Home Insurance Question - How Would You Handle This?

Rick_Hough

Earlier today a driver lost control of their car, left the road and impacted my car which was parked on my drive, shunting it into the house and damaging the kitchen wall (structural damage). The damage was assessed by my builder who has ordered me to not remove my car until he's got the house propped.

The kitchen is new, hand made solid wood and is going to have to come out to repair the wall which requires a four metre wide section to be replaced. This is £10k plus in damage.

The driver was insured and I have spoken to their insurance company so they understand what happened, how, who, when and where and I have video and photographic evidence. My builder told me to contact my home insurance provider, I'm not even thinking about my own car which is still embedded in the wall, and the other driver's car is parked up mangled awaiting towing tomorrow.

I have initiated a claim with my home insurer, provided images and I'm keen to recover the £700 excess calculated. I assume that my home insurance company are going to be recovering the final bill from the driver's car insurance.

Having never made a claim for anything, in 50 years of insuring things, I would be grateful for any advice or hard won knowledge from this forum.

Mark_d

I would have spoken with your car insurance first because the third party hit your car...
Ultimately the third party's insurer will be paying for all the damage caused, so you shouldn't end up out of pocket

Rick_Hough

Thanks for that appreciate the advice. I'll ring 'em in the morning.

prettyandfluffy

This has happened to us, but was a direct hit from a vehicle in the middle of the night.  1. We called the police*. 2. We called our insurers.  The police made all necessary arrangements to get the damage assessed (building control and fire brigade) before the vehicle was removed by the police contractor with the fire brigade in attendance.  The insurers then took over and arranged for the house to be made safe and secure prior to rebuilding.

* The driver was subsequently charged with and pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention.

EDITED TO ADD all costs were recovered by our insurers from the driver's insurance.

Rick_Hough

Thank you, that is excellent info.

DullGreyGuy

For both sets of damages you are free to claim from your insurer or the third party insurer however claiming from the third party will be done on an indemnity basis only, which for your car is fine because thats what your own insurance is. 

For the damage to your home your home insurance is likely to be above indemnity, most are written on a "new for old" basis (indemnity would be old for old) and if you have chosen a better quality product then it will also have things like matching set cover etc. 

The one downside of ever claiming directly from a third party insurer is that you have no right of complaint to the Financial Ombudsman as you are not their customer. Most direct claimants dont have any problems but if you are in the minority your resolution is via the courts rather than the FOS