Accident not my fault - should I still have to pay the excess?

daveyjp

£1,000 less than replacement cost is acceptable if you are looking at buying from a dealer as there is an element of 'betterment' with a dealer car.

prettyandfluffy

You should involve your own insurer anyway.  You are obliged to tell them about any accidents or claims and you might as well let them negotiate on your behalf.  If you want to get an increased offer for the damage to your car, collect adverts for vehicles as similar as possible to yours in terms of age, mileage and condition and send them through as evidence.

Peredur

daveyjp said:

£1,000 less than replacement cost is acceptable if you are looking at buying from a dealer as there is an element of 'betterment' with a dealer car.

Thanks. I am struggling to comprehend that, through no fault of my own, I am down £1K + all the hassle

prettyandfluffy said:

You should involve your own insurer anyway.  You are obliged to tell them about any accidents or claims and you might as well let them negotiate on your behalf.  If you want to get an increased offer for the damage to your car, collect adverts for vehicles as similar as possible to yours in terms of age, mileage and condition and send them through as evidence.

I have told my own insurer about the incident so they are on board. Sadly I have collected adverts and sent them in to the bloke's insurer (Covea) and they have just said "hard cheese". If I go to my own insurer and ask them to bat on my behalf, this is going to make a mess of my NCD, no?

DullGreyGuy

Peredur said:

Sorry for pigybacking on a thread here, but it seems that there are people who know things here.

I was involved in an accident 5 weeks ago. Someone pulled out from a side road and hit my car. He accepted full responsibility as has his insurance company (Covea). The car is written off. However, despite they are offering me £1K less than it is going to cost me to replace the car on a like for like basis. By now I am banging my head against a wall. I have written to the FCA who have told me that as I am a 3rd party, they cannot get involved. Covea have suggested I approach my own insurance company. That would seem like me deliberately borking my own NCD. Can anyone suggest a way forward or do I just have to accept and find the extra money myself?

Firstly, start your own thread for your own scenario, you'll get notified when there are replies if nothing else and won't necessarily will by posting on someone else's. 

The FCA will not get involved in individual claims, they are a regulator. The Financial Ombudsman is the route for individuals to complain but you have no rights as a third party to go to the FOS.

You have three options:

1) Accept the offer if you cannot convince them your car is worth more
2) Claim off your own insurance, once they recover their outlay from the third party insurer your NCD will be reinstated however most insurers use the same guides (that are from the Motor industry not Insurance) so are likely to value it similarly
3) Commission your own engineers report, send a letter before action and take the third party insurer to court but obviously you risk the engineer saying actually their offer is reasonable and you just over value your car in which case you will be down the engineer report fee. 

Peredur

DullGreyGuy said:

Peredur said:

Sorry for pigybacking on a thread here, but it seems that there are people who know things here.

I was involved in an accident 5 weeks ago. Someone pulled out from a side road and hit my car. He accepted full responsibility as has his insurance company (Covea). The car is written off. However, despite they are offering me £1K less than it is going to cost me to replace the car on a like for like basis. By now I am banging my head against a wall. I have written to the FCA who have told me that as I am a 3rd party, they cannot get involved. Covea have suggested I approach my own insurance company. That would seem like me deliberately borking my own NCD. Can anyone suggest a way forward or do I just have to accept and find the extra money myself?

Firstly, start your own thread for your own scenario, you'll get notified when there are replies if nothing else and won't necessarily will by posting on someone else's. 

The FCA will not get involved in individual claims, they are a regulator. The Financial Ombudsman is the route for individuals to complain but you have no rights as a third party to go to the FOS.

You have three options:

1) Accept the offer if you cannot convince them your car is worth more
2) Claim off your own insurance, once they recover their outlay from the third party insurer your NCD will be reinstated however most insurers use the same guides (that are from the Motor industry not Insurance) so are likely to value it similarly
3) Commission your own engineers report, send a letter before action and take the third party insurer to court but obviously you risk the engineer saying actually their offer is reasonable and you just over value your car in which case you will be down the engineer report fee. 

Fair point on my own thread - mea culpa.

Thanks for the leads, I guess it IS time to talk to my insurers then. it is just all hassle that I do not need at the moment.