Car insurance excess
Discussion
Hopefully just a quick one, although with insurance I’m sure nothing is simple.
Sister has returned to car and someone has driven into her rear door. Door is badly bashed up, probably an expensive repair rather than a new door, but nothing else structural or that would write the car off.
The driver of the other car no where to be seen and no cctv or witnesses.
So the question, will she need to pay the excess as she isn’t at fault? Or is this something that the insurance bureau if it’s still called that is for?
She’s phoning them later, but wondered if there was an obvious answer before she phones up, I’ve also suggested she may need to get a reference number from the police.
Any obvious answer or will it be at the discretion of the insurance?
Thanks
Car is bmw 1 series about 4 years old lowing mileage.
Thanks for any responses
Sister has returned to car and someone has driven into her rear door. Door is badly bashed up, probably an expensive repair rather than a new door, but nothing else structural or that would write the car off.
The driver of the other car no where to be seen and no cctv or witnesses.
So the question, will she need to pay the excess as she isn’t at fault? Or is this something that the insurance bureau if it’s still called that is for?
She’s phoning them later, but wondered if there was an obvious answer before she phones up, I’ve also suggested she may need to get a reference number from the police.
Any obvious answer or will it be at the discretion of the insurance?
Thanks
Car is bmw 1 series about 4 years old lowing mileage.
Thanks for any responses
Flumpo said:
Thanks everyone, looks like unlucky, but will have to pay excess and probably lose ncb.
You win some you lose some, she says she will get some quotes first and see what works out.
Cheers.
Before she just jumps in and makes a claim it will be worth her checking with the ins co A. how much her excess is and B. How much the loss of NCD is going to cost, it could well come close to the cost of the repair You win some you lose some, she says she will get some quotes first and see what works out.
Cheers.
Your excess is not a punishment for being to blame for an accident. It's just the part of any claim which is not covered by your policy. Your fault, someone else's fault, nobody's fault in particular, it makes no difference - if you make a claim on your policy your excess is payable.
What you can do, if the accident was someone else's fault, is claim your excess back from them, or from their insurance company. However this depends on (a) being able to find them (b) them having insurance and (c) being able to prove that the accident was their fault.
(Sometimes if all three conditions are obviously met, your insurer will offer to waive your excess, and reclaim it from the third party themselves. But if they do it's a goodwill gesture, not something they're under any obligation to do.)
The Motor Insurer's Bureau will not be any help. In situations like this, where neither the offending driver nor the car can be identified, it will only pay for property damage if the accident also caused serious injury (defined, IIRC, as a hospital stay of at least 4 nights). Basically the main purpose of the MIB is to ensure that victims of uninsured or hit and run drivers aren't left destitute if they're seriously injured and are unable to work - not to make sure they keep their no claims bonuses and their excesses.
Many insurers do offer an uninsured driver promise where they say that you won't pay your excess or lose your NCD if you're hit by an uninsured driver. However check the terms - usually there is a clause to say this only applies if you are able to identify the vehicle that hit you, and possibly the driver as well. I suppose without a clause like that, everybody who damaged their car reversing into a tree would just claim that they came out in the morning to find that their car had been damaged in the night by an untraceable shadow, and avoid paying their excess...
So I think its highly likely that her options will be too claim on her policy and put up with the excess or loss of no claims bonus, or to fix it herself. Obviously which is better depends on the damage, and the size of her excess...
What you can do, if the accident was someone else's fault, is claim your excess back from them, or from their insurance company. However this depends on (a) being able to find them (b) them having insurance and (c) being able to prove that the accident was their fault.
(Sometimes if all three conditions are obviously met, your insurer will offer to waive your excess, and reclaim it from the third party themselves. But if they do it's a goodwill gesture, not something they're under any obligation to do.)
The Motor Insurer's Bureau will not be any help. In situations like this, where neither the offending driver nor the car can be identified, it will only pay for property damage if the accident also caused serious injury (defined, IIRC, as a hospital stay of at least 4 nights). Basically the main purpose of the MIB is to ensure that victims of uninsured or hit and run drivers aren't left destitute if they're seriously injured and are unable to work - not to make sure they keep their no claims bonuses and their excesses.
Many insurers do offer an uninsured driver promise where they say that you won't pay your excess or lose your NCD if you're hit by an uninsured driver. However check the terms - usually there is a clause to say this only applies if you are able to identify the vehicle that hit you, and possibly the driver as well. I suppose without a clause like that, everybody who damaged their car reversing into a tree would just claim that they came out in the morning to find that their car had been damaged in the night by an untraceable shadow, and avoid paying their excess...
So I think its highly likely that her options will be too claim on her policy and put up with the excess or loss of no claims bonus, or to fix it herself. Obviously which is better depends on the damage, and the size of her excess...
martinbiz said:
Before she just jumps in and makes a claim it will be worth her checking with the ins co A. how much her excess is and B. How much the loss of NCD is going to cost, it could well come close to the cost of the repair
And it's not just the lost NCD. Bear in mind also that the basic premium will probably be 'loaded' after a claim, as she is now apparently accident-prone in statistical terms.So losing (say) 20% of £300 may not be so bad, losing 20% of £400 is much worse, multiplied by maybe 5 years until the loading ceases. It may well be cheaper just to bite the bullet and pay for repairs herself.
You've not given any idea of how you're defining 'badly bashed up' but if the damage is confined to just the door & nothing else then a used door may well be your best option.
It would be the cost of painting to match the rest of the side of the car that might be the expensive bit & that could be dependent on the colour - a very dark colour or white you MIGHT get away with just painting the door.
It would be the cost of painting to match the rest of the side of the car that might be the expensive bit & that could be dependent on the colour - a very dark colour or white you MIGHT get away with just painting the door.
Sheepshanks said:
littleredrooster said:
It may well be cheaper just to bite the bullet and pay for repairs herself.
I think you're under-estimating how much it'll cost to repair.CarCrazyDad said:
Sheepshanks said:
littleredrooster said:
It may well be cheaper just to bite the bullet and pay for repairs herself.
I think you're under-estimating how much it'll cost to repair.kiethton said:
Yep, it'll be a fault claim unfortunately so excess to be paid
More like a non-fault claim with the excess being paid. My wife had her car written off by a Polish lorry driver. Got full value back minus the excess, logged as non-fault. This will be repaid when they recover their money if they ever find the driver.romeogolf said:
A lesson in why a cheap policy with a high excess and no protection to your NBC isn't always the better option.
Although you can insure your excess... So sometimes it can be cheaper to take out insurance with an utterly horrific excess and then insure that excess separately. Most of the time though I've found that sites will automatically bump your "voluntary" excess up, yet setting it to zero makes maybe £5-10 difference to the policy! Obviously likely different if you're young, have lots of recent claims or have something hard to insure!
MustangGT said:
More like a non-fault claim with the excess being paid.
From an insurance point of view, a fault claim is any claim where they pay out and cannot recover 100% of their outlay. A non fault claim is a claim where they don't pay out, or get back all the money that they paid out. The actual circumstances aren't relevant. Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff