer. Forward on one year and the third party insurer still hasn't paid. I have now had a letter informing me auxillis are pursuing them and may go to court and need to instruct a solicitor on my behalf. They have requested my financial information to see if I could have afforded a hire car upfront. At no point was I ever asked if I could I was advised to use the courtesy car on my policy.
What does this mean for me now? If I agree to them using a solicitor could I be liable for solicitor fees ontop of the potential car hire?
I can't recall exactly what I had in the bank at the time but I believe it would have been around £1000 so if they assess that I had enough to pay the hire car would this mean I would have to foot the auxillis bill? Feeling very stressed and confused and hadn't even considered I'd be in a position with someone not paying out with clear video footage. Advice welcomed 

This is a common problem within the Credit Hire industry as their rates are often considerably higher than normal car hire rates and 3rd Party insurers regularly dispute the charges. The Auxillis lawyers will attempt to recover the full charge (do you know what this is?) and will be paid a percentage of what they recover.

The 3rd party will argue that you could have afforded a normal hire car and that they should only pay those reduced rates

Because Auxillis work on a commission basis (they often take at least 20% of the repair cost and even more of the credit hire charge) they will be keen to recover in full, either from the 3rd party or (unfortunately) from you.

Your argument could be that although you had £1000 in the bank, this money was committed to paying bills and therefore you could not afford to pay for a hire car.

However, if a courtesy car was available, why did you not take this option?

AdrianC

Madgebabes88 said:

...
I have now had a letter informing me auxillis are pursuing them and may go to court and need to instruct a solicitor on my behalf. They have requested my financial information to see if I could have afforded a hire car upfront. At no point was I ever asked if I could I was advised to use the courtesy car on my policy.

What does this mean for me now? If I agree to them using a solicitor could I be liable for solicitor fees ontop of the potential car hire?
I can't recall exactly what I had in the bank at the time but I believe it would have been around £1000 so if they assess that I had enough to pay the hire car would this mean I would have to foot the auxillis bill?

Ultimately, the paperwork you signed for the car included your liability for the cost if the other side do not pay... Whether you realised it at the time or not...

There is also a basic legal principle that you have a duty to mitigate all costs - so if you paying to hire a car yourself would be cheaper than the insurer's provided one, you have a duty to do that if you can.

Likewise, if you have another car available, you do not need the hired car. If a small city car would be adequate, you do not need to hire a big 4x4, even if your car was one. This helps to keep claims down, which keeps premiums down. EVERYBODY benefits.

But, obviously, that only applies if you could have afforded to hire a car for the period. Could you?
With a grand in the bank, it would be very easy to argue that you did not have the financial headroom to commit to paying without affecting your basic everyday life. But, of course, that needs to be proven with financial records...
You should be fine.
If you'd had ten grand in, the situation would be different.

Ultimately, this is all preparation for a court case that will probably never happen, because it will be cheaper for the other insurer to just pay than to jump through all the legal hoops. They're just seeing how far they can push your insurer.

Madgebabes88

No I would have struggled to afford it. My children's father wasn't able to pay his normal maintenance during this time either as he was furloughed so every penny counted towards bills petrol and childcare. Although my insurer never even asked about hiring one myself and advised me to use auxillis so I wonder if they receive some sort of commission themselves. Auxillis haven't given me any correspondence with the amounts they are claiming so I'm unsure what that is at the moment. I'm sure it will be on any following court paperwork. 

KimJongUn88

Try not to worry too much about it. 99% of the tome, these cases never reach court. They will settle eventually.

Auxilis will fund the total action themselves at no cost to you. Just keep them on side by providing the information they require and it will be fine.

Madgebabes88

Thankyou I hope so