Making an insurance claim from 3rd party or own insurance are there any benefits ?

sparkiemalarkie

Hi, I would like some help/advice about an insurance claim. 
My car was hit from behind a few days ago and the other driver has admitted fault. My car is old, 2007, and it has been declared, by my own insurance company, as not worth repairing so has been written off.
As far as I can see it just needs the rear bumper replaced , a dent pulled out out of the side panel and the bank of lights replacing.
So if there is no damage to the frame I’m happy to keep it / ‘buy it back’

My own insurance company are happy to settle quickly and have warned me against dealing with the 3rd partys insurance company.
However, the 3rd party insurers have emailed me, text me and phoned me wanting me to settle through them oh, and I received a letter through the post this morning too.

I am not claiming for anything other than the car.(No injury, no hired car needed)
The first offer from my insurance company was low, so I asked for an improved offer and it was increased by £300. However, if the frame is damaged then the offer is not high enough to replace the car, like for like.
After the increased offer, the buy back amount increased too.

Would there be any benefit in now going to the other drivers insurance (Liverpool Victoria) to see what they can offer? Or is that not the ‘done’ thing?

I will get the frame checked on Monday to see if it's repairable.

tia

sx

Nobbie1967

Yes,

well worth going to the 3rd party insurer. Find out how much it will cost to repair and see if they’re willing to cover this or repair themselves. Only downside is that you are taking the risk that it costs more than estimated to repair the car if you just take cash from the 3rd party insurer.

I went this route when someone bumped the rear of my car. Got an estimate and then asked for the cash. They agreed and it was in my account the same day.

KimJongUn88

Let the third party insurer deal. They will have their own assessors and will take your car away to be repaired with no hassle to yourself. They’ll also provide a hire car for free to you whilst yours is off the road. No need for an accident management company or credit hire.

Rolandtheroadie

My car was written off by an LV policy holder.
 They called me within an hour of being informed, arranged a courtesy car and uplifted mines to take to their repairer. 
 They decided it was uneconomical to repair, and offered me the midpoint of Autotraders Dealer price. There was £1000 between lowest and highest Dealer forecourt(not trade) price.
 I'd been going to sell the car anyway, and was paid double what I was going to pitch it at. 
 They wanted £900 for me to keep it, I took their £3200. 
 I'd deal with LV direct. 
 

DB1904

KimJongUn88 said:

Let the third party insurer deal. They will have their own assessors and will take your car away to be repaired with no hassle to yourself. They’ll also provide a hire car for free to you whilst yours is off the road. No need for an accident management company or credit hire.

Why would you think they'll repair rather than write it off?

Sandtree

You've already started the claim on your own policy then you may be too late to switch to claiming from the TPI... for example if your insurers have used a third party engineer to inspect the vehicle they'll have an outlay and the TPI isnt gong to refund that if they then have their own engineer assess the vehicle. This could mean the claim on your own policy ends up being recorded as "fault" because they cannot make the recovery.

Secondly, as a caution that presumably your insurers have already given you, if you claim frmo the TPI there is no right to take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. So if you didnt like LV='s total loss offer your only option is the risk of going to court whereas with your own insurers you can complain and then use the free FO service.

Petriix

It's always worth seeing what the third party insurers offer. You don't have to accept, but it's in their interests to make it reasonable so that you don't take them to court and win a bigger pay out as well as adding legal fees to the bill. If they don't make a fair offer then you can trigger just the motor legal part of your own insurance to get representation to follow the legal pathway through. Those options are generally preferable to just trusting your own insurer to handle it as they are only really looking out for themselves.

Sandtree

Petriix said:
win a bigger pay out as well as adding legal fees to the bill. If they don't make a fair offer then you can trigger just the motor legal part of your own insurance to get representation to follow the legal pathway through

Legal fees cannot be added in the Small Claims Court, claims sub £10,000 if not inc injury.

LE cover typically has clauses on proportionality of expenses, if the TPI have offered £1,200 and the OP rejects it saying they think the car is worth £1,500 then its likely the LE policy will say spending £1,000 in irrecoverable legal costs is not proportional in attempting to recover another £300 in valuation.

Your own insurer has plenty of motivation about making a fair offer, retaining you as a customer and avoiding the £500 of a FOS complaint. I personally support the idea of using a TPI in claims but there are plenty who'll say that going to the FOS is much easier than going to court, for one its zero risk, and so own insurers are more highly motivated to pay out especially as the money will be refunded to them by the TPI anyway