Drunk driver hit my parked car - advice needed

Susieee

Urgent help needed please.

My car was parked outside my house on the road. A drunk driver (car A) collided head on with another car (car B.). Car B was pushed into my car. It was a high speed accident which resulted in my car being pushed from the road into the kerb and on to the pavement.

The driver of Car A staggered out and clearly smelt of alchohol. He hung around for a bit but then drove off leaving his friend behind. Anyway, the police managed to attend his house the same night and must have breathalysed him. I don't know for sure, but he will likely admit blame. There are more than 10 witnesses placing him at the scene.

I think my car is written off but my insurance need to have a look at it. I think they will take a while to go through their investigation - even if the other party admits fault.

I spoke to my insurance company and told them my car is used for business daily - I travel from site to site carrying tools undertaking surveys - I cannot use public transport as this will take too long visiting multiple sites and I am not able to carry my many tools. I asked for a courtesy car immediately as I have work tomorrow and my insurance provides for this. Over the next 3 days, I will be earning almost £3,000.

I was advised that they cannot provide a courtesy car until they have completed their investigation. I think they want to send the car to a repair garage and the garage will provide the temporary car.

They said I shouldn't hire my own car because I will be mitigating my losses and therefore unable to claim from the 3rd party. I think they meant hire costs.

They said they should be able to claim for loss of earnings.

My question is, is the above reasonable?
Why can't I, if blame is admitted, claim for reasonable car hire costs (around £30 per day) instead of claiming for £500-600 per day in lost earnings? Why would the 3rd party insurance not want this?

The claim is being handled by a claims management company - QDOS Accident Assistance - recommended by my insurer Ladybird Insurance.

Thank you for any help and advice.

GrumpyDil

Normally accident management companies are keen to push you down the very expensive credit hire process but quite frankly if you can hire a car for much less than your potential loss of earnings then I would go that route as that is minimising your losses far more than trying to claim for lost earnings. 

Susieee

Thanks for the reply. I have just called the drunk driver. He says he isn't admitting blame as he thinks the red car pulled out on him and caused him to crash. When he was at the scene, he said the same thing and he pointed to a space that didn't exist. I can't believe someone can drive whilst drunk, crash into a car, drive off from the scene and then deny he was at fault.

Car_54

Susieee said:

The claim is being handled by a claims management company - QDOS Accident Assistance - recommended by my insurer Ladybird Insurance.

Thank you for any help and advice.

I'd agree with GrumpyDil.

According to the Ladybird (stupid name!) website, they are a broker, not an insurer. Have you been dealing with them or your actual insurer?

Susieee

I don't know who my actual insurer is but I have been dealing with the management company.

Susieee

Wakam Insurance is the underwriter.

mebu60

Susieee said:

I don't know who my actual insurer is but I have been dealing with the management company.

Your current insurance certificate should tell you who you are insured with.

Susieee

I just want to know if it's reasonable to hire a car and claim reasonable costs regardless of what my insurance says. Whoever is to blame, it cannot be my and my parked car.

Herzlos

When it gets to claims or court to settle they'll ask why you didn't mitigate costs.

Personally, even if you could claim for the lost work any reputational hit would be impossible to gauge so I'd be hiring a car independently to continue to work. Or even just hire hire a car until a courtesy vehicle is available.

If they don't pay up, you'll be out less hiring a vehicle than not working, too.

MeteredOut

Susieee said:

I just want to know if it's reasonable to hire a car and claim reasonable costs regardless of what my insurance says. Whoever is to blame, it cannot be my and my parked car.

No-one here will be able to tell you what the insurer will ultimately decide, but with £3K at stake, if I were in your position, I'd be hiring the car @ £30/day and hoping to claim that back, rather than lose £3K income and hope to claim it back. I suspect the latter will be a lot harder to prove (but it depends on what kind of work you do).

I assume the car was insured for business purposes?

Susieee

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I have just called the claims management company and told them I want to deal directly with the underwriter. They have closed the claim their side and passed it over.

The car was insured for business, yes.