Post accident car hire entitlement?

[J500ANT]

Last Sunday evening a young driver did this to my 7 week old SEAT Leon FR.


He hit a kerb, blew a tyre, lost control and came across the road, across the pavement, along a wall and straight across the front of my car. Thankfully neither of us were injured.

My car is through the Motability scheme. I rang them, put in a claim, they have declared it a total loss (£14k repairs) and it's already gone off to salvage. I was contacted on Monday by the other insurers (the ones with the big red telephone) to admit liability and offer their assistance in any way. My insurers offered to point me to an accident management company with regards to ongoing hire car, which I declined (as I am not a believer in running up an excessive bill on someone elses behalf).

Anyway, I have a car from the other insurer that I can only keep for "10 days after my insurers have issued a settlement cheque", which in theory shouldn't be that long away. Then Motability "at their discretion" MAY offer me a hire car for 6 weeks if I have another car on order. But another SEAT Leon FR has a delivery date of March! Which means i'm potentially out of transport from mid Feb til the new car arrives.

So i've had a non fault accident, yet i'm going to be without a car for weeks. Surely the red telephone people should be assisting me til a new car arrives? Maybe I should have used accident management and screwed them over instead of doing the decent thing?

(A VERY annoyed) Tony.

Edited by J500ANT on Friday 17th December 18:18

[Chucklehead]

Have you explained this to Direct Line?

[J500ANT]

Chucklehead said:

Have you explained this to Direct Line?

They're not interested. They say 10 days after the settlement is sent is all they are obliged to do.

[tim2100]

Get on the phone to Motability. Explain what has happened and that you need a car. RSA-Motability will not give you a car as the policy has ended.

One other problem you may face is that you will have to pay the advance deposit again for a new Seat. Unless you can claim this back from the other persons insurance.

Good luck, hope it works out for you.

[Fox-]

Good opportunity to order something else, gotta be other stuff on the list as good as a Seat diesel surely?

[J500ANT]

tim2100 said:

Get on the phone to Motability. Explain what has happened and that you need a car. RSA-Motability will not give you a car as the policy has ended.

Done that, 6 weeks max is all they can offer. The only models the dealer can get sooner have options. I paid for 18" wheel upgrade on the previous one to get it quicker, and it turns out I can't claim that back from anyone So i'm not paying out for extras again.

tim2100 said:

One other problem you may face is that you will have to pay the advance deposit again for a new Seat. Unless you can claim this back from the other persons insurance.

Apparently "as a gesture of goodwill" i'm getting almost all of that back. Eventually.

tim2100 said:

Good luck, hope it works out for you.

Cheers Tim.

[J500ANT]

Fox- said:

Good opportunity to order something else, gotta be other stuff on the list as good as a Seat diesel surely?

Have a look for yourself at www.motability.co.uk - has to be 5dr Golf sized or over, auto, diesel for mpg. I had a new Astra, it was faulty and was taken back so I wouldn't have another. Not keen on Ford's as I can't get on with the quickclear windscreen.

[saaby93]

J500ANT said:

My car is through the Motability scheme. I rang them, put in a claim, they have declared it a total loss (£14k repairs) and it's already gone off to salvage. I was contacted on Monday by the other insurers (the ones with the big red telephone) to admit liability and offer their assistance in any way. My insurers offered to point me to an accident management company with regards to ongoing hire car, which I declined (as I am not a believer in running up an excessive bill on someone elses behalf).

It sounds like the TP insurers are trying to be helpful but yours less so, as youre finding it can be best to deal directly with the TP.
I've posted before about independent accident mamagement companies reducing the overall bill - they know what theyre doing, save time and hassle as it avoids going through your own insurer.
However it's not much use if you're merely punted off to a company linked to your own insurance whose main interest is car hire.

What to do now? It may be too late if your own insurer is handling it, do you wnat to argue with them?

[Somnophore]

You won't get anywhere through an accident management company, credit hire rules under the ABI GTA only allow for 7 days from the date the total loss cheque is received.

[Fox-]

Crikey the advance payment on the Leon is thousands of quid cheaper than anything similar I could find - even the Golf is £3k for a similar spec.

[J500ANT]

Fox- said:

Crikey the advance payment on the Leon is thousands of quid cheaper than anything similar I could find - even the Golf is £3k for a similar spec.

I know. Dealer can get a 1.6 SE TDI DSG but it's not the FR that I had, and i'll always resent it for that.

[tim2100]

ms5 £1k

Fabia VRS for £1500?

Although didn't realise that the Leon FR was down to £1k. Hopefully be the same when mine is up for change.

Edited by tim2100 on Friday 17th December 18:53

[Deva Link]

I find this incredible. Surely if you get a car through Motability then Motability have a duty to keep you mobile?

And why can't you claim the options cost back off the 3rd party?

I'm surprised such a new car was written off by that accident too. Most insurance policies replace a car like for like if it's damaged beyond 50% of its value in the first year. I guess Motability's insurer doesn't do that.

[J500ANT]

tim2100 said:

ms5 £1k

Fabia VRS for £1500?

Although didn't realise that the Leon FR was down to £1k. Hopefully be the same when mine is up for change.

Edited by tim2100 on Friday 17th December 18:53

Skoda is also on a long delivery time. MX5? I see what you did there what with this being PH. But it's about as useless as my smart Crossblade when it comes to taking grandparents about and for day to day stuff.

[saaby93]

Somnophore said:

credit hire rules under the ABI GTA only allow for 7 days from the date the total loss cheque is received.

Is that received or accepted? What if the cheque isn't reasonable, do you send it back straightaway or bank it as an acceptance of liability but await the rest?

[J500ANT]

Deva Link said:

I find this incredible. Surely if you get a car through Motability then Motability have a duty to keep you mobile?

And why can't you claim the options cost back off the 3rd party?

I'm surprised such a new car was written off by that accident too. Most insurance policies replace a car like for like if it's damaged beyond 50% of its value in the first year. I guess Motability's insurer doesn't do that.

Your contract ends at point of impact (in effect)so any ongoing help is at their discretion. The repair cost would have been £14k, which is probably about what Motability paid for it new. All Motability do is give you the option to start again. The options, as they're not essential to use the car (like adaptations would be) they aren't covered, and the third party deal with RSA Motability so that's also a no no.

[Somnophore]

Most insurers won't issue a cheque without a figure being agreed. You can negotiate figures with an insurer with regards to total loss, but you have a legal duty to mitigate your loss so if you deliberately try to extend the hire period the third party insurer will dispute some of the charges and the credit hire supplier can come after you for the costs.

[J500ANT]

Quinny said:

This is one of the reasons I use my allowance to fund a bank loan and buy my cars outright...

To many restrictions and hoops to jump through....

Yes its nice not to have to worry about servicing, tyres etc... And i fully understand why folk go down the leasing route
But I'd much rather have more choice....

I also think it works out cheaper in the long run, as it opens up the nearly new market, where there can be some very nice savings....

Just a thought

I did until recently but got caught once or twice, hence going back onto the scheme in July this year.

[saaby93]

Somnophore said:

Most insurers won't issue a cheque without a figure being agreed. You can negotiate figures with an insurer with regards to total loss, but you have a legal duty to mitigate your loss so if you deliberately try to extend the hire period the third party insurer will dispute some of the charges and the credit hire supplier can come after you for the costs.

Are we talking third party insurer or your own insurer?
and accident management company (who often put extra insurance in place in case of TP dispute) or credit hire company (such as offered by insurance companies)?

That aside I thought if you deal with the third party you have to be in no worse a situation than you were prior to the incident which means providing necessary loan car until it's all sorted out?
Or if you deal through your own insurer there will be other rules when they act on your behalf?

[Somnophore]

The issue here is he doesn't own the car, the car is owned by motability, they have been put back into the position they were before the accident. He is a customer of motability and it's down to them to supply him with a new lease vehicle the third party insurer/or motabilities insurer, whoever has dealt has fufilled their legal obligations by paying the owner (motability) the PAV of the vehicle.