No Fault Insurance Claim - really confused by credit agreement?

vaderag

Someone hit the side of my car the other day (they entered the roundabout into my side). We had a witness and according to my insurer they have admitted liability

My insurer is Budget and they have passed things on to Enterprise Rent A Car

I've never been in a car accident before so this is all new to me and I've just been going along with the flow, but they are now asking me to sign a credit agreement which basically says that the credit is under my name and I am liable for any costs if they somehow can't be reclaimed

I've just called Enterprise and they are telling me that it's just "standard" and that it would only come into play if there was a later dispute or something, but I don't understand how there can be any scenario where thats the case given the other persons insurer has agreed to pay

It seems like I would be taking on a potentially large liability when given it's no fault on my behalf there isn't a good reason for that

Can anyone help advise if this is normal or if there is another path I should be pursuing? 

Mark_d

Yes this is perfectly normal.  Nothing to worry about.

DullGreyGuy

vaderag said:

Someone hit the side of my car the other day (they entered the roundabout into my side). We had a witness and according to my insurer they have admitted liability

My insurer is Budget and they have passed things on to Enterprise Rent A Car

I've never been in a car accident before so this is all new to me and I've just been going along with the flow, but they are now asking me to sign a credit agreement which basically says that the credit is under my name and I am liable for any costs if they somehow can't be reclaimed

I've just called Enterprise and they are telling me that it's just "standard" and that it would only come into play if there was a later dispute or something, but I don't understand how there can be any scenario where thats the case given the other persons insurer has agreed to pay

It seems like I would be taking on a potentially large liability when given it's no fault on my behalf there isn't a good reason for that

Can anyone help advise if this is normal or if there is another path I should be pursuing? 

Budget are a brokers not an insurer. There is very little money in selling Motor as a broker or an insurer and so companies look for alternative revenue streams. Non-fault accidents are increasingly sold passed to accident management companies who deal with matters on a credit basis and then reclaim directly from the third party insurers.

You should sit in a cool dark room with a wet towel and read the credit agreement again carefully. It most likely doesn't say that you are liable for any costs they cannot reclaim but instead says your liability is capped to what the third party is deemed liable for unless you dont follow their instruction or attempt to defraud them. 

There is 25 year cat and mouse game between insurers and accident management companies with companies adjusting their terms in reaction to court decisions. In my claim days the agreements were much simpler and stated you weren't liable for any costs and then some insurer decided to take a stance against an accident management company and successfully argued their case so immediately all accident management companies changed their language. 

The other insurer hasn't agreed to pay... in cases like this there are broadly two considerations... liability and quantum, or in more plain terms, who's at fault and how much will it cost. Admitting liability isn't writing a blank cheque... they can say they caused the accident but doesn't mean they'll pay for you to have a RR Wraith for 6 months as a hire car whilst your Fiesta is in for repair. They may challenge what car you hired, how much per day it was, how long you keep it for, if it was reasonable to pay £3,000 per day for it etc but these are all routine things that any accident management company deals with every day.