Car instance claim / already paid for the repair

Lukeedwards88

Summary:

We paid for a car repair on a colleagues car caused by our son opening a door (minor dent, no paint work) She picked the vehicle up and then a week later complained she wasn't happy about it. 

The person then repaired the door again as well as some other dents (not caused by us, we have images) she's still not happy with the work (it's perfect) 

She's now asked for a full refund from the garage (from the cash we paid) she's received £200 back from the work (£400) and has asked for it to be paid to her and not us. She's then asked for our insurance details to go through our insurance even though she's also kept £200 of our cash we gave for the repair. 

Where do we stand legally? 

We've got before and after images of the car as well as the messages from the garage in question showing that she's asked for the money to be paid back to her and not us. 

She's taken delivery of the vehicle after the repair and not complained till 7 days later.

cw8825

This is one of the perils of dealing outside insurance

Is the work of an unsatisfactory quality?
have you tried to be amicable and speak to the garage

ultimately Ultimately if she wants to go through insurance it’s hard to stop but I would tell her to claim from her own, for them to recover on her behalf which may change her mind

Lukeedwards88

Yeah the garage has sorted it out for her twice now and they've done everything they can and more for her 

She's had 50% of the cost of the repair paid back to her but had not told us, and still wants to go through the insurance with £200 of our money which she wasn't going to tell us about (the garage told us she's asked for the money back and not for it to come back to us) 

DullGreyGuy

£200 sounds more like a Dr Dents type fix than a bodyshop. If you are very lucky that sort of repair can be good enough but if it's not then you are back to stage one and will pay double or more plus the sunk cost. As others have said, it's one of the risks of firstly doing it outside insurance and secondly not using a full service. 

You cannot stop them using their insurance, you can in principle settle with their insurer directly rather than involving your insurer but insurers for a full repair job to be done, potentially a replacement vehicle whilst its in etc

Lukeedwards88

DullGreyGuy said:

£200 sounds more like a Dr Dents type fix than a bodyshop. If you are very lucky that sort of repair can be good enough but if it's not then you are back to stage one and will pay double or more plus the sunk cost. As others have said, it's one of the risks of firstly doing it outside insurance and secondly not using a full service. 

You cannot stop them using their insurance, you can in principle settle with their insurer directly rather than involving your insurer but insurers for a full repair job to be done, potentially a replacement vehicle whilst its in etc

The repair was £400 pound by a body shop. Hence why we didn't go through our insurance as it's less than our excess. 

We're trying to be amicable but she's currently got £200 of our money and not giving it back and still wanting to claim. 

DullGreyGuy

You dont pay your excess on third party claims, only for claims for damage to your own vehicle. 

Lukeedwards88

DullGreyGuy said:

You dont pay your excess on third party claims, only for claims for damage to your own vehicle. 

I didn't know that 

We're not sure how she's going to proceed. We've informed our insurers incase a claim is made. 

DullGreyGuy

Its a common misconception, if you actually read the policybook most will say in the Own/Accidental Damage, Glass, Fire and Theft sections that "what's not covered" is your excess, the same is not stated under the Liability/Other Parties section. 

One insurer did once have a TP excess but it's questionable how that fits with the legal requirements and they subsequently removed it. Even if you look at corporate fleet policies the TP cover is from the ground up, however when you've a fleet of hundreds of thousands of vehicles its not a question of if you are going to have a claim or not but if the claims are going to be particularly bad or not hence they often have a side agreement where they will reimburse the insurer £Xm per year across all claims as their is no point paying IPT, Risk Margin, Profit Margin etc to an insurer for something you know will happen. 

Nearlyold

Who arranged the repair - you or the other party.

Lukeedwards88

Nearlyold said:

Who arranged the repair - you or the other party.

They did communicated with the garage, they told us the cost, we agreed to pay it. 

It was fixed 1 month ago originally, she said she wasn't happy with the work (unbeknown to us) it was then repaired again along with some additional dents (not caused by us) 

It was only the garage informing us that she requested a refund for the work, and for the 50% that was given back (purely as they didn't want the hassle) to be paid to her and not us, we found out the whole thing. 

We've offered for her to take it elsewhere etc 

cw8825

At this point let the insurance deal with it. Your out £400 but if she goes elsewhere you will have to pay even more