Claim Car Excess Back - No Legal Cover

BantersaurusRex

I need some advice about how to claim back my excess when I forgot to take out legal cover

Scenario: I was hit by a driver, made a claim, paid my excess for a repair, and now they don't want pay me back, as I forget to take out the legal cover. The third party doesn't want to cooperate and pay my excess.

What's the best way to get my money back? There's not really much information online about this problem.

DullGreyGuy

BantersaurusRex said:

I need some advice about how to claim back my excess when I forgot to take out legal cover

Scenario: I was hit by a driver, made a claim, paid my excess for a repair, and now they don't want pay me back, as I forget to take out the legal cover. The third party doesn't want to cooperate and pay my excess.

What's the best way to get my money back? There's not really much information online about this problem.

Your insures wouldnt repay you the excess even if you did have Legal Expenses cover, they'd just appoint someone to help you recover it from the third party / their insurer (TPI).

Speak to your insurers about if they have identified and contacted the TPI, hopefully they can confirm their details for you including their claims reference. It's then a simple case of sending them a letter with a copy of the receipt for the excess and asking for reimbursement. If you do this physically, rather than by email, make sure its a copy of the receipt and not the original, post does occasionally go missing!

Peter999_2

I was with Aviva when I was hit by a driver in 2023.      I too didn't have legal cover but I moaned to Aviva.    They had to appoint a solicitor to get their money back from the drivers insurance and agreed to add my excess to the claim.   I got the money back just over a year after the accident.

eschaton

Why did you need to pay an excess if it wasn’t your fault?

I had a non fault claim 9 years ago. 

Although both myself and the 3rd party were insured with Direct Line, I claimed against DL as the 3rd party insurer after they phoned me before I’d got home to report the accident myself. 

They got my car repaired and the 2 month repair cost them £3960 for the Mercedes C Class hire car they arranged. Add that to the £7k repair bill. 

They also covered all out of pocket expenses including a ball of string I’d bought to secure my car as it was still driveable, just. 

They also paid for all physio and acupuncture and reimbursement for mileage. Then they gave me £3500 to send me on my way. 

The only thing they never covered was the hit on insurance for the next 5 years. 

I never had to pay a penny. 

Next renewal and the accident wasn’t listed so I phoned to query it. You never reported it to us they said. I said, well I didn’t think I’d need to after you’s phoned me about it, I thought you’d at least talk to yourselves !!!!!!. 

Ectophile

eschaton said:

Why did you need to pay an excess if it wasn’t your fault?

Because if you claim off your own insurance, they will pay out on the claim, minus any policy excess.  The insurance will then make a claim against the other party.  Your insurance company might claim your excess while they are at it, but have no obligation to do so.

It's now up to the OP to threaten legal action against the third party to pay up the missing excess.  Normally, that would be a Letter Before Action.  If they don't respond, start a small claim in the court.

DullGreyGuy

eschaton said:

Why did you need to pay an excess if it wasn’t your fault?

I had a non fault claim 9 years ago. 

Although both myself and the 3rd party were insured with Direct Line, I claimed against DL as the 3rd party insurer after they phoned me before I’d got home to report the accident myself. 

They got my car repaired and the 2 month repair cost them £3960 for the Mercedes C Class hire car they arranged. Add that to the £7k repair bill. 

They also covered all out of pocket expenses including a ball of string I’d bought to secure my car as it was still driveable, just. 

They also paid for all physio and acupuncture and reimbursement for mileage. Then they gave me £3500 to send me on my way. 

The only thing they never covered was the hit on insurance for the next 5 years. 

I never had to pay a penny. 

Your excess is an uninsured loss, if you claim on your own policy you should expect to have to pay it and then recover it. Obviously if you claim on the third party insurance rather than your own then there is no excess to pay but thats dependent on them accepting liability and you get no Financial Ombudsman protection if the claim doesnt go to plan. 

Other than you said you did have to pay for your ball of string, which was subsequently reimbursed. The Excess will be the same for the OP.