Have you claimed for loss of use?

[arattray]

A tosser driving without insurance hit the back of my car in March. He's being prosecuted & magistrate has sent me a 'compensation claim form'. There are aspects of my loss which are clearly financial, repairs/temporary replacement car, etc. However, a Renault Clio is not a replacement for 5.0 Chimaera.

Leaving aside the issue of whether the tosser can pay (repairs alone c.£4000), what is a reasonable way to put a value on loss of use, even though I had other transport - TVR being more than transport?

Compensation seems to be a dirty word, but I just want a fair amount for being without my car for the past 9 weeks. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Cheers,
Andy

[JamieBeeston]

Doesnt help you now, but

www.helphire.com

Gave me a 996 Cabriolet, whilst my Chim is getting repaired.

had it 3 days now, and its certainly better than the Corsa Tesco tried to force on me,

all for no cost to me!

[Peter Ward]

A couple of years ago I was run into by a nice lady. My Impreza was out of action for almost 2 months being repaired. I put a case together for loss of use while being stuck with a rental Focus diesel for the period, but the insurance company said that any car is a valid replacement in these circumstances and would not consider it. You may do better as it's not an insurance claim, but that was my experience. Good luck!

[outlaw]

your best be is sue him for damages in civil court

if he got anything worth having

[ultimasimon]

JamieBeeston said: Doesnt help you now, but

www.helphire.com

Gave me a 996 Cabriolet, whilst my Chim is getting repaired.

had it 3 days now, and its certainly better than the Corsa Tesco tried to force on me,

all for no cost to me!

Cheers for the link Jamie - what an excellent idea ! I am awaiting a reply from them.

[JamieBeeston]

ultimasimon said:

Cheers for the link Jamie - what an excellent idea ! I am awaiting a reply from them.

NP, My contact is a girl called Lara, v.helpfull, can give you her direct line if needed, but I hear good things about these ppl all the time.

My insurance are not involved, no loss of NCB whilst its settled, no excess to pay, no crappy (dis)courtesy car etc. Good Idea... and the added benefit of them sueing the Driver direct, which will avoid a lenghty procedure.

Hope you get whatevers Broken, fixed..

[pdV6]

Make sure you pay the extra tenner for the insurance policy in case of failure to recover costs from the 3rd party. Could get v. expensive otherwise.

(Had to use this policy once - saved an awful lot of messing about)

[madcop]

Contact the Motor Insurers Bureau. They will sort out the third party loss for you. The court will not award repair costs against the defendant but are asking for an indictaion from you as to any compensation they will award from the perpetrator. If you put in a high estimate, you will get a larger compensation award as long as you don't go stupid and can justify the figures.

A word of warning though. If this person is from the lower genes pool, you will find that the supply of proportion of weekly benefit cheque to you will be slightly less than the equivalent amount kept behind for his own supply of alcohol, tobacco and illegal substances.

[JohnL]

I doubt that a judge would allow you much, if any, extra for loss of use of a nice car, in that you aren't put of pocket and you haven't been disadvantaged in any financial way, ie you've still been able to carry out all your normal business etc in the hire car.

[rat]

My jaw just hit the desk when you said won't be expected to pay repair costs. He legally owns a 1997 Audi Tdi, just didn't insure it (diesel - penny pinching you see, the signs were there!), I'll have that for my cat to sh*t in for a start! If he gets away with a £500 fine and 6 month ban (already driving without entitlement to do so) I for one will feel stupid for bothering to pay these huge premiums. This guy was unfortunate that I had a few witnesses that knew him. He clearly knew the system and might have got away with it (if he hadn't hit me outside his workplace). Call a if it happens to you, no matter how straight forward it seems to be.

Adding it up, I've paid about £5000 for insurance for the past 11 claim free years (had a £500 motorbike nicked in 1992 - nothing since). Now my renewal premium is up from £526 to £916.

Thanks for your replies anyway - I'm still hoping that one of you out there feels they got some sort of settlement that lowered your blood pressure.

I heard about Helphire. A couple of threads here about struggling to get back big hire bills, but I have to say they generally seem to get a thumbs up, so regretting that a bit. I have legal expenses cover (no comment - remembered what she is supposed to do for a living), so I chose not to go the Helphire route as I would probably have to pay the solicitors costs to date.

It's true that the only compensation you can be sure of getting back in MIB cases is for actual unavoidable financial costs (except for compensation for injury). The costs of drinking to excess and finding other ways to entertain yourself because your car's not here don't count.