Accident claim question

FlorayG

I've never had more than a bump so I don't know.
My lodgers car was written off by an SUV on Friday. My lodger is a domiciliary care worker,  she gets paid for the hours she works, so she lost the rest of that day and has had limited appointments given to her since because at present she has to travel by bus
Can she claim against the other person's insurance for loss of earnings? And if so, for how long? She can't buy another car until the insurance company agrees hers is a write off and pays her out

caprikid1

"Can she claim against the other person's insurance for loss of earnings? And if so, for how long? She can't buy another car until the insurance company agrees hers is a write off and pays her out"

Contact the insurance company for a hire car. It will be hard work claiming for loss of earnings so she needs to mitigate her losses by attempting to get a hire car .

DullGreyGuy

FlorayG said:

Can she claim against the other person's insurance for loss of earnings? And if so, for how long? She can't buy another car until the insurance company agrees hers is a write off and pays her out

Yes, it's an uninsured loss so her insurers won't cover it but the third party insurers will. If they have Legal Expenses cover on their own insurance then their insurer will appoint someone to assist. 

There are options available to get her mobile again, either the third party insurer may be willing to provide a hire car or alternatively there is credit hire if she's not in a position to pay one for herself. 

Mildly_Miffed

She has a legal duty to minimise her losses.

If spending £20/day on hiring a car will earn her £25 more, then she needs to do it.

FlorayG

She's worried about hiring a car in case she has to pay for it - her insurance company told her they won't supply one until they get a report back on her vehicle. I told her that the other party's insurance should pay for one but she can't get an answer to this out of her insurance ( she's with Marshmallow)
She's not English, she's here on a work visa, so she doesn't know how things work and like I said, neither do I because I've never needed to

DullGreyGuy

FlorayG said:

She's worried about hiring a car in case she has to pay for it - her insurance company told her they won't supply one until they get a report back on her vehicle. I told her that the other party's insurance should pay for one but she can't get an answer to this out of her insurance ( she's with Marshmallow)
She's not English, she's here on a work visa, so she doesn't know how things work and like I said, neither do I because I've never needed to

Sounds like she has a courtesy car option on her policy rather than hire car. These are provided by the repairing garage out of their own pocket hence if the car is beyond economical repair they dont provide one as otherwise they're giving it away for nothing. 

Credit Hire remains an option, the hire company take on the risk that they cannot recover their outlay but you have to support them through the full recovery process... if you get bored with it or dont want to provide bank statements etc then they can pursue you for the monies and because the risk they take the rates are much higher than private hire

FlorayG

Yes she says her policy states courtesy car. There's no 'repairing garage' because the car is beyond help. She knows it has gone to a company that writes them off.
Can she still hire one even without approval and expect the claim to be paid against the other party? There's no way she can afford to pay for a hire car

Mildly_Miffed

In the event of a write-off, she'll likely only be entitled to a car from the insurer until that's agreed. Then it's her problem to replace it as quickly as she needs.

The whole point of mitigating losses is that if the difference in her earnings is more than the cost of the hire, she can't afford NOT to hire a car...

LightFlare

FlorayG said:

She's worried about hiring a car in case she has to pay for it - her insurance company told her they won't supply one until they get a report back on her vehicle. I told her that the other party's insurance should pay for one but she can't get an answer to this out of her insurance ( she's with Marshmallow)
She's not English, she's here on a work visa, so she doesn't know how things work and like I said, neither do I because I've never needed to

I would probably check about her driving entitlement in the UK just to make she hasnt misunderstood some common misconceptions about overseas permits etc

DullGreyGuy

Mildly_Miffed said:

In the event of a write-off, she'll likely only be entitled to a car from the insurer until that's agreed. Then it's her problem to replace it as quickly as she needs.

You're entitled to the hire car for a week after receipt of payment in the event of a total loss (from the third party insurer, not your own insurance, that would be defined by the policy terms). We used to do 10 days from the date payment was sent as we knew that date easier than when the cheque landed. 

FlorayG said:

Can she still hire one even without approval and expect the claim to be paid against the other party? There's no way she can afford to pay for a hire car

Were she to privately hire and assuming hers isn't roadworthy then yes as per the above. With Credit Hire you simply need to follow their instructions. 

Mildly_Miffed

DullGreyGuy said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

In the event of a write-off, she'll likely only be entitled to a car from the insurer until that's agreed. Then it's her problem to replace it as quickly as she needs.

You're entitled to the hire car for a week after receipt of payment in the event of a total loss (from the third party insurer, not your own insurance, that would be defined by the policy terms). We used to do 10 days from the date payment was sent as we knew that date easier than when the cheque landed. 

Some insurers may offer it for longer as a policy perk. But if the policyholder bought on price alone, it's quite likely they've gone for one of the Ryanair insurers where everything is extra.