Claiming milage to garage/inconvinience costs on car insurance

MiserlyMartin

Somebody pranged me last year. I only got the car fixed recently. The third party admitted liability. My insurance company Equity Redstar, is useless whereas the 3rd parties insurance (Elephant) approached me directly to have the car fixed. I took the car to my own garage in the end but now I am trying to claim back my excess. My own insurance company deal with a company called Dunns who claim uninsured losses like excesses on their behalf. I sent off the claim form to Dunns but they say they never recieved it! And closed my file! They said they would send a new form out be it never arrived. Now their latest advice is to phone the third party's insurance directly which I did. They were very helpful and they want a letter stating the amount I wish to claim. Seeing as this has dragged on for months, I've made lots of phone calls, a 40 mile round trip twice to take my car to the garage plus other running around - what do you think is a reasonable milage rate to claim? And how do I go about claiming this plus phone calls, stress and inconvienance costs from the third parties insurance?

Any help most gratefully recieved.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there,

You can present a claim for additional mileage from the third party insurers, plus any other expenses (lost work etc) that are directly connected with the accident itself and getting your car repaired. You can also ask for a contribution towards the loss of use of your car whilst it was in the garage, providing you were not supplied with a courtesy car.

You can't claim off the third party for the fact that your own insurance company is useless; you would need to make a complaint against your own insurance company for their general incompetence and the extra phone calls you had to make to them and their legal "experts".

For the mileage, I recommend you go for 40p per mile. Add in £20 or £30 for "general inconvenience" too; they can only say no!!

V_tricky

40p is about right for mileage for trips that you wouldn't have had to do if you hadn't had the accident

Loss of use can be claimed at around £10 per day if you don't have a temporary replacement car

'General inconvenience' is not considered a valid head of claim in England, but in Scotland it is, so consider where you & the third party live first

'Stress' is only a valid head of claim if it's caused you a diagnosed medical condition

You are likely to get £10 or £20 for undocumented miscellaneous expenses which should cover your telephone calls & postage costs

MiserlyMartin

Thanks. I will claim 'undocumented miscellaneous expenses' as well. With petrol so high perhaps I should claim 50p a mile now.