Insurance Excess Question
Author
Discussion

KungFuPanda

Original Poster:

4,645 posts

201 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
My friend has been involved in and accident. He has quite a sizeable excess.

When reporting the accident to his insurers, he has been advised by them that the excess is recoverable not only if he claims for his own vehicle damage but also against the cost of all third party claims. This would mean that even if he doesn't present a claim for his own vehicle damage, he still has to pay an excess on the cost of the third party claim.

I've previously had experience dealing with RTA claims and have never heard of this before. I've looked over his policy and it seems the insurers have confirmed it in the schedule too.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

LoonR1

26,988 posts

208 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
That's either a very, very old policy, or more likely a niche product for a young, inexperienced or otherwise high risk driver.

It'd be interesting to know the details.

Pays your money ............

KungFuPanda

Original Poster:

4,645 posts

201 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
Niche product. High risk driver. Previously come back from a ban.

Cheers for confirming anyway. I've never seen that before.

LoonR1

26,988 posts

208 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
Extremely rare policy and one that's hard to police and enforce as they'll potentially struggle to get the excess out of their policyholder. If he chooses not to pay then they will probably have to spend more to get it ironically. It will leave him with a CCJ though.

That's why the market stopped selling them as a mainstream policy a long time ago.

KungFuPanda

Original Poster:

4,645 posts

201 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
I was thinking about the in's and out's of enforcing the policy.

I presume they'd start to pursue him once they've made payments totalling over his excess. Surely they'd have to wait 6 years in case further specials claims were presented. Or then again if an infant was a passenger it could be up to 21 years before all claims are presented then they'd have to wait for them to be finalised.

LoonR1

26,988 posts

208 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
They can chase him as soon as they've incurred more than his excess in cost. The excess is always the first part of a claim.

I'm assuming that the excess is a fixed figure rather than a percentage of ultimate settled cost. It'd be nigh on impossible to collect it if it were, as limitation would be reached on some of the heads of claim in a claim form a minor.

Edited by LoonR1 on Monday 23 March 15:10

KungFuPanda

Original Poster:

4,645 posts

201 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
Yep it's fixed figure.

He's toying with the idea that if his car is written off, it would be easier to allow them to take off the excess from the PAV and then attempt to buy the salvage back from them. At least that way, he won't have to shell out any cash.

LoonR1

26,988 posts

208 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
So he's going to pay two excesses, then have the salvage deducted from his payout and then get a damaged car back and what could be a very small cash figure to fix it.

You're going to need to put some numbers to this scenario to give me an idea of what's happening.

KungFuPanda

Original Poster:

4,645 posts

201 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
Sorry, it's one £3k excess which is deductible against any heads of claim whether it be from his own vehicle damage or third party claims. They advised him that even if he doesn't present a claim for his own vehicle damage, they'll still ask for recovery of his excess once a claim has been presented from the third party.

PAV would be around £4-£5k.

LoonR1

26,988 posts

208 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
Well I'm baffled why he'd want it written off. He's got an excess of 60-75% of the value of his car. So if they write it off and deuct salvage he'll be lucky to get anything. If the excess is covered by the TP claim then he'll have a written off car and £3000 at best.

Not sure how that's any better than it being repaired or him not keeping salvage.

Either way I wonder whether he should be on the road with a policy like this following. A an and another crash within his first year back on the road.

TwigtheWonderkid

49,211 posts

181 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
Sounds like the type of policy only Tradex could sell. Tell me I'm right.

KungFuPanda

Original Poster:

4,645 posts

201 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
Could well be. I've never heard of them though.

LoonR1

26,988 posts

208 months

Tuesday 24th March 2015
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KungFuPanda said:
Could well be. I've never heard of them though.
You've never heard of Tradex? They held the record for the hifpghest payout ever on a motor policy in the UK for a few years after Manny Helmot was awarded nearly £14m

KungFuPanda

Original Poster:

4,645 posts

201 months

Tuesday 24th March 2015
quotequote all
I've heard of Tradex. We used to handle some claims for them. Never got delegated authority and could never get instructions over the phone.

It's the insurer that covered my mate that I had never heard of.