Advice on motor insurance claim

boots_babe

Hi,

Had a terrible morning. Got stuck in the floods and wait for hours for recovery, only to be told prob needs a new engine and will probably be a write-off.

So...reason for posting, is that the recovery man was very helpful, and said that the insurance company will probably string us along about sending out an assessor. He said if they do, we can say that we will charge up to £25 per day storage for keeping our car on the drive, in order to get them to hurry up.

Firstly is this right? If so, is there any info anywhere to back it up? Also, I have never had to claim under any insurance before and so have no idea what to expect - is there anything else like this that I need to be aware of or should look out for?

Many thanks.

harveybobbles

Tell them it's parked on the road outside in the way and you've been given a warning by the Police... They may act faster...

lisyloo

said that the insurance company will probably string us along about sending out an assessor

This sounds like somebody winding you up or at best wild speculation.
What basis does this guy have for saying your insurance company are going to offer you bad service?

He said if they do, we can say that we will charge up to £25 per day storage for keeping our car on the drive.

I would ignore what this guy has said.

is there anything else like this that I need to be aware of or should look out for?

Yes, recovery men that talk b**ocks.
He knows nothing about insurance and may well not have made an accurate and in-depth analysis of the problem with your car.

lisyloo

Tell them it's parked on the road outside in the way and you've been given a warning by the Police... They may act faster...

I don't think that's going to work either.
If you had broken down in a bad place you would have it recovered.

You should keep chasing the insurance company to keep them on their toes, but bear in mind that yours is not the only claim they are processing so you can't expect instant service.

boots_babe

Wow 2 replies already! Thank you .... well I guess I've not had many dealings with recovery men. He seemed like a reasonable and well-informed guy though. But like I say, I don't really know anything about this kind of thing. He didn't say we would definitely have problems, he just said he's seen lots of similar cases where it had happened, so he was saying it as a warning.

I am still hoping our insurance will be good and not cause us any problems.Don't think I can say it is parked on road outside, as it's on our drive, so it would be a bit obvious when the assessor does finally turn up that it wasn't true so I wouldn't really feel comfortable.

Insurance co have said it sounds as though it is a write-off as well. But need assessor to confirm. It all seems too straightforward - they said we will only lose 2 years of our no claims bonus, which means instead of 65% discount we only will get 50% which isn't that much of a price to pay for a written-off car. So I am very surprised and a bit dubious.

Currently waiting for insurer to call back and arrange assessor to come out - any ideas how long this usually takes to arrange? We can manage short term with just one car, but not v practical for more than a few days, esp as husband often has to travel with work.

Wig

I think he has got a good point. If the insurers put the car in a recovery yard, the recoverer would charge 25 quid a day (or more).

It is actually illegal to keep a car in such bad condition on the highway, so a policy holder presumably has a right to refuse the car being taken to their home address driveway or no driveway.

There are a few factors at play here.

Did the policy holder object to the car being taken to their home?

Now that the car is at home, I would suggest a notice giving 7 days to assess and/or remove the vehicle from the home/driveway (to a place of their choosing e.g. a recovery yard) otherwise there would be an implied acceptance of the insurer to pay storage fees of 25 quid per day.

I'd say for definate it would not apply if the car was on the highway.

Lastly, the vehicle belongs to the policy holder until it has been "bought" from the policy holder by the insurer. So this is an arguement the insurer would use.

It is an interesing idea, not one I have heard of before. And it is definately worth a try. You can't lose anything by trying it on.

Start looking for similar vehicles to yours model/age/mileage on sale and use wisebuyers & parkers to find out what it's value is and what they are selling for so that you are prepared when they make you an offer, whether to accept their offer or not.

You are right that your 65% NCB will reduce as a result of one claim to 50% and will not fall to zero unless there is another claim made in the next (2 years? - I think) It is because of this that NCB protection is not really worth the money.... but you might want to consider it for the next 2 years.

lisyloo

which means instead of 65% discount we only will get 50% which isn't that much of a price to pay for a written-off car.

Ah yes, but the initial premium will now be higher because of the accident.
As an example you might have been paying 35% of £500 = £175, whereas now you could be payng 50% of £1000 = £500.
Of course that's just an exmaple to demonstrate the point, but you WILL get loaded for making a claim i.e. the base premium before discount will rise.

any ideas how long this usually takes to arrange?

Shouldn't be much more than a week, but will depend on how busy they are and their schedule.

Ring them up and chase them.
Obviously they have other claims but you can try be top of the queue.
It's a case of "he who shouts loudest".

If your car if going to be a write-off then you need to think seriously about what you are going to do.
You probably won't be entitled to courtesy car as these are usually provided by garages doing the repairs.
It may take a few weeks for you to get your settlement cheque and then you need to go looking.
You might need to consider raiding savings or getting a loan once you've heard the decision as the cheque could take a few weeks and it sounds like you can't manage very long.

Can neither of you use public transport or share lifts with a colleague?
There are lift sharing databases like https://www.liftshare.com.
If you can't borrow a car and can't get to work any other way then I think you are going to have to get a short term loan or raid your savings.
Do you have any parents, maybe retired who could lend you their car short term?

boots_babe

I see what you mean regarding the premiums - that makes more sense. I thought it sounded as though we were being let off a bit lightly under the circumstances, given how much it will cost insurance co.

I never considered how long payment may take to come - I guess you're right, it could be a while. Well luckily we do have a reasonable amount in savings as we've been saving up to pay for our impending house move. Could temporarily raid that if needs be. Will be difficult to know what to do though - suddenly will have to look at cars, whether to get nearly new or lease etc. With little time to decide.

Ah well. Right now I just want to get past the assessor and know for certain what is happening, and if a write off then how much they will give us.

lisyloo

and if a write off then how much they will give us

There will be a gap between the assesor making a decision and you getting a figure.
It will have to go to a claims handler to decide the figure (the assesor won't do that).
They will have to investigate prices for your car and decide on a figure.
30-60 minutes work?
Perhaps but you won't be the only person in the queue.

Do you really have no other options you could consider at all?
No public transport?
No-one who'd give you a lift?
No friend or relative who'd go out of their way to pick you up?
Could either of you change your hours for a few weeks to share?
Either of you have a motorcycle licence or can ride a cheap moped? (I know the weathers horrible).

If none of that works then I still wouldn't suggest rushing into it, it might be a false economy.
Perhaps consider a hire option.
Even if it's a few hundred quid it still might be less than making a bad mistake.

anna42hmr

lisyloo wrote: »

There will be a gap between the assesor making a decision and you getting a figure.
It will have to go to a claims handler to decide the figure (the assesor won't do that).


.

it depends on the insurance company, for instance if you are insured by one owned by rbs insurance, it is the engineer that assesses the vehicle who places the value, and then notify the claims department of the value.

boots_babe

Hi lisyloo,

Thank you for all your help and suggestions - having never had anything like this before I have no idea what to expect.

It's a pain if we won't find out on Friday if it's a write-off, because obviously we want to start looking at a replacement asap as it will take a while to sort out. If we can't even get started on Friday then it feels like this is going to drag on Of course maybe it will be good news and they can actually repair it, but sounds doubtful.

As for alternatives....we live in a small village, unfortunately family live near my work, so they would have to drive all the way here, then all the way back, plus they are teachers so work long hours anyway and I couldn't ask them to do that.

My husband needs to travel a fair way, and also moves around sites with his job, so definitely no public transport/lift option there. I can get 2 buses, but I've done this in the past and not the most reliable so would have to be a last resort. At least it is a final option though I guess, so it could be worse.

We can both try and work around it for a short while - we can both work from home occasionally, but obviously not all the time, and this can't go on indefinitely. That's why I'm really keen to know what our situation is, so that we can start making decisions - we feel as though we are hanging at the moment.

I know lots of people must have been through this process before, but at the moment it seems a very long and daunting one which we both just want to get over and done with.