Car accident not my fault - other person's insurance offers to handle repairs instead of my insuranc

daveshoelace · 4 August 2018 at 12:59PM

Hi all, somebody crashed into my parked car last night. I informed my insurance, he informed his, his insurance called me today admitting full liability.

His insurer told me I had three options:

1) Claim through my insurance, but this means there will be a 'no fault claim' on my policy
2) My insurance claims via a third party accident recovery company which potentially means I am liable if there is a dispute
3) Let the liable person's insurance handle the repairs and close my existing claim with my insurer

The other person's insurer obviously made it sound like 3) was the best option but they are biased.

Anyone got any advice on what is the wisest/safest option in this scenario?

molerat · 4 August 2018 at 1:11PM

1) You still have to notify your insurer and your premium will likely rise anyway. If you allow your insurer to repair your car you can make a complaint to them if the work is not satisfactory.

2) Most likely the most expensive option and, as you say, could come back and bite you.

3) Probably the easiest option, they will most likely deal with everything including supplying you a loan car. They may use an accident management company to process everything. The only down side is no ombudsman complaint route if the repair is duff as you are not their customer.

Zorillo · 4 August 2018 at 1:11PM

3) is the most sensible suggestion but it won't negate 1) anyway and they were a bit naughty if they said that it would.

The 3rd party insurer (TPI) is most interested in settling your claim as quickly and fairly as possible.

The AMC needs to make it more expensive for the TPI in order to make it profitable for them to be involved and therefore increase the risk of a dispute and or delayed settlement.

And your insurer won't do anything the TPI aren't already offering you, and may deprive you of your excess (which you'd then need to claim off the TPI).

So 3 is best. But you still need to inform your insurer which will result in 1.

keith1950 · 4 August 2018 at 1:12PM

If you go route 1.....you will have to pay your excess until your insurer received payment from the other insurer.
If you go route 2.....the accident management company will try to get you to take a hire car to increase the overall cost of any claim.
If you go route 3.....as the insurer has accepted liability it might be the best option but not always the fastest.
Whichever option you pick you will have to tick yes to the question have you had a claim/accident/incident in the last five years which will increase your premiums even if you NCD emerges unscathed.

daveshoelace · 4 August 2018 at 1:46PM

Thanks for the responses so far, I was quite surprised actually, my assumption was 3) was bad because they would try and cut costs and I'd assume my own interests were aligned with my insurers.

I'll have a good old think about it but probably go with 3)

Quentin · 4 August 2018 at 2:02PM

If you go with 3 you will have no problem in choosing the repairer if you want to.

prowla · 4 August 2018 at 5:37PM

I didn't know that insurance companies could deal directly with 3rd parties.

buglawton · 4 August 2018 at 5:56PM

My ms had same thing. A somewhat scraped wing & rear door while parked. We took up the offer from other insurer then learned it would be a ‘mobile body shop’ that visits you and resprays in a tent. I’ve seen thes guys working in the company car park. I brought up the scraped wheel trim and tyre, asking will the alignment get checked? Reply was: oh, if it involves wheel damage then it’ll have to go into a proper body shop. As it happens they did an excellent repair but I read later that mobile body repairs should be avoided due to poor results. Maybe OP should check if the other insurer has mobile repairs in mind.

Jlo31 · 5 August 2018 at 7:44AM

My wife had someone drive in to Tescos a couple of years ago. We went direct with the third party insurers (Esure) and they could not have been more helpful with repairs and a hire car.

Car accident not my fault - other person's insurance offers to handle repairs instead of my insuranc

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