No Fault Car Insurance Claim from Third Party?

chris512

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading through all of the other threads on this subject, and I'm unsure of what to do next. It's a bit of a minefield, and I've never had to do this before.

In short, a lady who lives on our street has reversed her car along the road, and dragged her wingmirror right down the drivers side of our car. It's a right mess. She admitted fault straight away. I spoke to my insurer (Admiral) and they gave me the option of claiming against her through them directly, or using Auxillis to avoid the excess payment and get a hire car the same size as ours. I've been reading about Auxillis all day on forums etc, and it seems that's a no go.

At about 11am this morning, I got a call from Hasting Direct (Her insurer) saying they accept full blame and that they'd like to deal with it directly rather than me going through my insurer or Auxillis. They offered me £250 incentive and said they'd like to get it done right away. They said the repair centre they'd use is FMG Garages. Again, not so good on the online reviews.

I asked Amdiral what they thought about me dealing directly with Hastings, and they said it's not ideal, as if there's an issue, they can't get involved to help. It feels like I lose no matter what I do going forward. I don't want to have to pay the £550 excess on my policy and wait to get it back, and I also don't want to have to have a Non Fault Claim on our record for 5 years.

Hastings are saying that if I do it through them, it goes down as a "Notification Only" claim rather than a No Fault Claim, and this will have less impact on our Premiums going forward. I don't know if that's actually true. I have an email and a voicemail from Hastings accepting fault for the incident, which also details the bit about the claim status and the incentive payment.

I spoke to my Father who thinks that going with Hastings would be bad as they're not acting for me as my insurer, so would do the bare minimum. That makes sense, but it does feel like the best way forward here. If I could get them to send the car to my local Nissan Approved Body Shop (Brian Robson Coachworks) then would that make it better.

I just don't know what to do for the best here. I've got some long term medical issues, and the stress of it is stopping me thinking clerly about it. I'd appreciate any thought people have.

Thanks for your time.

cw8825

either way there will be a non fault claim on the policy. this may or may not impact future premiums

speak to admiral and ask if they will waive the excess as the other insurer has admitted fault - just saves time instead of you paying and claiming back. if you do not use one of admiral's garages there is likely little protection anyway

Personally i would go through admiral before hastings.

i suppose the way to think is the incentive of £250 worth giving up the benefits of using your own insurance?

ThorOdinson

You could always make Hastings a counter offer. Use your own garage (e.g. main dealer). Still probably cheaper for them.

DullGreyGuy

ThorOdinson said:

You could always make Hastings a counter offer. Use your own garage (e.g. main dealer). Still probably cheaper for them.

Many dealers dont do their own bodyworks, most you drop it off to them and they then take it round to the local coachworks which are exactly the company you were trying to avoid. They just then add a margin to the bill and present it on their headed paper. 



There is a counter argument with Hastings though... if they deal with it themselves they can give you a hire car at 1/5th the price that Auxilis would charge them, they won't pay the 10% uplift on the repairs not the £100 engineers fee. There's a lot in it for them to get you to deal with them direct (it was my first job in insurance too, though not with Hastings). 

Certainly in our case we didnt cut corners, we were certainly able to consider your own garage etc. However, as you are not their customer you have no right to go to the Ombudsman if things do go wrong and your unlikely to benefit from any extended warranty on the repairs which many, but not all, insurers offer to their own customers. 

You cannot avoid the "non-fault claim" at this stage. Most companies dont ask for Motor if it was a claim, notification only etc and so whilst technically true that a notification only could be considered less relevant people dont ask to make the distinction. 

ThorOdinson

The advantage of using the dealer is that they will have standards they they expect the work to be done to, and they will enforce them. You can also specify genuine parts, not pattern.

But as you say, the risk is if things do go badly wrong you can't use the ombudsman.

DullGreyGuy

ThorOdinson said:

The advantage of using the dealer is that they will have standards they they expect the work to be done to, and they will enforce them. You can also specify genuine parts, not pattern.

As do insurers, given many give long warranties on work. 

When I handed my merc back from its PCP it was amusing as the guy from Mercedes Finance had a tool to measure the paint depth. Lucky for me he didnt use it on the area which was damaged by a hit and run. He did however measure the n/s rear quarter and stated the paint was far too thick. I honestly stated that the car was in for its service the year before to be collected the same day and for reasons unknown they mentioned it was delayed so rather than dropping the car off to me they'd be dropping off a courtesy car (a notable uplift from my normal car, not the normal A-Class) for a couple of days. 

I've no idea if it really sustained damage whilst they had it, I was just glad they didnt check the other corner, but clearly if it was damaged they didnt do an A1 repair. Thankfully it didn't result in any charge. 

SK226956

When I had an accident, I dealt with the 3rd party insurers directly, got a cash settlement in lieu of repairs, even managed to get a 1 week worth of car hire costs despite not hiring anything (as I opted not to bother with the repairs). Took around 6 weeks to settle the claim and cash paid directly to my bank account.

ThorOdinson

DullGreyGuy said:

ThorOdinson said:

The advantage of using the dealer is that they will have standards they they expect the work to be done to, and they will enforce them. You can also specify genuine parts, not pattern.

As do insurers, given many give long warranties on work. 

When I handed my merc back from its PCP it was amusing as the guy from Mercedes Finance had a tool to measure the paint depth. Lucky for me he didnt use it on the area which was damaged by a hit and run. He did however measure the n/s rear quarter and stated the paint was far too thick. I honestly stated that the car was in for its service the year before to be collected the same day and for reasons unknown they mentioned it was delayed so rather than dropping the car off to me they'd be dropping off a courtesy car (a notable uplift from my normal car, not the normal A-Class) for a couple of days. 

I've no idea if it really sustained damage whilst they had it, I was just glad they didnt check the other corner, but clearly if it was damaged they didnt do an A1 repair. Thankfully it didn't result in any charge. 

If they did try to charge you, the cost would be an uninsured loss for the at fault party to pay.

DullGreyGuy

ThorOdinson said:

DullGreyGuy said:

ThorOdinson said:

The advantage of using the dealer is that they will have standards they they expect the work to be done to, and they will enforce them. You can also specify genuine parts, not pattern.

As do insurers, given many give long warranties on work. 

When I handed my merc back from its PCP it was amusing as the guy from Mercedes Finance had a tool to measure the paint depth. Lucky for me he didnt use it on the area which was damaged by a hit and run. He did however measure the n/s rear quarter and stated the paint was far too thick. I honestly stated that the car was in for its service the year before to be collected the same day and for reasons unknown they mentioned it was delayed so rather than dropping the car off to me they'd be dropping off a courtesy car (a notable uplift from my normal car, not the normal A-Class) for a couple of days. 

I've no idea if it really sustained damage whilst they had it, I was just glad they didnt check the other corner, but clearly if it was damaged they didnt do an A1 repair. Thankfully it didn't result in any charge. 

If they did try to charge you, the cost would be an uninsured loss for the at fault party to pay.

And who is the at fault party? 

Was it delivered to the seller damaged and they fixed in that 3 days between delivery and collection?
Did the garage misjudge its length and hit into a pillar?
Was it parked in their garage where I left it and another customer hit it?


They didnt charge, they did say they were going to charge for the "dry paint" under the bonnet (thought paint was supposed to be dry) but his recommendation was £2.50 fee. They didnt spot the chunk I took out of the body coloured front splitter thing the say before handing it back. In the end there were no additional charges at all. 

ThorOdinson

DullGreyGuy said:

ThorOdinson said:

DullGreyGuy said:

ThorOdinson said:

The advantage of using the dealer is that they will have standards they they expect the work to be done to, and they will enforce them. You can also specify genuine parts, not pattern.

As do insurers, given many give long warranties on work. 

When I handed my merc back from its PCP it was amusing as the guy from Mercedes Finance had a tool to measure the paint depth. Lucky for me he didnt use it on the area which was damaged by a hit and run. He did however measure the n/s rear quarter and stated the paint was far too thick. I honestly stated that the car was in for its service the year before to be collected the same day and for reasons unknown they mentioned it was delayed so rather than dropping the car off to me they'd be dropping off a courtesy car (a notable uplift from my normal car, not the normal A-Class) for a couple of days. 

I've no idea if it really sustained damage whilst they had it, I was just glad they didnt check the other corner, but clearly if it was damaged they didnt do an A1 repair. Thankfully it didn't result in any charge. 

If they did try to charge you, the cost would be an uninsured loss for the at fault party to pay.

And who is the at fault party? 

Was it delivered to the seller damaged and they fixed in that 3 days between delivery and collection?
Did the garage misjudge its length and hit into a pillar?
Was it parked in their garage where I left it and another customer hit it?


They didnt charge, they did say they were going to charge for the "dry paint" under the bonnet (thought paint was supposed to be dry) but his recommendation was £2.50 fee. They didnt spot the chunk I took out of the body coloured front splitter thing the say before handing it back. In the end there were no additional charges at all. 

The short answer is "not you".