Bugger car prang

[Craig-SM]

Unfortunately I've b been in an accident earlier today when a young lass pulled out of a side road and I hit her. Not a lot of damage to the Shogun, paint work on near side bumper corner and split the plastic, nothing a bit if Duct tape can't bodge for the moment. Her car not so good with a ripped off front bumper and grill. Her first car and accident so she very upset but between her mother and myself we managed to calm her down and make her realise that it can be repaired.
She'd admitted liability, a witness came forward too to give their details along with my dash cam footage so no hopefully no problems with liability.

It has been a while since I've had to claim but after calling my insurers and giving them the details they have passed it on to another company to deal with. I've and their insurers claim handlers texting and calling me stating they have accepted responsibility and wanting to get my car repairs done through them and even offering £1,100 to go with them. They mentioned that if done through them then the accident would only go down as a note rather than an accident so it doesn't affect my future insurance quotes.
Anyone had any experience on with insurance claims lately as this is all new to me and feel pressured by the 3rd parties insurers? I'm inclined to let my insurers deal with everything and so long as I get a suitable hire car i.e. estate so I can get the dog in the boot while mine is in for repairs.

BTW my dog that was in the boot when the accident happened was just sat there when I checked on him, not fussed at all, also his first accident.

 

[ajlelectronics]

I'm inclined to let my insurers deal with everything and so long as I get a suitable hire car i.e. estate so I can get the dog in the boot while mine is in for repairs.

Good thinking. However be wary of replacement cars, sometimes they come with a contract which makes you responsible for the cost, should it fail the insurance claim for some reason.

 

[skotl]

Agree with AJL - I think dance to your own insurer's tune rather than the third party.

 

[Mick Annick]

Good thinking. However be wary of replacement cars, sometimes they come with a contract which makes you responsible for the cost, should it fail the insurance claim for some reason.

Agreed, be very wary, I ended up in court over a replacement hire car in a non-fault collision.

 

[m_c]

The third party's insurer will want to handle the claim direct, as it avoids them having to pay your own insurers/claim handler handling fees.

I'd make the decision on how much you'd trust the third party's insurer.

 

[Morrisman]

When my daughter had her little prang, putting a tiny dent in a parked van, the usual details were swapped, and that was the last she heard about it. Until one day months later she phoned up her insurance to ask what had eventually happened. They casually told her they had paid out £3k+ to a repair company that are not listed or approved, to put right the damage to the van.

Questions about how such a tiny dent could possibly cost 3k+ were met with teflon statements such as ‘we have no reservations about how genuine the claim was’ or words like that. Several times.

We asked if they had actually looked at my daughter’s photos of the tiny little dent in the van, and they basically refused to acknowledge yay or nay.

I get the feeling something untoward had gone on, some little scam or scheme. Maybe someone gets a backhander for slipping repair work to dubious back street operations.

 

[ajlelectronics]

I get the feeling something untoward had gone on, some little scam or scheme. Maybe someone gets a backhander for slipping repair work to dubious back street operations.

I had that about 20 years ago and a stiffly worded legal letter was sent saying that I had not consented to any spurious claim being settled as I had no opportunity to present the evidence that showed how the other driver was at fault. Therefore any money paid out by them was on their heads only and that I expected my claims record to remain unblemished. Bearing in mind that there was little to no damage to my vehicle, they seemed to have run it by a sensible manager and it was removed from the records.

 

[Ubique]

The third party's insurer will want to handle the claim direct, as it avoids them having to pay your own insurers/claim handler handling fees.

I'd make the decision on how much you'd trust the third party's insurer.

I had this recently - I didn't need a replacement vehicle but one was offered by the TPI, they are also more flexible (due to paying costs directly, rather than your insurer and their parasite 'claim handler' costs) They gave me two options, repair at my preferred repairer (or theirs) with loan car, or pay the repair quotation, initially ex-VAT, then the VAT element upon presentation of invoice.
I took the second option, both payments went into my bank within the hour.
So yes, it can work for you and them - it went onto my insurance as 'notification only', yes, it did have an effect upon renewal, probably less than claiming through my insurer even though it was a 'non-fault' claim.

 

[skotl]

When my daughter had her little prang, putting a tiny dent in a parked van, the usual details were swapped, and that was the last she heard about it. Until one day months later she phoned up her insurance to ask what had eventually happened. They casually told her they had paid out £3k+ to a repair company that are not listed or approved, to put right the damage to the van.

Questions about how such a tiny dent could possibly cost 3k+ were met with teflon statements such as ‘we have no reservations about how genuine the claim was’ or words like that. Several times.

We asked if they had actually looked at my daughter’s photos of the tiny little dent in the van, and they basically refused to acknowledge yay or nay...

I honestly doubt it's as nefarious as that - the insurers have dozens, if not hundreds, of people sat in front of the computer all day following pre-determined instructions from "the system". I doubt Joe's backstreet garage is slipping £50 to an anonymous call handler in a Swansea tower-block office.

That said, I expect that there are parameters built around pretty much all of these situations which will have acceptable payout ranges based on the type of accident, age and model of the vehicles etc. This way, the insurers can just let their computer systems agree on 95% of claims and only bring in humans when something is outside these parameters. It's getting humans involved that costs the money...

... I get the feeling something untoward had gone on, some little scam or scheme. Maybe someone gets a backhander for slipping repair work to dubious back street operations.

Scam? Probably not. Scheme? Absolutely - as above, the insurers have standard payout models that they all adhere to.

 

[bourbon]

Get your insurance to deal with it. That's what you pay them for!

 

[Rrobson]

Echoing the comments above, inform your own insurance and let them battle it out. It’s easy for the third party to suddenly change their mind, and your own insurance will be looking after you rather than third parties insurance looking after the third party (you) as it were.

Ignore what they say about you not having it recorded, everything is electronic these days and fault or no fault you’ve still had an accident. If you didn’t tell your future insurance, then had an accident they could be reluctant to pay out if they found out you hadn’t told them about it.
I had a very similar situation last month, and as yet I haven’t had to renew my insurance but I know it will now be more expensive than before…

 

[More Amps]

Just a minor point, but "approved" repairers are "approved" by the insurers and are typically paid on "computer says" rather than a full assessment of work needed. As the insured owner, you are fully entitled to use any repairer of your choice - obviously that causes more work and expense for the insurance company - especially if you choose "Fred down a back street" who fails to carry out a safe repair...

 

[oldbikedavey]

Mostly, living in London, I use public transport, and I'm very glad that I do...

 

[Morrisman]

I honestly doubt it's as nefarious as that - the insurers have dozens, if not hundreds, of people sat in front of the computer all day following pre-determined instructions from "the system". I doubt Joe's backstreet garage is slipping £50 to an anonymous call handler in a Swansea tower-block office.

That said, I expect that there are parameters built around pretty much all of these situations which will have acceptable payout ranges based on the type of accident, age and model of the vehicles etc. This way, the insurers can just let their computer systems agree on 95% of claims and only bring in humans when something is outside these parameters. It's getting humans involved that costs the money...



Scam? Probably not. Scheme? Absolutely - as above, the insurers have standard payout models that they all adhere to.

Maybe 3k is chump change to them, and the operative delegated to the claim can’t be bothered arguing, but to hand it over so easily over such a tiny dent, and to a repair company/garage that’s not actually registered seems rather slack. Mind you, we all know where the money comes from in the end.

One of those dent removal company could probably have sorted the damage for a couple hundred notes at the very most.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Maybe 3k is chump change to them, and the operative delegated to the claim can’t be bothered arguing, but to hand it over so easily over such a tiny dent, and to a repair company/garage that’s not actually registered seems rather slack. Mind you, we all know where the money comes from in the end.

It is considered more economic to pay out up to a limit, than defend it, apparently. Same as an employee who hurt himself due to his own gross negligence**, they paid him £5k and said that it was better value to just get the claim settled rather than judged on its merits. Another "brick in the wall" for insurance premiums of course.

** full story available should anyone care.

 

[bourbon]

It is considered more economic to pay out up to a limit, than defend it, apparently. Same as an employee who hurt himself due to his own gross negligence**, they paid him £5k and said that it better value to just get the claim settled rather than judged on its merits. Another "brick in the wall" for insurance premiums of course.

** full story available should anyone care.

go on then, I'm bored, it will pass a few minutes.

 

[Matchless]

The third party's insurer will want to handle the claim direct, as it avoids them having to pay your own insurers/claim handler handling fees.

I'd make the decision on how much you'd trust the third party's insurer.

And the bodyshop they want you to use, BUT you may well get treated better by her insurers, you don't have a contract with them, they are far less likely to total your car! is your car an older model? is there a risk of it becoming a total loss?

 

[Matchless]

Feel free to dm me, after 45-50 years in t'trade I know my way around, I had a lot to do with cash in leu claims to prevent my customers older, semi classic cars being totalled, the very last accident repair I carried out before retiring was a bump up the bum on a 1972 3.0CSL, that came to a tad over £12k...... advice is free........

 

[Craig-SM]

And the bodyshop they want you to use, BUT you may well get treated better by her insurers, you don't have a contract with them, they are far less likely to total your car! is your car an older model? is there a risk of it becoming a total loss?

It is an old 2006 Shogun, probably only worth a couple of £000 so it is worry but then I assume I could always buy it back and repair it myself.

 

[ukracer]

It is an old 2006 Shogun, probably only worth a couple of £000 so it is worry but then I assume I could always buy it back and repair it myself.

That depends. You used to be able to do so easily. But the loss adjuster who came to inspect my sons almera when a berk pulled out into the side of his car, the adjuster had to be very careful how he put the parts into his laptop.
Too much and the car would have to go. As it was we got paid for repairing it but never did.

I have been on the other side....a useless insurance company. Thankfully we had legal cover and they sorted it pretty damn quickly.