Car Hit in Car Park

jim8888

My car was scraped by another vehicle in a car park while my vehicle was unattended. Fortunately the person left me a note and their details, and they informed their insurance company of the incident (they were driving an NHS company car.) Resultantly I've had to inform my insurance company of the damage, which is quite superficial, and is estimated at £300 to repair. However, my insurance company is telling me I have to pay a £300 excess on my policy. Do I have to claim this back from the third party insurers? Obviously I don't want to pay £300 for something that was absolutely nothing to do with me. I did expressly tell my insurance I wanted to make a "no fault" claim, but nobody at any point told me I still might have to pay the excess on the policy. Any advice appreciated. 

elsien

If you are telling your own insurer for information only, and the third-party is paying for the damage, then there shouldn’t be an excess because you’re not claiming anything from your insurer? 

I think your mistake may have been using the words “no fault claim” because that does have the implication that you are claiming on your own insurance. 

daveyjp

You only pay excess if your company sorts out the repair, they then claim it back from the third party.  If the third party agree their party is at fault they can sort the repiar, or you can sort a repair yourself after getting agreement the third party insurer will pay the bill directly to the repairer.

prowla

daveyjp said:

You only pay excess if your company sorts out the repair, they then claim it back from the third party.  If the third party agree their party is at fault they can sort the repiar, or you can sort a repair yourself after getting agreement the third party insurer will pay the bill directly to the repairer.

Yep - you claim the excess back; of course, it can take a while for things to happen.

Aretnap

jim8888 said:

My car was scraped by another vehicle in a car park while my vehicle was unattended. Fortunately the person left me a note and their details, and they informed their insurance company of the incident (they were driving an NHS company car.) Resultantly I've had to inform my insurance company of the damage, which is quite superficial, and is estimated at £300 to repair. However, my insurance company is telling me I have to pay a £300 excess on my policy. Do I have to claim this back from the third party insurers? Obviously I don't want to pay £300 for something that was absolutely nothing to do with me. I did expressly tell my insurance I wanted to make a "no fault" claim, but nobody at any point told me I still might have to pay the excess on the policy. Any advice appreciated. 

You can't "make a no fault claim" on your own policy - you either make a claim on it or you don't. Any claim on your policy, regardless of fault, means paying your excess - it's not a punishment for being at fault, it's just the part of any claim that isn't covered by your policy. If there's an at fault party your insurer will attempt to recover their own costs from his insurer, at which point the claim gets classified as "no fault", and you can claim your own excess from the third party insurer (which is normally a case of simply writing to them with a receipt for the excess and asking them to pay it).

The alternative is not making a claim on your own policy at all and directly approaching the third party insurer, who may (if they are being cooperative) agree to arrange your repairs or pay you the repair cost directly without any excess being relevant. In that situation you would inform your own insurers "for information only" and make clear that you don't want to claim - you'll be dealing directly with the third party. Possibly that's what you were trying to do but things got a bit confused and your insurer took it as you wanting to make a claim on your own policy?