Non fault accident - would you take the courtesy car?
Discussion
An elderly lady hit my car last night - she tried to exit the roundabout from the wrong lane, and ignored the fact that I was already there. Her insurer called me last night, and she has admitted full liability. I had already informed my insurer, but will now deal with the 3rd party insurers directly and will tell my insurers that the details I've given them are for info only (unless the 3rd party insurer start becoming less helpful).
Anyway - they offered a courtesy car, which I said I didn't need. The car that was damaged is an occasional sunny weather car, and I have other cars that I can use daily.
However - they've now confirmed the claim by email and say I can change my mind about a courtesy car at any time. My initial refusal was because I have no use for something like a Ford Focus - I don't need it. However, in the email they list the available cars - and they do have something very similar to my car (it's hard to tell exactly because they've got the numbers wrong, but it is the same brand and is either the same model as my car or the model that replaced it).
I'm now tempted. It's an occasional car, and of course I could live without it while it's being repaired - and it may be that I'd only use it a few times while mine is being repaired. But part of me thinks - I would use mine if we get sunny weather, so why shouldn't I? But I'm also aware that this will massively increase her claim. The damage to my car looks relatively minor at first glance - but it has creased the rear wing slightly and it's not a cheap car to fix. But if I take the courtesy car, the cost will be just over £500 a day - which is going to get pretty pricey while mine is being repaired....
Am I being unnecessarily greedy? Or should I simply take the view that I shouldn't be inconvenienced by her mistake?
And is there any future downside to doing this on a non-fault claim?
Anyway - they offered a courtesy car, which I said I didn't need. The car that was damaged is an occasional sunny weather car, and I have other cars that I can use daily.
However - they've now confirmed the claim by email and say I can change my mind about a courtesy car at any time. My initial refusal was because I have no use for something like a Ford Focus - I don't need it. However, in the email they list the available cars - and they do have something very similar to my car (it's hard to tell exactly because they've got the numbers wrong, but it is the same brand and is either the same model as my car or the model that replaced it).
I'm now tempted. It's an occasional car, and of course I could live without it while it's being repaired - and it may be that I'd only use it a few times while mine is being repaired. But part of me thinks - I would use mine if we get sunny weather, so why shouldn't I? But I'm also aware that this will massively increase her claim. The damage to my car looks relatively minor at first glance - but it has creased the rear wing slightly and it's not a cheap car to fix. But if I take the courtesy car, the cost will be just over £500 a day - which is going to get pretty pricey while mine is being repaired....
Am I being unnecessarily greedy? Or should I simply take the view that I shouldn't be inconvenienced by her mistake?
And is there any future downside to doing this on a non-fault claim?
Nope. It puts costs up for everyone then a courtesy car maybe "free" to you, but it will cost elsewhere in the whole system.
I had a similar dilemma when someone nudged my MX5 at which time it was summer only, had no need for it and just waited until it was fixed. It kept costs down for all involved.
I had a similar dilemma when someone nudged my MX5 at which time it was summer only, had no need for it and just waited until it was fixed. It kept costs down for all involved.
£500 a day? Seriously?
This stuff does my head in. My next door neighbour had someone run into the back of his Bentley and an accident management company were trying to get him to take (with the attendant "credit agreement") a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom as a courtesy car - £1100 + vat a day. He declined.
A friend of ours has a 54 plate Volvo SUV thing - got hit. She moaned that she needed a similar courtesy car to take brownies camping. So she got a brand spanking new Volvo as a courtesy car. This dragged on for weeks and weeks and weeks. Total cost of the claim, for a simple repair - £24000.
The whole thing is just bent!
This stuff does my head in. My next door neighbour had someone run into the back of his Bentley and an accident management company were trying to get him to take (with the attendant "credit agreement") a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom as a courtesy car - £1100 + vat a day. He declined.
A friend of ours has a 54 plate Volvo SUV thing - got hit. She moaned that she needed a similar courtesy car to take brownies camping. So she got a brand spanking new Volvo as a courtesy car. This dragged on for weeks and weeks and weeks. Total cost of the claim, for a simple repair - £24000.
The whole thing is just bent!
Dog Star said:
£500 a day? Seriously?
This stuff does my head in. My next door neighbour had someone run into the back of his Bentley and an accident management company were trying to get him to take (with the attendant "credit agreement") a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom as a courtesy car - £1100 + vat a day. He declined.
A friend of ours has a 54 plate Volvo SUV thing - got hit. She moaned that she needed a similar courtesy car to take brownies camping. So she got a brand spanking new Volvo as a courtesy car. This dragged on for weeks and weeks and weeks. Total cost of the claim, for a simple repair - £24000.
The whole thing is just bent!
To be fair, they have a whole list of cars and most of the costs are entirely reasonable. E.g. A Yaris is ~£23 a day, an X5 is ~£70 a day.This stuff does my head in. My next door neighbour had someone run into the back of his Bentley and an accident management company were trying to get him to take (with the attendant "credit agreement") a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom as a courtesy car - £1100 + vat a day. He declined.
A friend of ours has a 54 plate Volvo SUV thing - got hit. She moaned that she needed a similar courtesy car to take brownies camping. So she got a brand spanking new Volvo as a courtesy car. This dragged on for weeks and weeks and weeks. Total cost of the claim, for a simple repair - £24000.
The whole thing is just bent!
The problem is, the car that was damaged was a Ferrari. They do include a similar Ferrari in the list, and the rate for that is ~£500 a day.
(Just to clarify - it is the 3rd party insurers offering this, not one of the ambulance chasing claim management companies).
I had a similar thing a couple of months ago
Someone hit my clio 197 up the back, car ended up written off, I was offered a courtesy car but declined as mine was still perfectly fine to drive around in other than the large dent and I was going to buy the car back as salvage anyway.
I didn't see the point in costing the insurance companies money for the sake of it and had no interest in driving around in a new 1.0 fiesta or similar.
I'm not sure if it helped but I did remind them that I'd been very reasonable in minimising their cost when we were discussing right off values on my car and maybe as a result got a fair first offer which was accepted.
Someone hit my clio 197 up the back, car ended up written off, I was offered a courtesy car but declined as mine was still perfectly fine to drive around in other than the large dent and I was going to buy the car back as salvage anyway.
I didn't see the point in costing the insurance companies money for the sake of it and had no interest in driving around in a new 1.0 fiesta or similar.
I'm not sure if it helped but I did remind them that I'd been very reasonable in minimising their cost when we were discussing right off values on my car and maybe as a result got a fair first offer which was accepted.
It depends.
I was told that it you have access to other cars that you should use them
However I feel that the old days of being offered a Metro when your Range Rover was damaged was unreasonable
If you're feeling reasonable perhaps you could compromise on a Boxster but frankly why should you ?
I was told that it you have access to other cars that you should use them
However I feel that the old days of being offered a Metro when your Range Rover was damaged was unreasonable
If you're feeling reasonable perhaps you could compromise on a Boxster but frankly why should you ?
Dog Star said:
£500 a day? Seriously?
This stuff does my head in. My next door neighbour had someone run into the back of his Bentley and an accident management company were trying to get him to take (with the attendant "credit agreement") a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom as a courtesy car - £1100 + vat a day. He declined.
A friend of ours has a 54 plate Volvo SUV thing - got hit. She moaned that she needed a similar courtesy car to take brownies camping. So she got a brand spanking new Volvo as a courtesy car. This dragged on for weeks and weeks and weeks. Total cost of the claim, for a simple repair - £24000.
The whole thing is just bent!
That doesn't surprise me - I have accident investigators calling me regularly about the supply price of rental vehicles, and whether we permit them to be used for credit hire purposes (we do). The wholesale rate on something like a C220d AMG Line is £70-90 per week depending on mileage limits.This stuff does my head in. My next door neighbour had someone run into the back of his Bentley and an accident management company were trying to get him to take (with the attendant "credit agreement") a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom as a courtesy car - £1100 + vat a day. He declined.
A friend of ours has a 54 plate Volvo SUV thing - got hit. She moaned that she needed a similar courtesy car to take brownies camping. So she got a brand spanking new Volvo as a courtesy car. This dragged on for weeks and weeks and weeks. Total cost of the claim, for a simple repair - £24000.
The whole thing is just bent!
I had one last week, a large firm of solicitors in Bolton are challenging the third party costs - 3rd party claimed for the 14 week hire on a C Class Merc as well as the usual whiplash and damage repairs. The hire cost alone was being billed at just shy of £30k. Which is strange because we defleeted the courtesy car a week after the alleged accident date, so we don't know how it was on hire for a further 12 or 13 weeks....
PAULJ5555 said:
Then the insurance co sell your details to claims companies that contact you to make a claim for injury costing the insurance co more money - it makes no sense.
Many of the big companies have their own in-house or affiliated claims team, but it's not unusual for a minimum wage call handler to be approached to harvest data which ends up with the Indian call centre spammers who call you daily. Pica-Pica said:
Well, firstly I would deal only through my insurer, not through her’s.
I'll bet your insurance company will try pretty hard to pass you off to a third party claims company (from whom they'd obviously get a kick back!). I believe in a similar situation my insurance company warned me that if I worked with them and the claim wasn't resolved come renewal time then I should expect my premium to increase, whereas if it was a claims management company (or the culprit's insurance company) then there wouldn't be an impact.Whole industry is out to make sure that any claim costs as much as possible as that just maximises the amount of money that the industry gets out of the population.
S11Steve said:
Many of the big companies have their own in-house or affiliated claims team, but it's not unusual for a minimum wage call handler to be approached to harvest data which ends up with the Indian call centre spammers who call you daily.
Actually, I'm looking forward to those calls. I have no intention of making any injury claim but they are an opportunity to amuse myself for 10 minutes or so each time they call.For now, I have concluded that I will not ask for a car. However - they insurance company need to make this whole thing as painless as possible. If they start being difficult or dragging their heels, they're going to find I suddenly miss my car.
They started well last night, calling me just a few hours after the accident, admitting liability and promising to be my new BFF. They are doing less well today, having promised that I'd get a call 2 hours ago to arrange for the inspection of the damage.
lost in espace said:
Is this a risk free car? Or are you liable for the rental if the claim doesn't proceed?
At least in the letter they've sent, the only reference they make about that is if I have arranged a hire vehicle with a different company myself. They say that it is likely the costs of doing that will be higher, and that may mean the insurance company may not fully reimburse the cost. But they do not mention anything about that if the courtesy car is provided through them.Dealing with 3P insurer could leave you exposed...
3P insurer has duty of care to their insured only - in this case they need to settle the claim against her. They have NO duty of care to you, legally-speaking.
IF you choose their 'approved' bodyshop (which I'm not sure you'd do for a Ferrari), then they have a responsibility there - they nominated the repairer. So won't matter.
IF you choose your own bodyshop, then that's entirely your lookout. They can just pay the invoice and walk away, leaving any issues with repair quality down to you.
If you go through your own insurer, then they DO have a duty of care to you, which means even if you choose bodyshop (rather than taking the approved one) and it's not quite right first-time-around, your insurer still has to help get your car fixed satisfactorily.
3P insurer has duty of care to their insured only - in this case they need to settle the claim against her. They have NO duty of care to you, legally-speaking.
IF you choose their 'approved' bodyshop (which I'm not sure you'd do for a Ferrari), then they have a responsibility there - they nominated the repairer. So won't matter.
IF you choose your own bodyshop, then that's entirely your lookout. They can just pay the invoice and walk away, leaving any issues with repair quality down to you.
If you go through your own insurer, then they DO have a duty of care to you, which means even if you choose bodyshop (rather than taking the approved one) and it's not quite right first-time-around, your insurer still has to help get your car fixed satisfactorily.
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