Car insurance - car destroyed in Luton Airport car park fire or other commercial building

DullGreyGuy

carefulrider said:

Thank you CW8825 and DGG, and all other posters.

It's clear now that it will be, at least in the immediate term, a 'Fault' claim with deduction of excess.

On their motor policy, the insured person paid an additional premium (£25) for Legal Expenses cover.

I assume that this can be used at some point to attempt to recover the excess.

Next question: how long after the insured event should the insured person wait before telephoning the Legal Cover Helpline number about recovery of the excess (substantial)?  All replies very welcome as it is such a fraught and stressful matter.

A minimum of 1 second or can be any time after... depending if the LE is from the same insurer as the main policy or not they may not actually do anything material for Small Track losses as the insurer will be trying to establish liability anyway and for simple special damages like the excess there is no claim to make until the excess has been deducted/paid

carefulrider

Mildly_Miffed said:

carefulrider said:

On their motor policy, the insured person paid an additional premium (£25) for Legal Expenses cover.

I assume that this can be used at some point to attempt to recover the excess.

Next question: how long after the insured event should the insured person wait before telephoning the Legal Cover Helpline number about recovery of the excess (substantial)?  All replies very welcome as it is such a fraught and stressful matter.

They can phone the helpline now.

But I suspect the helpline will tell them the same as you've been told here - that the insurer's failure to apply a particular goodwill measure in one exceptional case does not set a precedent for other, less exceptional, ones.

The excess is, of course, a figure the policyholder chose in advance when buying the policy.

"But I suspect the helpline will tell them the same as you've been told here - that the insurer's failure to apply a particular goodwill measure in one exceptional case does not set a precedent for other, less exceptional, ones."

This is not pertinent to the question.  One would not make argue such a point with the Legal Helpline, whom one would be asking to assist in the recovery of the excess and who would not be involved in any way with the original decision by the Claims Department.

"The excess is, of course, a figure the policyholder chose in advance when buying the policy."

Not so.  Policies include a compulsory excess.

cw8825

carefulrider said:

"But I suspect the helpline will tell them the same as you've been told here - that the insurer's failure to apply a particular goodwill measure in one exceptional case does not set a precedent for other, less exceptional, ones."

This is not pertinent to the question.  One would not make argue such a point with the Legal Helpline, whom one would be asking to assist in the recovery of the excess and who would not be involved in any way with the original decision by the Claims Department.

"The excess is, of course, a figure the policyholder chose in advance when buying the policy."

Not so.  Policies include a compulsory excess.

In terms of recovery of the excess - is there a negligent party at fault? Or is this in terms of claiming back from the insurer?
As these are 2 very different things

As already stated the can contact them immediately but until the insurer settles the claim and deducts/excess i paid there is no excess to recover

Then its the case of waiting for liability to be resolved, 

DullGreyGuy

carefulrider said:

Not so.  Policies include a compulsory excess.

Ultimately that is down to the person designing the product if they want to allow a customer to have a £0 excess or a higher minimum. Many Motor policies only have a voluntary excess, they often have a compulsory excess for young or inexperienced drivers but that doesn't apply to the Fire section as clearly the age of the driver doesn't impact how likely the carpark you're using will go up in flames