hire car after non fault accident

obstreperous4

Hi, so recently I discovered I'm in this situation. I work for the NHS and I had a car on a salary sacrifice scheme through a company that provide this to the NHS. In April I was in an accident that wrote my vehicle off. The other driver accepted liability, not just to me but actually to the NHS insurance providers also, who contacted him in the days after the accident. The insurance providers also asked me if I needed the use of a vehicle, to which I did, and so they had a hire company contact me to provide me with a vehicle while the insurance claim was ongoing. The company who provide my car salary sacrifice car that was written off told me that I had to continue making my payments each month while the claim was ongoing and that my payments then effectively cover the hire car that I was given to use. Now in the last couple of weeks a solicitor's have been contacting me because they have been unable to retrieve the money for the hire car and recovery and storage (totalling £14000) of the wrote off car back as they other drivers insurance hasn't admitted liability on his behalf and they want me to take the other driver to court now. What's confusing me is that the other driver has already admitted liability, plus the fact that I was told my continued payments would effectively cover the cost of the hire car for me. But now they wanting me to take it to court and if I don't I will be liable to pay. Has anybody else experienced this?

[Deleted User]

Don't worry. Chances are the other party will settle before it goes to court, they just need your agreement that you will be a witness if for some reason they don't. These things are almost always settled out of court.

obstreperous4

[Deleted User] said:

Don't worry. Chances are the other party will settle before it goes to court, they just need your agreement that you will be a witness if for some reason they don't. These things are almost always settled out of court.

Ok, thank you very much for the reply. 

Grumpy_chap

obstreperous4 said:

the money for the hire car and recovery and storage (totalling £14000) of the wrote off car 

Is that £14k the total claim, including the value of the car, or just for the hire car, recovery and storage?

If just the hire car, recovery and storage is there any split of that amount?  If a substantial proportion is for the hire car, then some of the costs may not be recovered if the claimant failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate costs.

obstreperous4

Grumpy_chap said:

obstreperous4 said:

the money for the hire car and recovery and storage (totalling £14000) of the wrote off car 

Is that £14k the total claim, including the value of the car, or just for the hire car, recovery and storage?

If just the hire car, recovery and storage is there any split of that amount?  If a substantial proportion is for the hire car, then some of the costs may not be recovered if the claimant failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate costs.

Hi, it’s just for the hire car, recovery and storage. It breaks it down to £11000 for hire, £2500 recovery and storage and then the rest for some legal expenses. Because the car I was driving wasn’t actually mine I haven’t even been kept up to date about that. 

Grumpy_chap

£11k for car hire might be challenged.  What type of car was it and how long did you have it?

What type of car was it that was written off?

Did you take care to minimise costs?

csgohan4

11k hire car, thats expensive, did you go through an accident management company or through the insurer?

Grumpy_chap

csgohan4 said:

11k hire car, thats expensive, did you go through an accident management company or through the insurer?

Especially as most claims can only cover replacement vehicle for a write-off for the short period while the vehicle is assessed and until the decision is made that it's a scrapper.  At best, a very short courtesy period following but, most likely, driven by the availability of collection drivers.  Once the vehicle is written-off, that's it for hire cars.

obstreperous4

Grumpy_chap said:

csgohan4 said:

11k hire car, thats expensive, did you go through an accident management company or through the insurer?

Especially as most claims can only cover replacement vehicle for a write-off for the short period while the vehicle is assessed and until the decision is made that it's a scrapper.  At best, a very short courtesy period following but, most likely, driven by the availability of collection drivers.  Once the vehicle is written-off, that's it for hire cars.

I absolutely agree, it’s a ridiculous price and I get why the third party insurance is not paying it. So the company that provides the salary sacrifice cars have their own accident management company who I contacted after the accident. They asked me if I needed the use of a car, which I did, and they said they could sort that for me. Later that day a different accident management company contacted me saying they’ve been advised that I needed a car after my accident and the next day I had one delivered. A few days later I was informed that my car was a right off and I contacted the salary sacrifice company to see what I do now. They told me that I could cancel my contract with them but not whilst the insurance claim ongoing and that my monthly payments now effectively cover the hire vehicle I was given. Which to me sounds like I’m paying for the hire car. I contacted them regularly for updates to which they kept telling me the claim is not yet finalised. After 2 months they contacted me saying the claim is now complete and the hire car can now go back. That was the last I heard until recently when the solicitors contacted me about taking the hire car cost to court. Looking at it now I hold my hands up to the fact that I stupidly agreed to something I didn’t fully understand. But I do also think I was given some quite misleading and incorrect information.