Car insurance and having to pay excess if other party is at fault?!

RNP100

Hi all,

My car was hit from behind while I was stationary in traffic, the other party fled the scene as I tried to get evidence!  My insurance company have stated that even if they track the other party down and they were insured I will still be obliged to pay the excess on my claim even if they are at fault!?   Clearly they are, but I have never been caught out by such a clause (see extract below).  I have been involved in accidents before due to the other party being at fault and have never had to cover any excess myself.  Always had my insurance company follow up with the other parties insurance co.

Is this a new change or have I been caught out by an underhand insurance company clause?  I've since been told the recovery of the excess is not part of the "standard policy" but my insurance is fully comprehensive and nothing like this was made clear on purchase.

Excesses
Your Schedule will tell you what excesses apply to your policy. You must pay the relevant
excess on any claim and the insurer will look after the rest (within the limits of the policy).

Thanks

RP

[Deleted User]

Yes, if you claim on your own insurance then you pay the excess. You will probably get it back when the other party is traced. If they aren't traced or dispute liability you might not get it back.

The only other option is to cancel the claim, use Ask MID to find out who their insurer is (you need their number plate) and then claim directly from them.

RNP100

Thanks Rigolith,  I should have added the other party had a "D" plate = Eire, sods law I get hit by them... My insurer is trying to track them now and I have contacted MIB about a claim for uninsured drivers.

Cheers

RP

Aretnap

It's normal. Your excess is simply the part of any claim that is not covered by your policy. Your fault, somebody else's fault, nobody's fault in particular, it makes no difference - your excess is always payable if you claim on your own policy. 

What you can do if it was someone else's fault is reclaim your excess from the insurance company of the at fault party. This depends on finding the at fault driver, then being insured, and being able to prove that it was their fault. Sometimes this is easy... sometimes it's not so easy. With a foreign registered car that fled the scene I imagine it's on the less easy end of the spectrum I'm afraid.

Sometimes your insurance company will agree to waive your excess and reclaim it from the third party themselves, which is probably what's happened in the past. But this is a goodwill gesture, not something they're ever obliged to do. And they will generally only do it when they think that reclaiming it from the third party will be easy, which is probably why they're not doing it in this case. 

RNP100

Thks Aretnap!

RNP100

Just one more question:

If the other party is insured is their insurance company obliged to pay me back the excess or is that not 100% certain.  Just seeing how far I can take it if they don't reply to me or fob me off.

Thanks

Sandtree

RNP100 said:

Just one more question:

If the other party is insured is their insurance company obliged to pay me back the excess or is that not 100% certain.  Just seeing how far I can take it if they don't reply to me or fob me off.

Thanks

If the third party is 100% to blame for the accident they must pay you back 100% of your reasonably incurred losses as a result of the accident. When your insurers deal with the accidental damage aspect of your claim for you they get subjugated rights to pursue their losses against the third party too.

When you bought your insurance you will almost certainly been told about Legal Expenses cover as an optional extra (some include it by default) and this covers providing assistance to you to recover your uninsured losses from the at fault party such as your excess, loss of earnings, injury etc (exact details will vary by claim naturally).

Short answer - yes they'll be obliged to repay your excess and if you have bought LE cover then your insurers will do the recovery work for you.

[Deleted User]

RNP100 said:

Just one more question:

If the other party is insured is their insurance company obliged to pay me back the excess or is that not 100% certain.  Just seeing how far I can take it if they don't reply to me or fob me off.

Thanks

Only if you can show that they are 100% to blame, or they admit it.

Do you have a dashcam? Was there any CCTV nearby that you could get a copy of? Otherwise it will be very hard to prove.

Did you report this to the police yet? It's worth doing, driving away without exchanging details is a crime. It will also help your insurance claim.