Company Car Insurance Only Third Party

actionyum

Hello,
We've just found out that my partner's company only insures their company cars for third party fire and theft. 
I feel really uncomfortable with this I would always get fully comp for my own car. We have two kids and they also don't cover personal possessions like car seats. 
I'm trying to quantify what the actual risk to us is. The company pay for the repairs to the car but not clear on what else eg personal injury or legal fees. 
I'm worried this leaves us open to be liable in the event of an at fault or shared fault claim. What could this potentially cost us or what might we miss eg if the kids were injured. 

Should there be an option to upgrade the insurance? 
Thank you 

DullGreyGuy

Injury to you is never covered by your insurance (ignoring the token PA cover for loss of limb etc). TP cover provides cover for injuries you cause to others including passengers in your car if you are to blame. 

Legal expenses for defending a claim again is standard in TP cover. You'd need to ask your employer how they'd deal with cases when lawyers are required to pursue losses. You can find standalone LE cover, some are even free, but ultimately they'd need to co-ordinate with your employer if liability is disputed or multiple parts of the claim. 


Its not uncommon for large companies with medium sized fleets of cars to not insure own damage... once you get so many cars its not a question of if you are going to have a claim but if this year is more or less than last year. Take a global hire car company, I cannot remember their exact numbers but on average they had $75m in claims every year. If they were to buy comprehensive insurance from the ground up they'd be paying $75m + a risk margin in case this is a bad year + operating costs + profit margin all then times by tax. So that $75m would cost them over $100m, that just doesn't make sense. So instead they buy insurance with a $75m aggregate excess and so just pay for cover over $75m and below it is just operational costs and margin/tax on those which are tiny in comparison. 

actionyum

Yeah I get it's commercially the right decision for the company. I want to make sure that we as a family are protected though. 
So if you have an at fault claim as the driver and say me and my two kids were injured what would you normally get back from your own fully comp insurance for the three of us as passengers? 
I thought I understood what I was buying as fully comp but I'm not so sure now. 
Do you get any cover via fully comp for loss of earnings or would that involve suing the driver?
Will ask all the questions although I suspect they do nothing to support you if for example a legal claim was bought by the other driver in a you at fault situation.

DullGreyGuy

actionyum said:

So if you have an at fault claim as the driver and say me and my two kids were injured what would you normally get back from your own fully comp insurance for the three of us as passengers? 
I thought I understood what I was buying as fully comp but I'm not so sure now. 
Do you get any cover via fully comp for loss of earnings or would that involve suing the driver?
Will ask all the questions although I suspect they do nothing to support you if for example a legal claim was bought by the other driver in a you at fault situation.

In a fault accident then in TPFT you personally get nothing whereas with Comp then your vehicle would be repaired or written off less the Excess. 

Irrespective of level of cover your kids, via a litigation friend, would be able to sue you for their injuries. 

The one thing that makes a difference is if you have LE cover or not which is typically an optional extra irrespective of the level of cover. Without LE cover the litigation friend would be looking for a "no win, no fee" lawyer whereas potentially with LE cover your insurers may instruct lawyers for them... I say may as your insurers would be appointing someone to sue them which can be seen as a conflict of interests but Lawyers are a major regulated industry and are good at dealing with conflict of interests. 

Comp doesn't give you LoE cover... every insurer I;ve ever worked with has described motor insurance as a pizza... Third Party Only is the base, legal minimum covering damage to others. The tomato layers on Fire & Theft cover to cover own vehicle damage in those two scenarios. Comprehensive is made up of the cheese, which covers you for own vehicle accident damage and then the rest of the toppings which vary a bit but tend to be £100 of personal possessions, Personal Accident for major injuries, prescription charges, driving other cars. For most, very much secondary elements. 

Again, if you have LE cover and aren't at fault then the lawyer will help you do a LoE claim but for 99% its not hard to do yourself unless you are the typical "just started trading" self employed person (eg private hire taxi) who claims they are working 8 days a week and making £1,000 a day profit but no records.