Courtesy Car availability

raddy59

I'm with LV. I had an accident - wild animal strike (they count it as my fault). Is that always the case?  Also the car has been off the road for 4 days now, but the courtesy car is provided only while the car is in the garage for repair. Is this usual practice? They have given me a hire car at no cost (yesterday, after much wrangling) and I took out the hire car insurance. If there was an insurance co that provided a car while my car was out of action I would probably switch at renewal 

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raddy59 said:

I'm with LV. I had an accident - wild animal strike (they count it as my fault). Is that always the case?  Also the car has been off the road for 4 days now, but the courtesy car is provided only while the car is in the garage for repair. Is this usual practice?

It is counted as "at fault".

"At fault" is Insurance speak for "We can't recover our outlay". Another example is returning to your car and finding that it has been crashed into by a mysterious third party who is no-where to be seen. If they can't get their money back it is an "at fault" claim.

You need to read the microscopic print of your policy. Unless it specifically says it includes a hire car (yours must do though or you wouldn't be driving one now  ) then you get a courtesy car, provided by the repairer (subject to availability of course, and they likely only have one, but are repairing 10 cars at once...)

Herzlos

At fault is a bad terminology. It's not actually about blame but about who pays. Since the animal won't be insured, your insurance will pay out so you're deemed "at fault".

Courtesy cars are usually provided by the garage, and are pretty limited so it's usually provided whilst the car is actually booked in and not whilst it's waiting. You should be able to get a hire car from the insurance company from the first day but it may take a bit of arguing which is a shame.

raddy59

Herzlos - It did take some arguing and then only arrived late last night (3 days after the report). I have an elderly disabled mother in law- I think that swung it. The daily hire insurance was costly, but I took it anyway - cant afford another claim on my policy (full NCD protected with 1 strike remaining)

DullGreyGuy

raddy59 said:

I'm with LV. I had an accident - wild animal strike (they count it as my fault). Is that always the case?  Also the car has been off the road for 4 days now, but the courtesy car is provided only while the car is in the garage for repair. Is this usual practice? They have given me a hire car at no cost (yesterday, after much wrangling) and I took out the hire car insurance. If there was an insurance co that provided a car while my car was out of action I would probably switch at renewal 

As others have explained, "fault" is about getting money back or not rather than blame. Direct Line a while back were advertising that for incidents like hitting an animal they will consider them non-fault but you'd need to check if that is still the case or not. 

Traditional courtesy cars are provided by the garage thats doing the repairs with no direct expense to the insurer. As a consequence it's subject to availability and subject to if the car is actually repairable or if it will be written off. It also tends to be a very small car which may or may not be suitable for a customer. 

For many years now some insurers have offered a hire car instead, often as an optional upgrade, which has the plus side of not being dependent on the garage having one but often has a maximum duration. Some still cap to repairable cars, others to all that aren't roadworthy. Some have a second tier which may give a bigger hire car or have a longer maximum duration.  Ultimately they can define whatever terms they want on these things. 

Mildly_Miffed

raddy59 said:

I'm with LV. I had an accident - wild animal strike (they count it as my fault). Is that always the case?  Also the car has been off the road for 4 days now, but the courtesy car is provided only while the car is in the garage for repair. Is this usual practice? They have given me a hire car at no cost (yesterday, after much wrangling) and I took out the hire car insurance. If there was an insurance co that provided a car while my car was out of action I would probably switch at renewal 

Unless the wild animal's insurer accepts liability and pays in full, the cost of the claim comes from your insurer - which, in their view, means "fault".

As for the hire car - how much extra would you be prepared to pay on your premium for that?

EssexExile

I'm with LV= and used to pay extra for an "equivalent" hire car. When our car went in for repair the hire car they supplied wasn't small but it wasn't what I'd call equivalent. This year I took off the hire car all together and saved a bunch on the premium. If I need one I'll pay for it at the time.

DullGreyGuy

EssexExile said:

I'm with LV= and used to pay extra for an "equivalent" hire car. 

Haven't looked at the LV= explicitly but most enhanced hire car are still capped so if your Veyron is in the garage you may be very disappointed. A quick glance says its a 5 door medium family car with up to 7 seats

EssexExile

DullGreyGuy said:

EssexExile said:

I'm with LV= and used to pay extra for an "equivalent" hire car. 

Haven't looked at the LV= explicitly but most enhanced hire car are still capped so if your Veyron is in the garage you may be very disappointed. A quick glance says its a 5 door medium family car with up to 7 seats

My paperwork said "equivalent vehicle up to 2 litre", I have a 2 litre Volvo XC60, they gave me a Nissan Qashqai from Enterprise, one level down from the XC60. It wasn't the end of the world, just annoying and not worth paying extra for.