Forum | Insurance claim advice please by Juzzie

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Insurance claim advice please 16:44 - Nov 6 with 2026 views

A little distraction from the US election and C19......

Wednesday night I had the misfortune of being bumped in the rear (ooh err) at about 5mph as we were approaching the roundabout.

He has taken full responsibility and is not disputing anything to the contrary.

It looks like the damage to my car is fairly cosmetic (rear bumper and a small dent in the tailgate).

However, an interesting sequence of events is playing out.....

I duly contacted my insurance company who agreed that I am at no fault and that both my NCB and excess are protected and will not suffer as a result.
They've contacted a local approved garage to do the repair (will probably pick the car up on Monday) and they can arrange a temporary car via my local Enterprise hire company.

All good.

Then today I get a call from the other party's insurance company saying that I don't need to make a claim via my insurance company, I can just do it via them.
The reason they say this is two-fold;

1) - by making a claim via my insurers I will then have a negative impact against my name so when I come to renew (same company or even another) my premium will go up

2) - by accepting a hire car from Enterprise it's just that, a Credit Hire Car that will be against my name and not my insurer rather than a courtesy car from the repair garage which wouldn't be against my name. Should there be any problem i.e. dispute from the other party's insurer etc. then I am apparently liable to pay Enterprise until it's sorted out, if at all.
They also said that the normal daily fee may be £20/day but they'll charge the other party's insurer £60/day (for example) and even try and delay the garage repair work in order to get as much money as possible.

(I didn't think of it at the time but I could just my insurer to ask the repair garage to provide a courtesy car and take Enterprise out of the equation. Would be interesting to see their reaction.)

I asked them if they had any objection with me calling my insurance and repeat the conversation we just had. They had no objection.

All of this sounds plausible but my concern was that if the other party's insurer is now looking after the repair work, will they just do it as cheaply as possible which may not be as good as if it was orchestrated through my insurer.

I called my insurer and they said that that both claims were incorrect. As I'm not at fault so when it comes to renewal with them or anyone else it would be as though the accident never happened.

They also said that yes, it is a credit hire car rather than a courtesy car but even though it'll have my name on the paper work i would not be liable should any issues arise.

I did some googling etc but it's not entirely clear.

Who do I believe?

Insurance claim advice please on 16:57 - Nov 6 with 1989 views

WokingR

What they are proposing is the ideal situation for you as it avoids involving your own insurer and leaves your policy claim free. Despite having a no claims discount the premium will still increase regardless.
The only thing to consider is whether you are dealing with a reputable insurer. You are not their customer so their reason for wanting to take over the claim is so that they can manage the costs themselves. A decent insurer will want to protect their own reputation whereas it will be all about cost with some of the others.

Insurance claim advice please on 17:01 - Nov 6 with 1984 views

stevec

I don’t want to give you bad advice as I’m doing this purely from memory.

However, I had exactly the same happen 18 months ago, my car was a write off. I can’t remember why but I was given a specific and very good reason not to go with the other vehicles insurer, sorry if this is confusing, but stick with your own insurer particularly as it was not your fault.

It’s true your own insurer will hike the price to their insurer, I couldn’t believe what they were charging for my hire vehicle, top of the range Mercedes, and i had the hire car for a month. Basically, the insurer of the wronged driver takes the absolute piss but it’s probably swings and roundabouts and bumped onto all our premiums, but ultimately that’s not your problem, stay with your own insurer.

Insurance claim advice please on 17:08 - Nov 6 with 1972 views

Juzzie

Insurance claim advice please on 16:57 - Nov 6 by WokingR

Cheers WokingR.

Kind of sits in the middle I think. Of course I want to protect myself from having a higher premium come renewal time but equally I don't want them to do the repairs on the cheap.

in fact, the aspect of the repair never came up in the conversation, just that they were warning me my renewal would go up and they wanted to protect themselves from a hefty hire-car bill.
I could just call my insurer and say I don't need a car at all as lets face it, I'm not going anywhere the next couple of weeks and would only use it for the shopping which i could do on the motorbike (put it in the top box) and I'd just have to do a couple of trips on the bike rather than one in the car.

Here's their full email they sent after the phone call for further reading(!);

"Thank you for your time today.

As discussed, we are Vehicle Replacement Group working under the authority of Markerstudy and Zenith insurance who insure **(name removed)**.

We have Zenith/Markerstudy's authority to facilitate your repairs and provide you with a replacement vehicle. We can confirm that you will not be charged for our services as all costs will be met by the insurance company.

As agreed, I will outline our services to enable you to make an informed decision;

Repairs

If your vehicle is repairable, we can either

(i) Instruct our approved repairer to estimate your vehicle and authorise the repairs
(ii) Instruct engineers to agree the repair with your own chosen repairer

In the unfortunate event your vehicle is beyond economical repair our engineer will discuss settlement options with you. The options available are

(i) The vehicle (salvage) is retained by the insurance company and you are paid the market value of the vehicle
(ii) You retain the vehicle (salvage), the insurance pays you the value minus the cost of salvage and the vehicle is categorised on the insurance Data Base as a total loss
(iii) Subject to no structural damage you can be offered a cash in lieu settlement. The vehicle would not be categorised on the insurance data base and it would be your responsibility to arrange the repairs. A replacement vehicle would not be offered in this scenario.

Hire

We will arrange a hire vehicle whilst yours is off the road. The replacement vehicle carries the following benefits:

(i) You will not be asked to sign any agreements making you responsible for charges as they are pre-agreed with the insurance company
(ii) Markerstudy/Zenith will meet any applicable excess if the replacement vehicle is damaged whilst in your custody /control
(iii) We can arrange a comparable vehicle to your own

Please seek legal independent advice if you are offered a credit hire vehicle. Credit hire agreements place you at risk of the hire charges. Please see the following link for further information:

https://www.confused.com/car-insurance/guides/the-hidden-cost-of-hire-car-claims

Further information can be acquired from the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The ABI are a governing body who regulate services provided by insurance companies. Please see the follow link outlying what you should expect if you deal directly with the third-party insurance company:

https://www.abi.org.uk/globalassets/sitecore/files/documents/publications/public

Injury

If you or any passenger has been injured following the road traffic accident.

(i) Markerstudy/Zenith have an in-house injury team that will assist you through your injuries from start to finish
(ii) You are awarded 100% of your compensation unlike third party representatives

Our offer of assistance is open."

Insurance claim advice please on 17:11 - Nov 6 with 1966 views

Juzzie

Insurance claim advice please on 17:01 - Nov 6 by stevec

Cheers stevec. All opinions greatly received :)

I'm not really even bothered about having a temporary car now, just really want to protect myself from having a cheap job done and a hefty premium increase come renewal time. This seems to be the grey area.

Insurance claim advice please on 17:27 - Nov 6 with 1933 views

BlackCrowe

I had similar experience, all going smoothly until i got a letter from an ambulance-chaser solicitor saying that the other party had sustained severe neck injuries - we bumped at 5mph. His insurers had clearly sold the details of the claim to these cvnts. Fortunately GDPR prevents that now i think.

Poll:

Kitchen threads or polls?

Insurance claim advice please on 17:55 - Nov 6 with 1908 views

jeffranger

I would go with your own insurance, same thing happened to me 4 weeks where someone went into back of me, got their insurance details & contacted mine, got a courtesy car next day & collected mine same day, wrote my car off & it was only bumper & wing damage but cost out weighed vehicle value they reckon, but dealt with my insurance com perfectly, nothing to pay & all put on their insurance, have since been paid out in full & got another car, so I would definitely go through your own insurance & let them deal with it

Insurance claim advice please on 18:14 - Nov 6 with 1892 views

Boston

I’ve had many vehicles involved in accidents. Presuming you’re with a reputable company, stick with your own insurance.

Poll:

Thank God The Seaons Over.

Insurance claim advice please on 18:40 - Nov 6 with 1869 views

Juzzie

Thanks Jeff and Boston. Did either of you have a significant rise at renewal or was it ok if you were not at fault?

Insurance claim advice please on 18:46 - Nov 6 with 1859 views

jeffranger

Insurance claim advice please on 18:40 - Nov 6 by Juzzie
Thanks Jeff and Boston. Did either of you have a significant rise at renewal or was it ok if you were not at fault?

Won’t know until feb Juz when renewal comes plus I got a slightly bigger car 1.6 instead of 1.4 so it might go up a bit, but please go with your insurance & let them deal with it as it’s got nothing to do with you

Insurance claim advice please on 19:41 - Nov 6 with 1793 views

essextaxiboy

I used to be a Business manager in Ford Accident Repair Centre.
The call you have received is a standard thing , because they know they are at fault and liable for costs the third party insurer want to keep their costs down. They do not want to be at the mercy of your companys charges and would have to instruct an independent engineer to approve your companies figures , they may argue to repair a panel for example rather than replace it or dispute charges for tailgate screen removal or blending of adjacent panels

They want their own approved repairer to do the work because they will have an agreed labour rate (low) and their repairer will supply the car as part of that agreement .

They sub contract the courtesy car operation to Enterprise so they dont have to run a fleet of cars themselves or do the admin , damage checks etc, that is the case with your own company as well . The Enterprise car is the courtesy car .

You normally drive the courtesy car on your own policy while yours is in for repair. If you crash it it would be like having another crash in your own car, excess etc
With your own company the repairs will get done quicker as they already have approval and will just show their own engineers on camera and get on with it .

If you are fully Comp it doesnt matter if the other party dispute liability as you are covered anyway .

In my experience the only way you are liable for hire charges is if you go off and hire a car yourself and think you can just bill them or if you keep the car longer than 24hrs after repairs to yours are complete (customers used to do this if the courtesy car was better than theirs )
If it was me I would go though my own insurer , you are their customer and have a comeback . The repairer want to keep the approval , have to meet the standards of quality and (as the other company know ) will err on the side of over repair.

You may have to pay your excess to pick it up but in non fault claims it comes back after about 10 days .

You will have to declare it whoever repairs it or who ever fault it was, and answer follow up questions about liability , costs and reinstatement of no claims . If you stay with your existing company of course they will know all that .

The notion that your insurance companys repairer may delay repairs to increase car charges is laughable . The repairer is paying for the car under the approval agreement they signed , they want you out of it ASAP .

[Post edited 6 Nov 2020 20:01]

Insurance claim advice please on 20:29 - Nov 6 with 1744 views

Juzzie

Thanks ETB.

Yeah, as I suspect they probably want to keep their costs down (not to my benefit no doubt) and are probably trying to coerce me in that direction.

I’m fully comp and fully loaded (protected ncb, legal costs, car hire etc) and my insurers have said my full ncb is safe and I don’t have to pay my £300 excess either.
Edit. Sorry, they weren’t suggesting the repair garage would delay completion, they said my insurers would delay completion so i had the hire car as long as possible and they could claim more off the other party’s insurer

[Post edited 7 Nov 2020 8:11]

Insurance claim advice please on 20:37 - Nov 6 with 1737 views

Rangersw12

Insurance claim advice please on 20:29 - Nov 6 by Juzzie

[Post edited 7 Nov 2020 8:11]

If your in a credit hire vehicle you are legally liable for the charges but it's unheard of the Credit Hire company going after the hirer for the charges even if the insurers dispute it

The reason your insurance company wants you in a credit hire vehicle is because they get a nice fat referral fee

Insurance claim advice please on 23:27 - Nov 6 with 1674 views

Boston

Insurance claim advice please on 18:40 - Nov 6 by Juzzie
Thanks Jeff and Boston. Did either of you have a significant rise at renewal or was it ok if you were not at fault?

No, nothing, never.

Poll:

Thank God The Seaons Over.

Insurance claim advice please on 08:28 - Nov 7 with 1596 views

stevec

Insurance claim advice please on 20:29 - Nov 6 by Juzzie

[Post edited 7 Nov 2020 8:11]

Something else has just comeback to me.

As mentioned my car was a write off. Received the offer from my insurers day before we went on holiday. Due to holiday didn’t need a car for a while so chanced my arm and told them offer is unacceptable, pointed out a chosen vehicle that I’d have to buy as a similar replacement and said I want 50% more than their offer or I’d be out of pocket. On return, letter had arrived offering amount I’d asked for.

I’m guessing my insurer had nothing to lose so I got what I wanted, suspect that if I had been dealing with the other cars insurer they’d have put up a fight.

Appreciate yours may not be a write off but nevertheless, stick with your insurer.

Insurance claim advice please on 08:33 - Nov 7 with 1590 views

Juzzie

Insurance claim advice please on 08:28 - Nov 7 by stevec

Cheers. I think this is key... stick with my insurer and i get a better outcome. Go with theirs and i don't, but they do. I got hit for no fault of my own, why should I lose out.

The garage guy came around yesterday and said it’ll be cosmetic but will check out the chassis and suspension just in case. There a solid beam running across the back of the car which he said doesn’t look damaged but would probably replace it anyway. I bet the other party’s insurer wouldn’t. Just run some t-cut over the bumper and hand it back.

Insurance claim advice please on 09:02 - Nov 7 with 1562 views

MoonshineSteve

Just glad you're alright man. When I saw the thread I thought you might have had a spill, glad it was the car.

Not advice, just an aside. Many years ago I got side-swiped at a junction ("Sorry mate. I didn't see you." "Yeah, thats cos you were looking the other way.") My insurers provided a courtesy bike. Rode that for three weeks and when I returned it my insurers asked me who I had been insured by when riding it. "Well as you are my insurers and you gave me the bike and I'm still in my insurance period, I presumed you were covering me." "No."

Bloody relieved nothing had happened.

I am still Steve but no longer in Dagenham.

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