Shocking insurance claim...
Discussion
Colleague has just shown me the shocking amount claimed via insurance for a non fault accident.
He was referred to an accident management company which handled the claim and also provided him with a rental vehicle.
His 17 reg car was hit from the rear which from the pictures didn't look too bad but the whole repair was about £12k. Looks like lots of parts needed changing as the repair parts list spans 3 pages.
He also got a hire car for the duration (almost 3 months due to delays...) and the rate was £260/day. I've checked and similar spec car is leased out at same price per month. Anyway his total for hire car came out to be £25k!!
He is now worried that the insurers will reject the hire vehicle claim and the hire company will charge him instead. He raised concerns about hire cost during the repair period but the hire company insisted that he should proceed with rental but was being very vague about what will happen if insurers reject the claim.
In the hire documentation it mentioned that the only occasions that he would be approached for payment are if he has misled the hire company, the claim is found to be fraudulent or if he fails to cooperate when needed. He is now very worried that he will end up liable for full payment which understandably he can't afford.
To be honest this is the first time I've seen such an astronomical amount claimed and not very sure what to to tell him.
Any thoughts PH?
He was referred to an accident management company which handled the claim and also provided him with a rental vehicle.
His 17 reg car was hit from the rear which from the pictures didn't look too bad but the whole repair was about £12k. Looks like lots of parts needed changing as the repair parts list spans 3 pages.
He also got a hire car for the duration (almost 3 months due to delays...) and the rate was £260/day. I've checked and similar spec car is leased out at same price per month. Anyway his total for hire car came out to be £25k!!
He is now worried that the insurers will reject the hire vehicle claim and the hire company will charge him instead. He raised concerns about hire cost during the repair period but the hire company insisted that he should proceed with rental but was being very vague about what will happen if insurers reject the claim.
In the hire documentation it mentioned that the only occasions that he would be approached for payment are if he has misled the hire company, the claim is found to be fraudulent or if he fails to cooperate when needed. He is now very worried that he will end up liable for full payment which understandably he can't afford.
To be honest this is the first time I've seen such an astronomical amount claimed and not very sure what to to tell him.
Any thoughts PH?
anxious_ant said:
In the hire documentation it mentioned that the only occasions that he would be approached for payment are if he has misled the hire company, the claim is found to be fraudulent or if he fails to cooperate when needed. He is now very worried that he will end up liable for full payment which understandably he can't afford.
Why? Which one(s) has he julian64 said:
I think your friend needs a smack. There is no justification for £25K in hire charges. I hope its refused and they come after him for the money.
In an accident I believe everyone has a duty to mitigate losses, even the injured party. Your friend has done the opposite.
Well to be fair he needs a car for work as he does 100 miles commuting. He didn't know about the cost of the car until today and he did raise his concerns about costs and was told because of the value of his actual car this is already the cheapest like for like. Perhaps he should've pushed harder and insisted a cheaper car?In an accident I believe everyone has a duty to mitigate losses, even the injured party. Your friend has done the opposite.
Anyway I do feel for him as I think it's the accident management company trying to milk the whole incident.
bigandclever said:
anxious_ant said:
In the hire documentation it mentioned that the only occasions that he would be approached for payment are if he has misled the hire company, the claim is found to be fraudulent or if he fails to cooperate when needed. He is now very worried that he will end up liable for full payment which understandably he can't afford.
Why? Which one(s) has he 
I hope none of the above as I've been working closely with him lately and he is a nice bloke.
That car hire bill is just a starter for 10, to prey on lazy insurance companies.
It will be discounted to the standard agreed rate (every car is assigned a daily hire rate), to which the AMC will likely agree after a few back and forth’s trying to (fruitlessly) argue for the bill to be settled in full.
Your friend may have to provide evidence that they’ve mitigated costs, why they needed a car on credit - often including sending copies of bank statements for the time period showing that thy weren’t able to hire a car from the likes of enterprise themselves and claim back costs later. Only a problem when they’re sitting on significant cash, although then, they still wouldn’t have breached the terms you’ve quoted in the OP above.
It will be discounted to the standard agreed rate (every car is assigned a daily hire rate), to which the AMC will likely agree after a few back and forth’s trying to (fruitlessly) argue for the bill to be settled in full.
Your friend may have to provide evidence that they’ve mitigated costs, why they needed a car on credit - often including sending copies of bank statements for the time period showing that thy weren’t able to hire a car from the likes of enterprise themselves and claim back costs later. Only a problem when they’re sitting on significant cash, although then, they still wouldn’t have breached the terms you’ve quoted in the OP above.
kiethton said:
That car hire bill is just a starter for 10, to prey on lazy insurance companies.
It will be discounted to the standard agreed rate (every car is assigned a daily hire rate), to which the AMC will likely agree after a few back and forth’s trying to (fruitlessly) argue for the bill to be settled in full.
Your friend may have to provide evidence that they’ve mitigated costs, why they needed a car on credit - often including sending copies of bank statements for the time period showing that thy weren’t able to hire a car from the likes of enterprise themselves and claim back costs later. Only a problem when they’re sitting on significant cash, although then, they still wouldn’t have breached the terms you’ve quoted in the OP above.
Thanks for the reply. If it will be discounted why then show on the invoice such an astronomical figure though...It will be discounted to the standard agreed rate (every car is assigned a daily hire rate), to which the AMC will likely agree after a few back and forth’s trying to (fruitlessly) argue for the bill to be settled in full.
Your friend may have to provide evidence that they’ve mitigated costs, why they needed a car on credit - often including sending copies of bank statements for the time period showing that thy weren’t able to hire a car from the likes of enterprise themselves and claim back costs later. Only a problem when they’re sitting on significant cash, although then, they still wouldn’t have breached the terms you’ve quoted in the OP above.
It's his first time involved in a serious accident so he wasn't sure what to do. Just spoken to him over coffee and he seems pretty distraught and wished he'd done things differently.
Turned out he used his car's SOS function which connected him to the manufacturer and then forwarded him to the accident management company.
The other party's car was badly damaged and can't be driven so needed quick decision as it was blocking traffic on the motorway so he just went with what the accident management company recommended.
He also mentioned that the insurers delayed responding during the claim after full liability was accepted resulting in about 3 weeks where no repairs can be done on the car. There were other delays such as parts taking longer to come in etc. which was very frustrating.
I don't think he'd be able to afford renting a car privately and having to recuperate the cost later. I know I wouldn't have done it considering the delays where it took almost 3 months to get the car fixed.
I told him to call the accident management company to discuss this further, hope it works out for him.
Edited by anxious_ant on Friday 21st September 10:27
anxious_ant said:
bigandclever said:
anxious_ant said:
In the hire documentation it mentioned that the only occasions that he would be approached for payment are if he has misled the hire company, the claim is found to be fraudulent or if he fails to cooperate when needed. He is now very worried that he will end up liable for full payment which understandably he can't afford.
Why? Which one(s) has he I hope none of the above as I've been working closely with him lately and he is a nice bloke.
Get ready to deal with poorly trained paralegals who 'cut and paste' witness statements with fundamentally incorrect information that does not even relate to your situation. Be prepared to attend court etc, etc.Ultimately the claim will get settled out of court for a significant discount but not until you've spent a year trying to recover your excess.
davek_964 said:
What car is it? From your figures, the current total is £37k - there are an awful lot of cars that cost less than that to buy new, and certainly are less than that when a year old. If the car is worth a lot less than that, the insurers have a pretty good reason to object.
17 530d M sport XDrive Touring. Very nice car that.He got a 18 520d saloon as hire car.
He just got off the phone with the claim management company to which he hired the car from.
Generally reassuring as they looked at his case and everything is in his favour.
However the truth is he now owes the hire company the whole hire amount (liable for the costs) until it is recovered from the insurers.
Not a nice situation to be in and it's not his fault to begin with and all he was doing was to resume his normal day-to-day whilst his car is getting repaired. Also looks case will take at least until Xmas to be resolved so he would be worrying until then...
My own policy includes like-for-like replacement car if my car is involved in a non fault. I suppose I need to read the fine prints where it probably says that I'm liable for costs until it is recovered from third party.
Edited by anxious_ant on Friday 21st September 11:10
kiethton said:
Your friend may have to provide evidence that they’ve mitigated costs, why they needed a car on credit - often including sending copies of bank statements for the time period showing that thy weren’t able to hire a car from the likes of enterprise themselves and claim back costs later. Only a problem when they’re sitting on significant cash, although then, they still wouldn’t have breached the terms you’ve quoted in the OP above.
As above...Don’t credit hire agreements usually have clauses in them where you are effectively stating that you don’t have any access to any other vehicles and that you have no means to pay for a hire vehicle yourself then claim back the costs?
S11Steve said:
£260 a day? It could well be something as innocuous as a Golf or Focus - the credit hire charges are hugely inflated regardless of the type of vehicle.
The wholesale supply rate for a Fiat 500 is around £40+vat per week - I've seen credit hire invoices for these at £175 per day.
Shocking... The wholesale supply rate for a Fiat 500 is around £40+vat per week - I've seen credit hire invoices for these at £175 per day.
I suppose it's to maximise what the hire company could get from the insurers.
Not a good position to be in for my colleague though as it's not nice having a £26k debt on your head.
I wonder if this will also affect his credit scores?
anxious_ant said:
17 530d M sport XDrive Touring. Very nice car that.
He got a 18 520d saloon as hire car.
He just got off the phone with the claim management company to which he hired the car from.
Generally reassuring as they looked at his case and everything is in his favour.
However the truth is he now owes the hire company the whole hire amount until it is recovered from the insurers.
Not a nice situation to be in and it's not his fault to begin with and all he was doing was to resume his normal day-to-day whilst his car is getting repaired. Also looks case will take at least until Xmas to be resolved so he would be worrying until then...
My own policy includes like-for-like replacement car if my car is involved in a non fault. I suppose I need to read the fine prints where it probably says that I'm liable for costs until it is recovered from third party.
So a 2017 plate 530d with i presume around 26k miles on. If the insurance do have to pay out C£37k for all of it, someone at the insurance company has massively dropped the ball.He got a 18 520d saloon as hire car.
He just got off the phone with the claim management company to which he hired the car from.
Generally reassuring as they looked at his case and everything is in his favour.
However the truth is he now owes the hire company the whole hire amount until it is recovered from the insurers.
Not a nice situation to be in and it's not his fault to begin with and all he was doing was to resume his normal day-to-day whilst his car is getting repaired. Also looks case will take at least until Xmas to be resolved so he would be worrying until then...
My own policy includes like-for-like replacement car if my car is involved in a non fault. I suppose I need to read the fine prints where it probably says that I'm liable for costs until it is recovered from third party.
Edited by anxious_ant on Friday 21st September 11:00
Could have put him in a lower mileage one for that -
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Sorry OP I will try not to derail your thread too much but to those in the know do you have to use an Accident management company.
I’m insured with admiral (I know I’m kicking myself and can’t wait for the policy to end) but if I have a crash can I refuse the accident management company and just expect admiral (who I have a policy with not Albany (admirals accident management company)) to do the leg work and sort everything out.
Never having made a claim in 25 years I have no experience of the process.
I’m insured with admiral (I know I’m kicking myself and can’t wait for the policy to end) but if I have a crash can I refuse the accident management company and just expect admiral (who I have a policy with not Albany (admirals accident management company)) to do the leg work and sort everything out.
Never having made a claim in 25 years I have no experience of the process.
I've just went on Enterprise and a Large Premium is 64,99/day which works out to be about £6k for the duration of his claim.
It's just crazy how much the accident management company is charging.
I mean he was happy with the service start to end as he didn't have to do any legwork and his vehicle needs were handled brilliantly (hire car picked and dropped off at work etc). I'm not sure how easy would it be to recuperate hire costs yourself.
However I wouldn't want to have a £27k big bill like that looming over my head.
It's just crazy how much the accident management company is charging.
I mean he was happy with the service start to end as he didn't have to do any legwork and his vehicle needs were handled brilliantly (hire car picked and dropped off at work etc). I'm not sure how easy would it be to recuperate hire costs yourself.
However I wouldn't want to have a £27k big bill like that looming over my head.
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