Hasting 3rd party Insurance claim issue

Aylesbury_Duck

nem39esis said:

No not notified my insurance as there is no requirement to do so, also that then becomes messy as puts my premium up and I then have to go to small claims etc to reclaim for that- not worth it. And no they don’t notify my insurance. 

essentially as I understand it the insurer is not allowed to give discounted rates as a settlement. because the rate they get is not a reflection of the repair cost to me. I.e. they may get a preferential rate due to number of cars they send by that is not a true reflection of the actual cost to repair. 

 Whilst getting Hastings to do the repair is an idea they have really been rubbish and organising a hire car problematic with them. 

Are you sure about that?  It's worth checking your policy terms if you haven't done so already.  If you don't tell them and your current or future insurer later learns about the incident and decides to cancel your policy, you're in a world of difficulty and cost when it comes to getting insurance in future.  The fact you know it would put your premium up means it would change your insurer's assessment of your risk profile.  I'd have thought that makes it an obligation on you to inform them.

vacheron

nem39esis said:

No not notified my insurance as there is no requirement to do so, also that then becomes messy as puts my premium up and I then have to go to small claims etc to reclaim for that- not worth it. And no they don’t notify my insurance. 

Are you sure about this, or is it what the body shop told you? 

I was told the same when someone drove into the back of my stationary car about 8 years ago. The accident still ended up on an accident register somewhere, and my insurer found out and came knocking!

Most insurance will require you to declare all accidents, even if no claim was made and you were not at fault. Not fair, but that is the contract you may have signed up for. 

nem39esis said:

Well it’s more the principle too. If it costs 2.5k to repair then their offer of 1k won’t cut it. That’s the issue. They may have negotiated a lower price but the garage won’t give me that price. So what they’re offering isn’t right surely? 

 Feels dodgy, especially when they won’t share this lesser quote from the same garage.

its a Tesla so not many places will touch it either and always way more pricey than a normal body shop 

But this is exactly what you stated above: An "offer" for a cash settlement... and one that was made only after you yourself specifically requested a cash settlement option.

As there is an alternative option to repair your car, you are under no obligation to accept that offer and instead stick with the original option of the insurer undertaking the repair themselves. (Though you should still be able to claim for a hire car during the repairs).

I can pay you £200K for your house, or offer you 200 bananas instead. It may not suit your requirements, but making the proposal is perfectly allowable.

DullGreyGuy

nem39esis said:

A lady damaged my car door. Contacted her insurance company (Hastings) all appears to go smoothly. Said I could submit a quote for repair or they. An arrange themselves, initially had my own quote but then garage couldn’t fit me in. So went to Hastings to arrange their own repair. All was being sorted except they wanted the car for a week and no hire car was arranged. After much back and forth I suggested could I just get a cash settlement as it was becoming cumbersome. Yes no problem. They were using shorade, had the quote from shorade for the repairs at £2550. Sent this, they started saying they needed it uploaded by the repair company- much more back and forth- finally done expect Hastings “engineers” are saying they have a quote of £1020. 

Many phone calls back and forth and what it seams like is that Hastings have negotiated a lesser price and are going with that as my offer- I believe this isn’t allowed. They are adamant that’s what they’ve received as the estimate but won’t send me a copy- I think it’s because it’s discounted. 

What can I do- I went to the financial ombudsman but as it’s not my policy they can’t do anything. Made a formal complaint to Hastings which they didn’t uphold no surprise there. 

I think I’m being played and don’t want to accept and then find it’s way more to repair. 

As a third party you have no "rights", you have no protection from the regulators or the ombudsman beyond knowing that the third party insurer should be solvent enough to pay for your losses. Your mechanism of objecting to them is going through the civil courts to sue the driver and their insurer will respond to defend them. 

As soon as you go to a garage and say its for an insurance claim they will double the cost 1) because insurers require full standard repairs not patch jobs and 2) they know insures will negotiate and so need to put some fat in to cover that price cut. For example they'll almost say parts will be at MRSP whereas insurers will demand a 15-25% discount on the parts. 

One part to ask them is about VAT, often cash offers are made net of VAT because obviously thats Government money which doesn't apply if nothing is being bought. If you use the cash to pay for the vehicle to be repaired they will often pay the VAT on top once evidence that you've paid the VAT up to 20% of the cash. 

Ultimately if you are actually wanting the car repaired, you are probably better off going via their approved, cash tends to be best for those that will have it done by a backstreet person cash in hand, will repair it themselves or will live with the damage. 

HillStreetBlues said:

You should be entitled to a hire car for the week, so that would be an extra expense if you get them to repair it.
Have you found out the cost of a weeks hire and submitted that to Hastings?
You could decide to forget about going direct via Hastings and use your insurance.

They should be entitled to hire for the period the vehicle is in the garage if the garage cannot provide a courtesy car or the courtesy car is inappropriate for the OP's needs. Generally insurers are reluctant to provide cash for hire when they are giving cash for the repairs because there is no guarantee the claimant will ever even get a repair... cash is to represent the actual loss not what the potential loss could be in multiple scenarios. 

400ixl

You do have to inform your insurer, any incident has to be reported, you are just not making a direct claim.

As for the cash payment being the discounted rate. Yes that is perfectly legal and is the way insurance works.

To use a different example from house insurance. If you lost a ring and it was valued at £200, the insurer would potentially give you a voucher to go and get a equivalent through their chosen retailer. You decide you would rather have the cash, the insurer would provide a cash value of what they would pay their retailer, not the retail value. That is perfectly legal and normal.

The same applies to motor insurance.

You have a choice of:
1. Go through your own insurer and let them reclaim the costs from Hastings. This may mean paying your excess and having to claim that back and whether you get a courtesy car whilst in for repair depends on your policy.

2. Go through Hastings and use their repairer, arguing that they need to provide a vehicle whilst in for repair at no cost to yourself.

3. Accept Hastings cash offer and get it repaired yourself (you can take it anywhere at that point)

DullGreyGuy

400ixl said:

You do have to inform your insurer, any incident has to be reported, you are just not making a direct claim.

As for the cash payment being the discounted rate. Yes that is perfectly legal and is the way insurance works.

To use a different example from house insurance. If you lost a ring and it was valued at £200, the insurer would potentially give you a voucher to go and get a equivalent through their chosen retailer. You decide you would rather have the cash, the insurer would provide a cash value of what they would pay their retailer, not the retail value. That is perfectly legal and normal.

The same applies to motor insurance.

You have a choice of:
1. Go through your own insurer and let them reclaim the costs from Hastings. This may mean paying your excess and having to claim that back and whether you get a courtesy car whilst in for repair depends on your policy.

2. Go through Hastings and use their repairer, arguing that they need to provide a vehicle whilst in for repair at no cost to yourself.

3. Accept Hastings cash offer and get it repaired yourself (you can take it anywhere at that point)

Thats how first party insurance works as it's governed by terms of the policy, the regulation of the FCA and the complaints handling of the Ombudsman. 

A third party claim is made against the third party themselves, the third party passes it to their insurers to defend them. It's totally outside the remit of all the above other than the safety net of the PRA ensuring the insurer can afford to pay its future claims. 

The OP could simply pay for the car to be repaired, present the bill to Hastings and if Hastings dont pay in full they could litigate against Hastings for any short fall. They have a basic duty to mitigate their losses but courts dont push hard on that at all. You cannot do the same to your own insurance company.

What the OP is actually claiming for legally is the devaluing of the vehicle caused at the instant of impact. The courts have accepted that repair costs are the simplest ways of proxying what the impact damage will have on value. 

My advise wasnt to so what they could do as presumably the OP doesn't want to be out of pocket whilst awaiting the court action, if required, and clearly repairs are capped at the difference between the value of the vehicle and the scrap value of the vehicle which would require an engineers report to assess which is another cost unless its bleeding obvious the vehicle is worth way more than the repair costs.