Aviva Claims and Courtesy Cars

ClaireMcC86

Hi everyone.

At the weekend the driver of a hired German campervan drove into the passenger side of my car and caused a lot of damage. My insurers are Aviva. I submitted a claim with them straight away, and my car has gone away for repairs. However, it's going to be at least 3 weeks to get the repairs complete, and I'm supposed to get a courtesy car with my policy but the garage doing the repairs don't have any available. I told Aviva about this and they said they would get Enterprise to provide me with a hire car, but Enterprise told me they didn't want to do that because the vehicle that hit me was a foreign one and they couldn't be sure they'd get the money from their insurers. So back to Aviva I went, and they said they would get the repair network to provide me with one, but it doesn't look like they're going to get me one either. 

If I don't get a courtesy car, do you think I'd be entitled to ask Aviva for money back since they haven't been able to provide me with a courtesy car which I paid extra for to have as part of my policy? I've never had to make a claim before either - should Aviva be contacting the third party insurers and asking them to pay for things such as a hire car since I'm not the one at fault? They haven't even contacted them yet

martinbainbridge1975

if you are using an approved repairer of the insurer then your policy should cover a courtesy car for period of repairs - I would go back to aviva with the stance im not bothered where the car comes from please sort it.

enterprise are thinking its what is called credit hire which is a completely different avenue 

Sandtree

Read your policy... most traditional policies you are entitled to a courtesy car provided by the garage but it is subject to availability and on the condition that your car is being repaired. Assuming that's the case with your policy and the garage says they've no courtesy cars spare then not much else you can do. 

Some insurers (eg Direct Line) allow you to pay more for a "guaranteed" car which moves it from being a car provided by the garage to a hire car but these are typically for a max of 14 or 21 days meaning that if parts are delayed etc it could well have to go back before the repairs are complete.

Was your car drivable? Have repairs commenced? The obvious two options if the car is drivable and/or repairs haven't commenced is either to delay the repairs until a courtesy car is available or choose another garage that does have an immediately available car.

The reference to the hire car company will have been to their Credit Hire division where they provide you a car on credit and then recover their outlay from the third party insurer. Claims involving foreign vehicles are notoriously slow to process, they cannot easily confirm there is valid insurance in place etc and so little surprise they dont want to give you a car on credit.

martinbainbridge1975

what sandtree says above is spot on, also from experience of claims working, credit hire is risky as historically cases invoicing foreign vehicles tend to drag on quite a long time. i seem to recall their being a time limit for the credit hire being paid ( this was a few year ago so may well have changed )

missile

"I'm supposed to get a courtesy car with my policy but the garage doing the repairs don't have any available."
You could have declined to use that body repair shop. I did and miraculously they managed to find me a loan car.