AA Car Insurance claim passed to AX management company? Feel unsure..

kasqueak

Was involved in a minor accident at the weekend. 

Third party car pulled into the side of my car causing damage to the wing, but the car was still drivable. 

At the scene the third party gave me his name and phone number and I got pics and the car reg.
When I got home I called my insurer (the AA) to report the accident and they suggested I go through AX accident management who would deal with our claim. 

Looks like the person who hit me wasn’t insured to drive that car but the car itself was insured. 

Within 24hrs a hire car was delivered to my house but no word on when my car is being collected for repair. 

I feel uneasy about having this very expensive hire car and keep reading horror stories of people having massive bills sent to them, going to court as the third party insurance won’t pay out etc. I wish I’d just asked to claim through my insurance instead of going through AX. 

Anyone have any experience of dealing with them? 

I can’t find anything in the AX docs about cancelling and going back to my insurer direct. 

[Deleted User]

Did you sign anything? What does it say?

DullGreyGuy

AA are your brokers not your insurers

If your car is road legal why do you have a hire car? That should only been provided when your car is about to go in for the repairs.

You only get a big bill if you try and defraud them or you dont continue to support their recovery attempts. If you do support them then anything they cannot recover is written off. Were it to come to needing to issue court proceedings etc you will be asked to sign declarations that you only had the car when you needed it, couldnt afford to have hired your own car etc etc. 

The_Unready

"Looks like the person who hit me wasn’t insured to drive that car but the car itself was insured."

Can a car be 'insured' on its own? What does this mean?

DullGreyGuy

The_Unready said:

Can a car be 'insured' on its own? What does this mean?

Its the concept of a the RTA Insurer... if the driver is identified but the insurance on the vehicle invalid (eg driver isnt named, its being used for business but only insured for SD&P) then the insurer has an obligation to settle any claims made against the driver.

Depending on the circumstances the insurer will then have a right of recovery from the driver of the vehicle and, if the insured is complicit with the matter, against the policyholder. You will find a few cases on here where people havent cancelled their insurance after selling their vehicle and the buyer hasnt bought insurance and had an accident. As its the policyholders fault for not cancelling the insurance the last poster was being chased for about £40,000 from memory (I've dealt with higher value cases too)

kasqueak

The headlight is broken so my insurers said my car shouldn’t be driven and that’s why they sent the hire car, my car still hasn’t been collected for repair (but the incident was only on Sunday)

The other car involved was insured but the guy driving it wasn’t named on the policy, was a friends car he’d borrowed. 

Seems the hire car is on some credit agreement and it says the costs will he recovered from the third party. But I feel uneasy about the situation being dealt with through this company AX. 

I thought my insurer (the AA) would pass me onto the broker and deal with my claim directly, seems to be these accident management companies make their money from the hire car and I’m worried about being liable somehow. 

Just wanting to know any experiences of anyone dealing with AX for a non fault claim. 

DullGreyGuy

kasqueak said:

I thought my insurer (the AA) would pass me onto the broker and deal with my claim directly, seems to be these accident management companies make their money from the hire car and I’m worried about being liable somehow. 

Think you've got that backwards... the AA is a broker not an insurer and so assume you mean you thought they'd pass you to your insurer?

Fees for brokers selling Motor are tiny and if they can even breakeven given the high marketing costs is fairly borderline. Where they can make their money is by getting referral fees from accident management companies, cross selling other insurances etc. Its little wonder therefore that they suggest you use them.

kasqueak said:

The other car involved was insured but the guy driving it wasn’t named on the policy, was a friends car he’d borrowed. 

So they may have Driving Other Cars on their own insurance or there will be the insurer of the vehicle as RTA insurer

kasqueak said:

Just wanting to know any experiences of anyone dealing with AX for a non fault claim. 

Many do and most are simple/go smoothly. You will obviously get the horror stories too, a poster here recently received the bill as the at fault party for nearly 100 days hire at £440 per day but their insurers will ultimately pay whatever the courts deem to be an appropriate amount. 

jellyfish22

Hi, any update with how your claim went? Im currently going through a similar experience and wasn’t at fault in the accident and worried other parties insurance may refuse to pay out the excessive car hire fees. Hoping that it went well for you

DullGreyGuy

jellyfish22 said:

Hi, any update with how your claim went? Im currently going through a similar experience and wasn’t at fault in the accident and worried other parties insurance may refuse to pay out the excessive car hire fees. Hoping that it went well for you

The OP hasn't logged in again since May last year so probably won't be back for an update @jellyfish22

As long as you support the company through the process you have little to worry about. It's when people start getting silly and refusing to provide bank statements etc is where it becomes problematic. If there are any concerns then speak to the accident management company up front, the main risk to mitigate is if you could easily afford to hire a like for like car at your own expense potentially for months

jellyfish22

Thank you for the reply. Its AX , just been on their website and it says “ You are legally responsible for the hire charges, but we will claim them on your behalf from the fault party. If we are not able to recover the hire charges from the fault party, provided you have complied with the terms of the rental agreement (which includes co-operating with us throughout your claim), the hire charges will be written off. This means that the hire charges are what lawyers call a "contingent liability" - or, in simple terms, on a "no win, no fee basis”. On condition that you comply with the rental agreement, your liability is limited to the charges recovered from the fault party.”

so guess i will be having to support that if it gets to that stage. also im going on holiday i will hand back the hire car for that week to prevent unnecessary hire charges